3 ms·

I was born in 1970. I grew up (~12 to 17-19) expecting to not live into adulthood. It wasn't always on my mind, but I thought there was pretty high likelihood o

I was born in 1970. I grew up (~12 to 17-19) expecting to not live into adulthood. It wasn't always on my mind, but I thought there was pretty high likelihood of nuclear war. It was pervasive meme in the art(movies/books/etc) and news of the time. And nobody expected to survive, era of "duck and cover" were long over.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
jghn 10y ago
I feel like there always a background acceptance of this which younger people will never understand. I've had this conversation and they always say "yeah, it's like the threat of terrorism" and I try to make the point that global destruction was something a bit different. Much like terrorism though you didn't live in constant fear, but there was a certain gallows acceptance
Diederich 10y ago
I'm the same age as you, and I grew up in Southern California. Most of my peers didn't expect to survive to be adults, as you said. We weren't generally freaked out about it. We laughed grimly when we had earthquake and nuclear drills in school, both of which consisted of the same thing: getting under our wooden desks. We were completely surrounded by primary nuclear targets. A major oil refinery was a couple of miles away. I believe it's safe to argue that the most dangerous time in the cold war was in the first half of the 1980s. The Cuban Missile crisis in 1962 was a very close call, but we were really on and off the edge for most of 10 years in the late 70s and early 80s. Yet most everyone feels far less safe today than we felt then. How we feel about safety is rarely connected to how safe we actually are. I believe that unlimited information and communications is making us insane. How many tens of thousands were killed by gas attacks in the late 70s and early 80s in the middle east? We knew it was happening, but we didn't see it, as we do today. I won't go into this theory more now, I've posted it a number of times in greater length, so it's available in my post history.
- secfirstmd 10y ago
  Absolutely, saver rattling Les to the Able Archer fears. And then you had the false nuclear alert incident in 1983. Thank hell we have a man like Stanislav Petrov. This guy is a hero, he may literally have saved the world from a nuclear war. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
- rumcajz 10y ago
  It looked pretty much the same in Ostblock. Nuclear drills when we walked with hands and feet in plastic bags through the woods etc.
biztos 10y ago
I'm the same age, and from Northern California, and I read and watched plenty of Post Nuclear War Fiction. We knew how to use a Geiger counter, survivalism was definitely A Thing, and I'm pretty sure I was exposed to at least as much Third World War Angst as your average kid. Nobody I knew, and nobody I had ever heard of, expressed any doubt whatsoever that we would all live into adulthood. People planned for college, or for jobs; people fell in love, people daydreamed about what the future might hold. The background threat didn't spoil anyone's day, and in the case of the survivalists it probably gave them a much-needed sense of purpose. Based on my own experience of those same years, I'd say you were in particularly bleak company.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

jghn 10y ago

I feel like there always a background acceptance of this which younger people will never understand. I've had this conversation and they always say "yeah, it's like the threat of terrorism" and I try to make the point that global destruction was something a bit different. Much like terrorism though you didn't live in constant fear, but there was a certain gallows acceptance

Diederich 10y ago

I'm the same age as you, and I grew up in Southern California. Most of my peers didn't expect to survive to be adults, as you said. We weren't generally freaked out about it. We laughed grimly when we had earthquake and nuclear drills in school, both of which consisted of the same thing: getting under our wooden desks. We were completely surrounded by primary nuclear targets. A major oil refinery was a couple of miles away. I believe it's safe to argue that the most dangerous time in the cold war was in the first half of the 1980s. The Cuban Missile crisis in 1962 was a very close call, but we were really on and off the edge for most of 10 years in the late 70s and early 80s. Yet most everyone feels far less safe today than we felt then. How we feel about safety is rarely connected to how safe we actually are. I believe that unlimited information and communications is making us insane. How many tens of thousands were killed by gas attacks in the late 70s and early 80s in the middle east? We knew it was happening, but we didn't see it, as we do today. I won't go into this theory more now, I've posted it a number of times in greater length, so it's available in my post history.

secfirstmd 10y ago
Absolutely, saver rattling Les to the Able Archer fears. And then you had the false nuclear alert incident in 1983. Thank hell we have a man like Stanislav Petrov. This guy is a hero, he may literally have saved the world from a nuclear war. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
rumcajz 10y ago
It looked pretty much the same in Ostblock. Nuclear drills when we walked with hands and feet in plastic bags through the woods etc.

biztos 10y ago

I'm the same age, and from Northern California, and I read and watched plenty of Post Nuclear War Fiction. We knew how to use a Geiger counter, survivalism was definitely A Thing, and I'm pretty sure I was exposed to at least as much Third World War Angst as your average kid. Nobody I knew, and nobody I had ever heard of, expressed any doubt whatsoever that we would all live into adulthood. People planned for college, or for jobs; people fell in love, people daydreamed about what the future might hold. The background threat didn't spoil anyone's day, and in the case of the survivalists it probably gave them a much-needed sense of purpose. Based on my own experience of those same years, I'd say you were in particularly bleak company.