The old expression is that change is constant, which is true, but the rate of change is anything but constant. Material progress goes in fits and starts and cultural change is anything but guaranteed. The great cultural revolution that begin in America after the second industrial war is an anomaly. These sorts of sweeping cultural changes are not the norm in human existence. if within this unusual period of change, there have been quiet times when things have not changed much.
For example, the 1980’s were a relatively quiet time on the culture front. In fact, lots of people assumed at the time that the crazy changes of the 60’s and 70’s had finally run their course and things would return to normal. Aesthetically, the 80’s look much more like the 50’s than the 60’s and 70’s, so it made some sense. Then in the 90’s the crazies started getting wound up again and we entered another period of change. In fact, we are still in the second cultural revolution.
The thing is, people talk about the stuff that is easy to see like clothing styles, material goods or technology, but that’s not real change. Sure, cars are incredibly complex technology platforms now, but they still do the same stuff as previous cars. People have more stuff their homes, but their home is still their home. Our living arrangements have not changed, other than we have more adults living with their parents and fewer married women than previous eras. That’s the real change,
Oddly, the people who notice these changes the least are the people who have lived through the rapid change. It just gets normalized. Young people, on the other hand, can look at the past from a purely objective set of eyes and see the gaps. Again, it is often in the obvious stuff like technology and fashion, but as we see with the Zoomers, they notice the other stuff too. The dissident youth look around and wonder why in the hell their ancestors created the present.
Of course, the people in charge in the 1980’s were not sitting around thinking, “this is a nice lull in the action, but let’s get going on the tranny stuff.” The weird thing about the great cultural changes we have experienced since the end of the Cold War is that no one alive today asked for any of it. Like the foreign invasion, the cultural changes were planned behind closed doors by the people in charge. The facade of democracy is exactly that, a facade. The people were never asked.
This week I have the usual variety of items in the now standard format. Spreaker has the full show. I am up on Google Play now, so the Android commies can take me along when out disrespecting the country. I am on iTunes, which means the Apple Nazis can listen to me on their Hitler phones. The anarchists can catch me on iHeart Radio. I am now on Deezer, for our European haters and Stitcher for the weirdos. YouTube also has the full podcast. Of course, there is a download link below.
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This Week’s Show
Contents
- 00:00: The Long Hello
- 12:00: The Media
- 17:00: The Workplace
- 32:00: Politics
- 57:00: Closing
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