What If Someone From The 1950

If someone from the 1950s were to travel to our time, what arguments would you make to prove that things are better now politically and socially?

Well, I’m from 1950 (I was 4) and I have traveled to this time. The 50’s started out with no television, we literally sat around and watched radio. Early TV was entertaining mainly for its novelty; but with only 3 channels, one of the advantages is we all pretty much had the same shared stories. At 4 to 13 (my 50’s) life was pretty callow. A kid could pretty much travel anywhere in his (white) neighborhood. advertising was fairly primitive, i.e. not so annoying or effective. In Delaware, segregation was effective but de facto, and Jim Crow was more subtle than in the deep South. Since we still have plenty of hate crimes, I’m not sure that has improved. There is better health care now, but we seem to have to fight harder to get it. Water and air quality have definitely improved, but both seem to be declining. The middle class seemed larger (and whiter) in the 50’s, and staying in the middle class seems a lot more iffy today. Today, to me, it just seems like we are more divided, that there are a lot more annoying people and too many people embrace ignorance as a life style. Of course nuclear annihilation seems less likely. It isn’t but it seems less liely.

If someone from the 1950s or earlier suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about life today?

If someone from the 1950s or earlier suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about life today?I was a child in the 1950s, and if my '50s self could have been transported to today, he would have asked the following:1. What do you mean, there's no longer a Soviet Union? Did we nuke them or something? How many people died?2. There is a Negro President? Really? Is that even legal? How did it happen? What did they have to do to get enough white people to vote for him? Have the Communists taken over?3. The space program has been all but shut down? Are you kidding me? Weren't we going to the Moon? What about Mars? What happened?4. Have we discovered the cure for cancer?5. Homosexuals can get *married*? Are you *kidding* me? Is this some kind of joke? I mean, they can't even have kids or anything!6. Everyone has a computer in their house? Why? That's crazy. Do they have to build on an extra room to hold it? Do they wear white coats when they go in the room?7. Where are the cars that travel on a cushion of air above the ground?8. Why are they saying so many dirty words on TV? Why aren't they being arrested?9. Do they still have Mad Magazine?10. What happened to all the pay phones?11. Why don't people smoke any more?12. Why do they have government cops searching people who want to get on planes and making them take off their shoes and stuff? I thought you said the Soviet Union ended. What are they afraid of?13. Gas costs THREE OR FOUR DOLLARS? Really? That's insane! How can people afford to go anywhere? Do they just stay home?14. They made a TV show about advertising men and their families in the 1950s and everybody watches it? Why? What's it about? I mean, what would be so interesting about that?15. Is Elvis still around? I mean, I know he would be getting kind of old now.16. Do they still have Andy Griffith? I guess Opie's grown up. What's he up to now?17. What is Facebook? Why don't people just call each other on the phone or meet at a drive-in?18. Why don't men wear hats any more? Were they outlawed?Now I don't mean to imply that all the values implicit in the questions above are admirable, but I'm quite confident that if someone were suddenly transported from the '50s to our own day, the questions above are among the things he or she would ask.

If you showed someone from the 1950's a modern football (soccer) worldcup match, what would they think about it?

The only way it would work for your question is to reincarnate an old boy from the 50s or to have a Rip Van Winkle-style wake up. Lots of people remember football in the 1950s - and well too if they’re around 80 years of age. And I have met many old football people and enjoyed their stories immensely. The true fans haven’t lost their love of the game. You don’t.Honestly, if you did that Rip Van Winkle thing, I think today would look like football from outer space to a 1950s fan.As well as the aesthetic appearance of the game, that began with adidas and the Miracle of Berne, the first thing to strike them would be the pace of the game. The athleticism would amaze them and a lot of the nuances would pass them by - zonal marking, setpiece routines, all the various types of pressing. They’d struggle to get their bearings with certain teams. At least initially.But of course a lot of people around today remember the 1950s and 60s - or at least were shaped by its football.The continuum that stretches from Puskas to Cruyff to Messi and Ronaldo is more evident today than at any point in the past 66 years. So, much would be familiar too.Sebes’ great Hungary team are the starting point so they’d wonder what had happened to them. Ditto the great Scottish teams. Real Madrid would be very familiar, Germany too. England would still be an isolationist nation, wary of Europe and wary of ‘soft’ foreigners with their flamboyant and dishonest ways.They’d think the money had tainted the game, like all the old guys do, but they’d marvel at the spectacle: The 360 degree, 24 hour coverage, the strips, the light balls and boots, the bowling green pitches, the designer washbag culture of excess, the foreign names and faces, the internet coverage, the stats, and the betting industry.Whatever era your from, the football is magic, so simple but so complex. If you loved it then you’d love it now and vice versa.