MaxE wrote:
To my mind, the 1970s were the most interesting decade for people in the US, on or off the spectrum. I would say the US experience of the 1970s was unique in certain ways.
When the 1970s began, the US was still involved in the Vietnam War. At that time, young men were conscripted to fight and over 58,000 died (not to mention wounded etc.). By the middle of the decade, the war had ended as a defeat for the US (first ever) and the President had resigned from office (also first ever).
The US spent the remainder of the decade essentially recovering from events at the beginning. During this time, the following was true, at least as I see it:
- Conscription ended and has never been reinstated.
- For a brief period, Capital Punishment was abolished (and then reinstated)
- For a few years, US citizens were allowed completely unrestricted travel to any country that would let them in.
- The military in general fell out of favor and was routinely shown disrespect by the popular media, more or less with impunity.
- Nudity was tolerated on broadcast TV and especially on PBS.
- Although marijuana was never legalized, laws against using it were scarcely enforced in some places. I clearly recall walking up 6th Avenue in Manhattan, past Grant Park, and seeing office workers there buying and smoking joints on their lunch break, in broad daylight. I think a few jurisdictions did decriminalize it.
- Young women generally only wore bras if they really needed them. It was often quite obvious when they didn't.
- Meanwhile the Soviet Union reached a high-water mark of its global influence, even making significant inroads in Western Europe (I believe Portugal had a pro-Soviet government for a short time and the government that succeeded the Papadopoulos regime in Greece was very Moscow-friendly at least unofficially).
This was a very unusual period in US history which ended quite abruptly in 1981, with Reagan's inauguration, or possibly the unsuccessful assassination attempt against him a short time later.
This is quite accurate. The only thing would change I think Iran Hostage crisis which started November 4 of 1979 was the moment the political atmosphere changed abruptly. In some areas of the county throughout most of the 1970's when the national anthem was played many people stayed seated or just kept on talking. Within days of US. embassy personal being taken hostage the muscular flag waving patriotism was in style and stayed that way throughout the 80's. The sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's gave way to fear of AIDS
_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity.
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
12 Nov 2014, 1:31 am
