4 ms·

I'm 40+ and can tell you exactly when things started going down hill: September 11, 2001. We were told the world had changed and that we had to fear the unknow

I'm 40+ and can tell you exactly when things started going down hill: September 11, 2001. We were told the world had changed and that we had to fear the unknown. We have been a nation of frightened children ever since.

bobwaycott 10y ago
Nearly 36 here, and I concur. Everyone's been clothed in fear ever since.
- yodon 10y ago
  Those of us who are 50+ remember The threat of nuclear war, and 60+ remember the reality of the Cuban Missile Crisis. When you've lived through "100 Million people could die in the next 24 hours" (like was a real possibility during the Cuban Missile Crisis), the current threat level just makes people look like panicked children.
  - vacri 10y ago
    mid-40s here, and I remember growing up under the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction. "a terrorist might get a small pocket of us" as a national fear is small-fry compared to "a superpower might lay permanent waste to our entire country"... ... and while terrorist strikes do happen and nuclear war doesn't, the fear of terrorist strikes is much greater than the danger they represent.
  - PostOnce 10y ago
    That is still the case w/r/t nuclear war, we just don't worry about it anymore... all it takes is one false alarm. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_al... We still need to worry about that. We seemingly keep adding things to worry about, antibiotic resistance, climate change, big data, and not solving many. Hmm.
  - lordnacho 10y ago
    Yes but then Communism fell. We all saw the wall come down and expected the world to be less fearful. I remember being a kid in the 1980s and my dad explained why there were air raid sirens. And then the wall fell and all was peaceful until around September 11. For some reason the regular Irish troubles never really registered.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    I would put that first number at 35+ or so. I'm 36 and the threat of nuclear war was a vivid part of my childhood. It's really hard to understand how we went from tolerating MAD to freaking out about a handful of people with box cutters in only a decade. I guess people have really short memories.
bootload 10y ago
"I'm 40+ and can tell you exactly when things started going down hill: September 11, 2001." older, 22 Nov '63.

bobwaycott 10y ago

Nearly 36 here, and I concur. Everyone's been clothed in fear ever since.

yodon 10y ago
Those of us who are 50+ remember The threat of nuclear war, and 60+ remember the reality of the Cuban Missile Crisis. When you've lived through "100 Million people could die in the next 24 hours" (like was a real possibility during the Cuban Missile Crisis), the current threat level just makes people look like panicked children.
- vacri 10y ago
  mid-40s here, and I remember growing up under the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction. "a terrorist might get a small pocket of us" as a national fear is small-fry compared to "a superpower might lay permanent waste to our entire country"... ... and while terrorist strikes do happen and nuclear war doesn't, the fear of terrorist strikes is much greater than the danger they represent.
- PostOnce 10y ago
  That is still the case w/r/t nuclear war, we just don't worry about it anymore... all it takes is one false alarm. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_al... We still need to worry about that. We seemingly keep adding things to worry about, antibiotic resistance, climate change, big data, and not solving many. Hmm.
- lordnacho 10y ago
  Yes but then Communism fell. We all saw the wall come down and expected the world to be less fearful. I remember being a kid in the 1980s and my dad explained why there were air raid sirens. And then the wall fell and all was peaceful until around September 11. For some reason the regular Irish troubles never really registered.
- mikeash 10y ago
  I would put that first number at 35+ or so. I'm 36 and the threat of nuclear war was a vivid part of my childhood. It's really hard to understand how we went from tolerating MAD to freaking out about a handful of people with box cutters in only a decade. I guess people have really short memories.

bootload 10y ago

"I'm 40+ and can tell you exactly when things started going down hill: September 11, 2001." older, 22 Nov '63.