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People born in the 60's/70's have it better ?

Whosajiggawaaa

Whosajiggawaaa

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
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Do some of you guys feel that people born in the 60's/ 70's had it better ? Their music is in general better (esp 70's and 80's) and they seemed to have a better time, I don't think there even was that much depression/biploar back then. Just seems people born in the late 80's have it shitter. Our music is by and large shit. People are more depressed. My parent's did and people I know just have better stories and did much more than me or people I know my age.

Maybe I"m just a cynical bastard.
 
I think people were out of the house more...enjoyed sports and nature. Seems people spend more time in the house since computers.
 
I think that as a general rule, more people did adventurous things back then, as you are saying (I think).

I'd argue though that the gap in #s is smaller than you think. It is true the THE SCREENS have captured our attention and it has been a visible progression of the masses to spend more time in front of their TV or tablet. The people who grew up living wild lives still exist today. I have a friend whose whole career is based on freelance art, almost entirely done with computers. In his free time he uses money to travel all over the world--and he turned 27 yesterday. His parents are homebodies. It doesn't matter who the person is or their background, one must just have a desire to leave the house... and to a certain degree, come back with a story.
 
Good point mr hat. Still think 70s and 80s music and movies are better. Less tech more person to person - that 70s show an example. Stories my mom from stuff she did at my age just makes my life look shit, travelling the world, happyness, being in a hippy band.

Also my country has gone from practically a first world country to a third world banana republic, since then.
 
debating music is another bag of cats, hah. as is the debate on our reliance and (ab)use of technology.

in general i think it is up to the individual, at least after reaching a certain age--we could say 17--to decide for themselves what is personally their best route of action in life. regardless of peer/past influence, today the information is out there and readily available enough for people to make their own choices. what i'm saying is that we can't blame ourselves for being entrapped in a "lesser" age :)
 
yes casue smaller population & less rules, regulations, laws, and legislations.

wayyy too many filthy fucking people around now.
 
I blame technology... It's making everyone self centered. And I'm guilty too, tho mostly just with my internet addiction lol. But now everywhere you go people are walking around texting and updating their facebook status. Most people's kids have cell phones too, so while they're not in front of the tv or playing video games they're on their cell phones.

laugh said:
wayyy too many filthy fucking people around now.
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There were plenty of those in the 70s tho. =D
 
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yeah people born in the 60's may have had more fun but there going to be dead 20 / 30 years before you - you really want to trade decent music for 20 years of life? Really ? This generation feels the same about the generation before them - stop complaining, get out there and do something that your kids, grand kids will be jealous about !
 
Bearlove said:
yeah people born in the 60's may have had more fun but there going to be dead 20 / 30 years before you - you really want to trade decent music for 20 years of life? Really ? This generation feels the same about the generation before them - stop complaining, get out there and do something that your kids, grand kids will be jealous about !
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Nice inspirational post. If only I could follow it.
 
As someone born in the sixties, I find the general opinion of this thread so far interesting. It's certainly true we went out more, certainly as children. But surely this generation travels more? We never had gap years. Or parents throwing money at us.

We definitely had more pop culture. Hippies, new wave, punk....you've only had rave. But you did get a decent drug to go with it.

But. Be happy with what you've got. You can't change it. Live your life now, not the one you missed.
 
I think the issue is that mass media/culture has taken over. Combined with the increasing dehumanizing effect of bureaucratic controls, it has produced a populace too jaded and cynical to really take part in change. Most of the people I know decried the G20 riots as acts of madness and a lot of media did spin it like that, refering to the rioters as hooligans and trying to connect dots to make them out as villains when a lot were just normal people fed up with it all. Instead of asking questions and taking part in subcultures that rise out of the dust to challenge authority, we've grown accustomed to going along with the current. Even though we suspect it's all bullshit, we still remain susceptible to what is pushed as "truth" in the news because it's being shoved in our face from all directions constantly. You can't look anywhere these days without being advertised to, and this wonderful and glorious augmented reality on the horizon was intended as nothing more than a vehicle to advertise directly to your eyeballs, unfettered at any time.

I feel like we may be reaching a tipping point soon, as governments become more daring in their attempts to subvert the population's demands and corporations gain more power to influence your day-to-day life. It's going to be an interesting next twenty years.
 
