Why do people from the 1940s and 1950s seem more well-mannered and classier than people today?
Because it was all a sham, a facade. I am 70, and remember the 1950’s fairly well. Many of the responses here would have you believe society was in some golden age of civility and rectitude. In fact, it was a cesspool. It was great if you were a white male. You could kill a black man or rape a black woman with near-total impunity over much of the country. If you were a woman, you could be a mommy, a nurse, a teacher, a secretary or a telephone operator. I once met a woman who commanded the Space Shuttle and another who led a Mars Rover team. I happen to think that is a huge improvement in society.But you didn’t hear about child molestation back then. No, you didn’t hear about it. Because victims knew perfectly well what would happen to them if they told anyone.Novelist Graham Greene, writing about child actress Shirley Temple, nailed the mentality of the times perfectly with:"Her admirers - middle-aged men and clergymen - respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire."Shirley Temple: the superstar who had her childhood destroyed by HollywoodAnother case that’s become fairly notorious is that of Lauren Chapin, of Father Knows Best, who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.You know all those cases of aging clergymen being accused as pedophiles way back when? Do the math. It didn’t happen in the drug-addled Sixties. And you can bet it was way worse back when clergy were all but untouchable.That “golden age” was the very embodiment of Matthew 23:27: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”A measure of the extent of the hypocrisy is that when people began challenging traditional sexual norms in the 1960’s, the whole system popped like a soap bubble. Because nobody actually believed in it to begin with. Comedian Pat Paulsen ran a joke Presidential campaign on the TV show “The Smothers Brothers” and one of his campaign speeches said “Let’s get sex out of the schools and back in the motels where it belongs.”Don’t give me any crap about the “Good Old Days.” The “Good Old Days” are right now.
Does it upset you that so many people are so caught up in the rat race and consumerism that they fail to consider, appreciate, or even notice the potential for more rewarding experiences in life?
Not only me but everyone else too complains about this fact of life, the only difference being that while I don’t consider my self part of this rat race and commodity fetishism, everyone else around me seems to be and at the same time keeps on complaining.Although Rat race and consumerism are having very bad effects on our live in the so called modern world, but, it is not a new phenomenon as lust, envy, greed and self aggrandizement has been the part of human psyche since ages.However, it became a philosophy of life after the so called industrial revolution of 1800s. In the beginning it was just an economic revolution but then, with the passage of time, we became so enamoured with this abundance of things that greater level of consumption became the status symbol. Industrial revolution allowed products to be available in an enormous quantity for the the first time in recorded history.And Now we are living in a culture of “Commodity Fetishism.” and to keep this culture imposed on us the god fathers of commerce and industry daily bombard the humanity, according to some estimates, with around 1600 commercial messages. These messages are sent/delivered to our doorstep through newspapers, television, internet, mobile phone, roadside billboards/hoardings, handbills etc.And the more you shop, the more you are (hollow?).The most interesting aspect of this consumerist culture is that it has a real inclusive approach and business has become the most powerful glue to unite the humanity worship one God “The God of Money.” You can hate the religion/faith of other but not their products or money.We can hate Americans but not their dollars or Visa Lottery, We can hate Jews but not Cola and Burgers/ Pizzas. And for the fundamentalists we have local names like “Gourmet cola” and “Arabian Pizza” etc.And in order to ensure that no one remains outside the game, our godfathers of MNCs have invented a new slogan (attractive trap) that is “BUY NOW, PAY LATER.” and a credit driven economy is driving everyone crazier and there seems no escape.