Why can't we return to the values and morals of the 50's?

Question

I know alot of people did bad stuff then but they didn't brag about it and it wasn't accepted by society as normal. That decade was a family decade with married parents, stay at home mothers, safer neighborhoods, obedient children (or at least they feared what would happen to them if they disobeyed parents or authority figures). There were a few issues at that time but nothing as serious as what we face today. I would gladly trade todays modern gadgets for a safe neighborhood where I could walk down the street in the daytime without some thug harrassing me.

As far as wives being beaten by their husbands, well it still occurs today but it more and more women who shack up with their boyfriends who get abused, in other words, they aren't even stuck in a marriage with them but they still get abused.

It is a fact that men with professional wives cheat on them just as much as the husbands of the 50's. Their career woman wife is too tired to take care of their needs and they look for the less career minded woman who has time and energy for them (I know this as a fact) . lol

Also not all women want a career. My good grades in school are just for going to school, I might as well make good grades but my mission in life has always been to have a husband, family, a clean home, a nice yard, and avoid as many outsiders as possible

Answer 1

the liberals woudnt stand for it... they need chaos to survive
and the minorities had to work to survive back then....

Answer 2

I'm fortunate enough to have had my formative years in BOTH the fifties AND sixties in the UK.

The fifties were a time of reflection and consolidation after the traumas of WW2. Great emphasis was placed on the nuclear family. Money was tight and many had to make do and mend. The class system was still in evidence, with deference accorded to those in authority. Although life was not easy, especially with 'shortages' of many things, life, probably, was simpler. People were not greatly encouraged to think outside the square. Many left school to work in the same jobs as their fathers. With limited access to transport, life revolved around the local community. Even if you wanted to break out of the mold, there was little opportunity to do so because everyone knew your business.

In the sixties the pace quickened rapidly. The earning capacity of people increased and in particular that of young people. They became the big spenders. For the first time they experienced financial independence from their parents. Increasing numbers had their own cars, bikes or scooters and became mobile. More and more were moving away from home. The Pill also revolutionised that decade. Previously, they could only have had their noses at the store window and wished! Now the kids could get inside the store and gorge themselves on the candy. Foreign holidays became popular. Young people were no longer clones of their parents.

The fifties gave me a solid grounding to value the simple things in life but the sixties were also exciting, and yes - I probably made some misakes - but the sixties added enormous colour to my life.

Personally, I still value a lot of the, so-called old fashioned values but I hope that, as a parent, I am more tolerant than I perceived my parents to be. I try to persuade and encourage rather than dictate.

The pendulum swings until it reaches the end of it's arc and then returns again. It never stands still. So is it with the opposite end of the pendulum's swing - ultra conservatism at one end and ultra liberalism at the other.

I'm just lucky to have be born in mid swing!

Answer 3

I'm sorry, but I disagree with your assumption that the 50's were more moral than today. For one thing, everyone had to LIE to themselves and to each other to maintain the illusion that everything was wonderful and dandy. Most men in families were STUCK in them and very unhappy. Most women weren't allowed to work outside of the home. Is that really what you want? The sad truth is that the invention of the Pill changed everything. Now women don't stay in the home. They compete with men for high paying jobs and cause unemployment. As for the "safer" stuff you are assuming, that isn't entirely true. Sure, there were plenty of suburbs where things were boring and safe, but there were also ghettoes and bad areas of town, just like today. And if you were a minority, you could count on being mistreated by society and sometimes even killed on the street. The 50's were no dream. Just because that's what you see on tv, it doesn' t mean it's true.

Answer 4

Ok, you've done a great job of romanticizing the 50's, and to a degree, you are accurate.

However, take this into consideration as well:

Where were all the blacks and hispanics in the 50's? I presume they were all either in ghettos and/or working as underpaid domestic servants. For that matter, there were no equal civil rights then either.

Yes, women stayed home---forever! That means no career for you, babe. I don't care how much you want to "help" people or how many "A"'s you got in chemistry. As a matter of fact, women only went to college to find a man to marry. How undignified is that knowing that while on campus everyone knows you are just there to "score" a husband? Furthermore, if your husband left you, how on earth would you take care of yourself and children with either no education or some education and no experience?

How about if you didn't want a family? Then I guess you were some sort of outcast. Not everyone wants to get married and have children.

The food in the 50's sucked. It was all greasy hamburgers and hotdogs, or meatloaf and organ meat (thanks to WW2).

