Compare American culture in the 30's 40's 50's and now Better worse How?

Question

I was just watching old movies and TV shows

There has been a huge shift in everything and I am not sure it has been good.

Would the Fonze be anything but a laughable character now

Is the household and concerns of June Cleaver as gone as the wax records

Weren't we just generally nicer more trusting people 30 yrs ago then we are now ?

Answer 1

The Fonze and June Cleaver are fictional characters.

The Fonze was created in the 80's.

Were we nicer then?

Well, if you were

white,

middle class,

Protestant,

had a "nice, normal" name, (as opposed to "foreign-sounding names" like those of everyone from anywhere except England),

straight,

either male, or the sort of woman who pretended to be ignorant and mentally retarded,

had no physical or mental disabilities or problems,

and you believed exactly everything that everyone around you believed, and lived exactly the way you were told, down to the minutest details, yes.

If you were anyone else, you were less than human.

Rent, Netflix, or buy the movie Good Night, and Good Luck for one less than nice aspect.

See if you can watch one of the PBS documentaries such as "Eyes on the Prize" or do a little research on civil rights (Blacks, women, gays), or on the "witch hunts" of the times.

Heck, rent the oldie Gentleman's Agreement (Gregory Peck pretends to be Jewish, just to see if there's any anti-Semitism around).

Although there's much to be disgusted with in these sad times, I firmly believe that never before, in the history of the world, has as great a proportion of the world understood that all humans are human.

That seems to me to be worth a lot.

As so many posts I read on here do, you're confusing how things were PORTRAYED with how they WERE.

None of that stuff's real.

Back then, if "June's" husband broke several of her ribs, she still had to stay with him, until he actually managed to kill her.

Answer 2

How many people do you think you will find using the internet that were born in the early 1900's? That's when they would have had to have been born in order to effectively reply to your question regarding the era of 1930. I was born in the 50's & I can tell you that the Fonze was a laughable character to my generation & to the generation that he was portraying. You are a victim of the television generation. You have been separated by a false reality. People were meaner in those eras because anyone could smack a kid or any reason & they did! No one sued anyone over it & no one who got smacked was stupid enough to go back to that neighbors house & risk getting smacked again. Children were expected to listen to adults without question. Let's see, 30 years ago, I was 23 & all I wanted to do was get drunk & party. I had a job where we all drank at break time & no one got fired. At lunch we drank some more. We had 10 hour 4 day work weeks & we smoked pot after work & still got up in time to get to work. We had repetitive jobs in the electronics field & as long as we could solder a circuit board, we got a paycheck! We never expected to live past the age of 30 & many of my friends didn't! Now I'm 53 & I don't know how I managed to live this long. The old black & white sitcoms still make me laugh. They were never anything like real life, only some parts of it in some places! I grew up in Los Angeles during the era of the Revolution in the San Fernando Valley.

Answer 3

Back in the day people were more decent. May be more polite, etc.

You may say that we have different values comparing to the golden age - 50's. We had more intelligent individuals, talented and devoted. I think current generation is more focused on money and we don't' get much quality time.

When average professional could support family and wife was staying home, pooring love and education onto their kids. Our income level is not what it used to be...

Leavings standards are so much higher than back in the day. Middle class home size was about 1800- 2000 sq ft. comparing to 3,500 sq ft homes we are building how days.

What all this have to do with the culture? Well, I am sure that people are more concern to secure their financial life before they consider to educate their children. On top of that women came a long way from being house wives to totally independent, equally paid, etc. Family and marriage are no longer life time commitment, no-one wants to work things out and divorce is a very common and multimillion $ industry.

I hope it makes sense.

Answer 4

Things are better over all.

Women are free to work and be independent if that's what they want. They don't feel the neet to stay with an abusive husband just for the sake of tradition.

Minorities have full equal rights. That was not so in the 40s and 50s.

Black people used to be lynched by angry white mobs right after church services.

There are more minorities in the middle class.

Our environment is cleaner.

People are better educated. More people have a college education today.

Poverty is indeed lower. Go look at the historical poverty rates.

No holocaust in Europe.

No WWII going on with millions dying on each side.

No more cold war with nukes pointing at us.

More freedom and democracies found worldwide.

Answer 5

Old Movies and TV shows do not reflect the reality of what life was like so you can't use some romantic notion that somehow things were better, child abuse was a dirty little secret, same with sexual abuse, racism was still rampant, woman were still relegated to 2nd class citizen status, there were still alcoholics, drunk drivers, reefer madness was made in the 30's so drugs were around, as a matter of fact there was a larger percentage of the population addicted to cocaine at the turn of the 19th century than at any time since, cocaine and heroin were both bought over the counter in home remedy medicines, so tell me other than the fantasy of movies and TV what was really better, keep in mind we worked a lot harder at more physical jobs and had longer work weeks

Answer 6

They used to keep our media clean for the innocent children so their aspirations would lean toward goodwill. Kids used to play outside with the neighborhood children until dark. You didn't have to lock your doors. Now they play video games, music, watch tv, and sit on the computer getting into who knows what.

If a kid got in trouble at school, he/she would be in double trouble at home. Parents feel guilty now for the lack of family life and do not back the school in discipline. Kids used to have heroes. They used to have an identity and seemingly fine people to identify with.

What was considered good then is considered naive now.
Actually, our whole society is almost opposite from what it was then. Reality tv would have you think the Osborn's is a normal family.

Answer 7

I think things are better in many ways

people were trusting then but crime was till just as bad. if anything our lack of trust - like not hitchhiking which was hugely popular in the 50s and 60s- has saved lives. and not trusting makes us go to two doctors and two companies to check who is offering what at better prices.

some things are bad that definatly weren't around then...
but the drugs, sex (and all things involved, abuse in familes, ect all existed but they weren't put on tv. people had to live in secretcy

ballfour exposed baseball- mantles drinking, the beaver shooting, the contracts

and somewhere after nixon the press stopped protecting elected officails, namely the president. people in kennedy's press circle knew his indisgrestions but never printed them
this can be negitive and positive.

in some ways clearing things and putting them in the open helps- abused people get help, addicts don't feel ashamed to get help(betty ford didn't have that), people know the bad, happy, silly, and embarassing things they go through happpen to everyone

Answer 8

Worse, easily. Our media is controlled, our government is more corrupt, our citizens are weak and brainwashed. Our society has lost the idea of just what this country was founded on. Most have no idea what the constitution is and how vital it is to this nation. we've been invaded by illegal aliens and foriegn interests who will take this nation over right under the noses of ignorant american sheeple. Look around.

Answer 9

I've thought about this myself quite a bit.

In many ways we are much better off. Technologically and financially.

Socially we're a total mess. How many people these days actually know and trust their next door neighbors?
Back then if a bunch of men were parading down the street showing their butts in public, i.e. Gay Pride, they would have been thrown in jail and chastised in that community forever.
The sex and violence we're all inundated with in the news, media and entertainment has completely numbed our society to the root evils of man.

Answer 10

My parents talk about people respecting other people, life was so much safer (one could actually go trick or treating w/o adult supervision), neighborhoods pulled together in times if difficulty and there was respect for our government. Sounds like a much better world than todays. ( I still think the Fonz would be cool)