We may have had it "better" in some ways, it depends what you're looking for. Like SHM said, get out, find something you want to pursue and live your life. I'm going to be 50 next month and what did we do when we were kids? You had no internet, therefore if you wanted to socialize you had to leave the house. That and actually use your house phone to make plans if you had one, that involved memorizing telephone numbers. If you had no home phone, you knew where the phone boxes were. Anyone ever had a party-line?

My dad and me talk about this shit all the time. An issue now is people cannot live anonymously, not like you ever truly could in every sense of the word. But it's not a possibility now. You can't go cross-country and just start a new life like you see on tv. Back in the day, a person could have a criminal record and still find work. That's hard nowadays. I had a friend who believed he lived "under the radar" government-wise because he worked under the table type jobs, never filed taxes and paid cash for everything. But it's simply not true, you have a state-issued driver's license in order to drive. You're in some database.

I think technology has hindered people in some ways. How do you communicate with people with no cell phone or computer? You rarely even see phone boxes anymore. It wasn't that long ago we had a hurricane and our power was out for nearly a week. Cell phone towers were screwed up and many people had no service, but our house phone worked fine. Thinking back on this event, if it had happened 30-40 years ago without our modern technology, it could have taken months or longer to get our electricity back.

If I could go back in time, I wouldn't mind that much living in the 60's or 70's. You had pretty much everything as far as conveniences, not like today but certainly livable. (minus very few television channels and none that ran all night) The worst obstacle back then was drug laws, depending on where you lived but marijuana was a big deal if you got caught. You didn't have the RC drugs, but real ones. Imagine someone selling you a hit of acid and it was actually acid! You heard about mystery substances but I never saw them. Simpler times indeed.
 
Just a kind reminder to all, please don't post anything glorifying drug use in SO as per the guidelines. If the general feeling is that discussion on this aspect as well would help to improve the thread, we can try it over in DC.
 
I reckon we (60s/70s kids) had it better but then, I think those born in the 40s and 50s had it better than us. It's almost always the case that previous generations seem more appealing, yet we keep on pushing progress like it's the be all and end all.

Close down your facebook account, stop following retards on twitter, stop watching reality tv shows, and go ride your bike without a helmet. I'm sure you will feel better about things.
 
How could they have "had it better"? The only perspective you have is from someone who, well, was born whenever your were born. Society is better in some ways, and worse in others. The same goes for culture... People born in the 60/70's also can't make a valid judgement about having it better or not than people born today.
 
They have the veneer of nostalgia to look back on their childhood and early adulthood through.

Their music is in general better
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Culture is now multicast; it was broadcast back then. You just have to look for good music now, and there are more different types of it now.

ebola
 
I, for one, miss the 60's and 70's. It was my coming of age time. Had a blast..........living on the beach in Hawaii...traveling about the country....camping our way to one place or another. Helping each other out a lot. Oh well.............ain't bad now either.
 
quiet roar said:
and go ride your bike without a helmet.
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That's illegal now. I gave my friends kid a ride and she got mad me for letting her ride in the front seat, when i was that kids age i rode in the back of a pickup truck. It's a different world now. I wouldn't say it's better or worse. If my parents whipped me i just cried, kids today would just call child protection. You also can't send your kid to the store to buy you smokes anymore. While i won't dismiss a whole decade of music, the 80's had alot of crap. The 70's were magical though.
Video games are better now, better graphics anyway. I miss the old games though like Atari and 8 bit Nintendo.
The interweb can be more than a time waster, you can learn to play music or auto mechanics or another language on youtube. I haven't paid for a record or movie in many years. I do miss the drive in movies though. And girls with long mullets.
 
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Yes, The boomers and their children amassed the wealth and land at the expense of the current and previous generation, even once they're finally dead we'll still be sucking on all the toxic shit they pumped into the environment for a quick buck.
They got to enjoy their youth years free and under very little regulation but then made sure that gen x and y live in a polluted police surveillance state so they could protect their precious equity.

The current generation is far more informed than previous ones and knowing that this whole consumerist enterprise is unsustainable and that the environmental outlook is bleak doesn't exactly lend itself to carefree times. I feel sorry as fuck for kids today.
Still like every generation does I think mines the best, late 70's early 80's babies on that just right like baby bear shit.
 
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