Post #4820 by thejab on Wed, Jul 31, 2002 6:19 PM

johntiki wrote:
"Well, I need to get this off my chest! I'm nostalgic for the 20th Century and a vision of 50's days gone by. I like things from all the decades of the past century, all the way up to the 1980's."

I wholeheartedly second that! One reason I like the whole tiki thing is that you can have a time-warp experience when going to some of the well-preserved tiki bars. I'm all about time-warps, in my clothes, the restaurants and bars I go to, in my apartment, etc.

The 40s, 50s, and 60s were great! OK, I only experienced the 60s as a young child, but I believe from what I have read and seen that they were great. People were polite and not as crude in their manners, things were more romantic (like getting all dressed up for a date and going dancing), and you could still go to a burlesque theatre and see sexy but tasteful dancing by women that were 100% real, not silicon-injected and plastic.

Sure, I don't want a return of racism, sexism, and the cold war, but the roots of the civil rights, women's rights, and peace movements go back to the 50s. Much of our current views of the 50s attitudes are formed by what the media portrayed on TV in the 50s (that wasn't real) and what people say now looking back. There were many people who were not racist, were open-minded about sex (have you read the kinsey reports?), embraced all kinds of new music like jazz, R&B, and rock-n-roll, and did not agree with the anti-communist propoganda. The ex-hippies just want to take all the credit now while they're driving their SUVs around listening to the Eagles.

There hasn't been much progress in civil rights or peace since the late 60s. Half of all young African-American males are in prisons, women still make less money then men for the same work, and look at what's happening in the middle east.