As far as crime, there was still the Mafia, serial killers, child molesters, etc. but it just wasn't made into the 3-ring media circus that it is made into today. Furthermore, if "Uncle Harry" down the street molested some kids--nobody talked about it--much less registered his butt with the authorities and sent him to jail so it wouldn't happen to some other unsuspecting kid!

I could go on and on....we need to live in the present and stop romanticizing the past. It isn't emotionally healthy, and I say this only because I have been there (romanticizing the past) myself. I'm not saying we don't have our own unique problems today, but we HAVE progressed, whether we choose to see this or not. Just don't let life pass you by, ok?

Answer 5

Personally, I'm glad things have changed since the 50s. People are more tolerant, there is less racism and sexism (It's still there, of course, but now women can get jobs outside the home and black people can drink from the same water fountains as white people), it isn't as big of a deal if someone is gay or if two people who are un-married live together... it's a little bit freer. Sure there are problems, but I don't think that taking away the liberties we have gained will make them go away.

Answer 6

I think my mother beat me close to every day from about 1954 until I left home at thirteen. It was her right, and the neighbors who knew did nothing. It didn't cross anyone's mind to interfere.

The gangs in the projects across the avenue killed each other with knives instead of guns, and the police dogs were allowed to get a few good bites in if the guys were brown.

We had "air raid drills" in school, where we were taught to hide under our desks to protect us from the atomic bombs the Rusians were going to drop on us. I don't remember what year everyone started digging bomb shelters.

Kids were in iron lungs from polio, and flippered from thalidimide. Children were born with the mother in a "twilight sleep," and the father nowhere in sight. Parents were allowed to visit their hospitalized kids from 1pm to 3pm. Cancer was a death sentence, but the doctor and family sometimes chose not to tell the patient what was wrong. Measles killed children across the country, if polio didn't do it first.

Pregnant girls went to stay with an "aunt" and came back many months later with a vacant stare and an unbelivable story.

And it wasn't safe to walk down many streets in most cities. In the early 60's I was very sick (and very young) in downtown Chicago. I couldn't walk to the train to get home, and had to lie down on the sidewalk. The businessmen rushing back and forth stepped around me. I must have looked about 12, as I was a late bloomer. Not one person stopped to help me.

Just about the only lines you'd hear from a black person on a TV show were "Yah suh!" and there weren't any non-whites in commercials or on bulletin boards.

Nope, no thanks, don't want to go back. (And, by the way, my mother never wore heels and pearls to clean the kitchen. But she did wear an apron.)

Answer 7

Because everything and everyone evolves and there's just no going back. If that could happen, there'd still be jobs paying well enough for one parent to support everyone and such. Things change. Women don't want to marry as much - they want careers and live out their own lives. They've discovered they have more to do than simply cater to men and bear children. Nothing remains the same.

Answer 8

Maybe you should move. I can walk down my street anytime and not be harrassed.

Oh yeah, I want to be forced to stay married even though my husband is abusive, but it's not proper to say so. Yes I want to stay at home, cause I'm a woman and have no value outside of "maid, cook and whor*". Oh sure, beating my children into submission sounds good too. Please spare me! There is not much new going on...we just don't hide it anymore as dirty laundry has become popular.

It seems as if you are wishing you didn't have to think for yourself and want a man to tell you how to be, look and live. There are lots of those types on here...find one and live like June Cleaver if you wish.

As for me and my house we will worship no one, but will rely on ourselves, care for our fellow man and be good stewards of the earth.

.

Answer 9

No way. Think about the sexism and racism back then. I definitely wouldn't be in grad school right now. I too hate the crime today and the crude language on t-shirts that young girls wear (I'm 28, by the way). Try moving to a place where you can walk around safely...they do exist, and when I graduate, my job will be to design places that are safe for people to walk and bike around.

Answer 10

So are you going to be the one to tell working women thay they should quit their jobs so they can stay home, cook and clean for their man and push out babies every few years?

Maybe you'd like to be the one to tell blacks that they can't eat in the same restaurants or drink from the same water fountains as whites? Good luck with that.

The 50's sucked. It's just that with the passage of time, people only remember the 'good old days'. The good old days were NOT always good.

Answer 11

People always seem to forget that in the fifties woman couldn't have opinions, blacks couldn't vote and police turned a blind eye to child and domestic violence.

Sure the television shows make it look perfect but it wasn't. As a woman, I have enjoyed getting a education, a career and a life for myself.