I saw a bit of news footage of Reagan's assassination (attempt) tonight, and while thinking how long ago it looked, I started to wonder. How old can something be, right now, and still seem current?
To me, in my mid-30s, the 1940s are ancient. When I think of that decade I see B&W archive footage of WW2 and Hitler and Churchill. It seems a century ago, and the muddy trenches cut into some European killing ground hardly look any different than ancient footage of those comical WWI tanks grinding across muddy fields.
The 50s are approaching the modern era, but it still very antique; Red Scares and McCarthy and tail fin cars and sock hops and other quaint dance fads that seem almost coterminous with 1920s flappers, in my mind's eye.
The 1960s start to seem modern; Kennedy isn't a forgotten figure and the civil rights marches don't seem that long ago. There's even some color news footage, and while it's all grainy, I've seen that effect recreated so many times in contemporary movies, especially ones showing Vietnam helicopter jungle scenes, that it seems fairly modern.
The 1970s seem fairly recent, but they're so affected and corny that it doesn't seem like reality. Hippies fading into polyester leisure suits and other really bad men's fashions.
The 1980s are almost modern era, and men's suits look more or less modern, but women were in early versions of female suits, with huge shoulder pads and big hair, and they seem like extras from Barbarella. Also, all the USSR panics seem so quaint now that it's hard to take them seriously, and Reagan always looked 150 years old, like a man out of time. And the music of the 80s is all ridiculous hair metal type crap that sounded dated even when it was new.
So for me, the 1990s feel like the beginning of the modern era. Grunge music isn't entirely obsolete and obscure now, Bill Clinton is still a current figure (The Big Dog barnstormed NK and brought home Gore's Asian girls just last week.), fashions and hair aren't totally dated, and classic 90s movies don't seem like "classics" yet.
Now obviously this is an extremely superficial and America-centric survey of recent decades, but it wasn't meant to be a thorough historical summary. It's entirely sutbjective; what popped into my head when I thought of a given decade, with a mixture of world events, politics, and pop culture.
My question then, is what do other people think of with recent decades, and how long ago do they seem? I think it's likely to vary by your age. I think of the 90s as the first modern decade, and not-coincidentally that's the first decade in which I was an aware adult. A person in their 50s or 60s would, I bet, think of the 60s and 70s as modern and contemporary, with earlier decades lost in the same sort of historical blur though which I view the 40s and earlier. I'd also bet that the current decade fades out as you age. I'm sure the 40s and 50s are much more "real" in the memories and thoughts of a 90 year old than anything that's occurred in the last 10 years.
None of that, however, addresses the "seems contemporary" issue. Won't the 70s always seem odd and old and distant, compared to the decades after them, with the silly fashions and inconsequential politics and world events (as compared to the 60s or 80s)? Then again, if you're 58 now you were 20 when the 70s began, and that was your first real decade, so it's probably still fixed strongly in your mind. All the things that seem ridiculously quaint and silly from my perspective are real and grounded to you.
As for the current decade, it's not over yet, so I lack perspective, I also lack any sense of the unifying theme. There's nothing that really screams "2000s!" to my memory, the way some of the things I mentioned about the other decades do. The 9/11 NYC attacks are memorable, but they seem really long ago and recent at the same time. More like something from the 90s. Maybe Dubya and the Iraq Attaq, but that already feels like it's well in the past, even though it's not over yet. It's faded so rapidly from public attention though, thanks to Dubya leaving office in disgrace, his legacy more or less obliterated by negligible approval ratings and the massive rejection of his party and ideas in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
How the 00s will be seen/remembered/viewed in 5 or 10 years? I have no idea. They look like they're on track to be fairly anonymous, at this point. Nothing of any real significance has occurred culturally; musically there's been nothing as unifying or memorable as grunge, rap, hair metal, big band, etc, were in earlier decades. The post-9/11 reaction and Iraq Attaq will probably seem like an enormously foolish and panicky overreaction, with the wisdom or the years. Obama's legacy seems like another potential, but think about it. He was elected in 08, and if he goes 2 terms and leaves office popular and powerful, the way Reagan and Clinton did, he'll be memorable... but he'll be thought of with the 2010s, not the 00s. Six years there, two here, and it's quite possible that the 2010s will seem to have begun in 08, with the shameful exit of Dubya and the electoral repudiation of his legacy.
It's possible that the 80s or maybe the 90s were the last real thematic decades we'll see. Everything in modern life, since about 1998, has become too scattered and fragmented for unifying themes to emerge? There are now too many cable channels, internet options, niche music and movies, etc, for any real cultural consensus or movement to form.
Labels: society
