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So what happened to the optimism for the "consciousness III society"? Maybe it was naive but It's a shame we don't have that same forward looking feeling today

So what happened to the optimism for the "consciousness III society"? Maybe it was naive but It's a shame we don't have that same forward looking feeling today.

pnathan 7y ago
the 80s, basically. But, there was a reactionary swell that hit circa 1976ish, propelled Reagan into office and has continued in one form or another ever since.
tudorw 7y ago
you, not we :)
samplatt 7y ago
The climate happened, I think. Difficult to maintain optimism on the ultimate destiny of consciousness when the science is telling you there's an extinction event on your doorstep.
- johnnyforeigner 7y ago
  Living through the Cold War brought us a constant and very close awareness of the potential for a nuclear extinction event so I don’t think it’s climate change. If anything it was scarier then because there was a sense that extinction could come simply from a single random error in a highly complex socio-technical system. I’m of the opinion that much of the change in our culture was driven by a concerted pushback on the part of the “straights” to reassert the primacy of their worldview. The threat felt by those in power by the rise of the civil rights, anti-war and nascent environmentalist movement was a direct threat to business as usual. So, through things like the Moral Majority and the efforts of Thatcher and Reagan, we have adopted a worldview that for decades has told us that happiness and satisfaction comes only through the pursuit of financial success and conventional career paths.
  - redis_mlc 7y ago
    > there was a sense that extinction could come simply from a single random error Agreed, I was there and watched the "Duck and Cover" films in school. That only stopped when leaders realized that surviving the initial blast was one thing, and surviving a month later for most urbanites was unlikely. > So, through things like the Moral Majority and the efforts of Thatcher and Reagan ... happiness and satisfaction comes only through the pursuit of financial success I don't see a coherent argument here. You can ignore Thatcher, since she was the head of a bankrupted, hapless country (Britain had food rationing for 9 years after WW2.) Reagan was one of the most powerful leaders in world history. He wanted a strong America, both domestically and overseas. Can't really argue with that. We don't like people who utter words like "Evil Empire" [see Prof. Victor Davis Hanson], but somebody has to say it. Just be glad Reagan was on our side.
    - chasontherobot 7y ago
      Whose side was Reagan on? He certainly wasn't on the side of a lot of gays, blacks, or the other minorities his administration threw in jail, poisoned, or just let die through inaction.
      - bovermyer 7y ago
        It's not as black and white as that. Reagan was probably the last conservative president that made an effort to work with groups opposed to his own ideological positions. For example, have a listen to his 1983 Address to the Nation. Be careful, also, to view him in context of the era he was active in. It's tempting to judge historical figures' actions in a modern context, but that dramatically alters the nature of what they did and why.
      - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
        Poisoned? What, specifically, are you referring to? (Because, without some specifics, this sounds like an unhinged hyperbolic rant.)
      - eadmund 7y ago
- eadmund 7y ago
  Climate-change concern became a thing in the 90s. The peace-love-dope crowd were a reaction to our defense of South Vietnam. Once North Vietnam violated the Paris Peace and successfully invaded South Vietnam, there was no need anymore to react — we weren't defending anyone at that point. I imagine that there might also have been some embarrassed reactions to the boat people, the re-education camps and the mass murder which followed the invasion — after all those years of hailing Ho Chi Minh as the George Washington of Vietnam and pretending that the Viet Cong were freedom fighters, it was probably a bit embarrassing to see that they were just your normal run-of-the-mill dictator and his thugs. Also, I think a lot of the peace-love-dope crowd just grew up and got jobs.
  - oska 7y ago
    > Also, I think a lot of the peace-love-dope crowd just grew up and got jobs. This is a peculiar comment to make under an article about a member of the 'peace-love-dope crowd' who had a job which he performed at an elite level.
sneak 7y ago
We’re still around.

So what happened to the optimism for the "consciousness III society"? Maybe it was naive but It's a shame we don't have that same forward looking feeling today.

pnathan 7y ago

the 80s, basically. But, there was a reactionary swell that hit circa 1976ish, propelled Reagan into office and has continued in one form or another ever since.

tudorw 7y ago

you, not we :)

samplatt 7y ago

The climate happened, I think. Difficult to maintain optimism on the ultimate destiny of consciousness when the science is telling you there's an extinction event on your doorstep.

johnnyforeigner 7y ago
Living through the Cold War brought us a constant and very close awareness of the potential for a nuclear extinction event so I don’t think it’s climate change. If anything it was scarier then because there was a sense that extinction could come simply from a single random error in a highly complex socio-technical system. I’m of the opinion that much of the change in our culture was driven by a concerted pushback on the part of the “straights” to reassert the primacy of their worldview. The threat felt by those in power by the rise of the civil rights, anti-war and nascent environmentalist movement was a direct threat to business as usual. So, through things like the Moral Majority and the efforts of Thatcher and Reagan, we have adopted a worldview that for decades has told us that happiness and satisfaction comes only through the pursuit of financial success and conventional career paths.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  > there was a sense that extinction could come simply from a single random error Agreed, I was there and watched the "Duck and Cover" films in school. That only stopped when leaders realized that surviving the initial blast was one thing, and surviving a month later for most urbanites was unlikely. > So, through things like the Moral Majority and the efforts of Thatcher and Reagan ... happiness and satisfaction comes only through the pursuit of financial success I don't see a coherent argument here. You can ignore Thatcher, since she was the head of a bankrupted, hapless country (Britain had food rationing for 9 years after WW2.) Reagan was one of the most powerful leaders in world history. He wanted a strong America, both domestically and overseas. Can't really argue with that. We don't like people who utter words like "Evil Empire" [see Prof. Victor Davis Hanson], but somebody has to say it. Just be glad Reagan was on our side.
  - chasontherobot 7y ago
    Whose side was Reagan on? He certainly wasn't on the side of a lot of gays, blacks, or the other minorities his administration threw in jail, poisoned, or just let die through inaction.
    - bovermyer 7y ago
      It's not as black and white as that. Reagan was probably the last conservative president that made an effort to work with groups opposed to his own ideological positions. For example, have a listen to his 1983 Address to the Nation. Be careful, also, to view him in context of the era he was active in. It's tempting to judge historical figures' actions in a modern context, but that dramatically alters the nature of what they did and why.
    - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
      Poisoned? What, specifically, are you referring to? (Because, without some specifics, this sounds like an unhinged hyperbolic rant.)
    - eadmund 7y ago
eadmund 7y ago
Climate-change concern became a thing in the 90s. The peace-love-dope crowd were a reaction to our defense of South Vietnam. Once North Vietnam violated the Paris Peace and successfully invaded South Vietnam, there was no need anymore to react — we weren't defending anyone at that point. I imagine that there might also have been some embarrassed reactions to the boat people, the re-education camps and the mass murder which followed the invasion — after all those years of hailing Ho Chi Minh as the George Washington of Vietnam and pretending that the Viet Cong were freedom fighters, it was probably a bit embarrassing to see that they were just your normal run-of-the-mill dictator and his thugs. Also, I think a lot of the peace-love-dope crowd just grew up and got jobs.
- oska 7y ago
  > Also, I think a lot of the peace-love-dope crowd just grew up and got jobs. This is a peculiar comment to make under an article about a member of the 'peace-love-dope crowd' who had a job which he performed at an elite level.

sneak 7y ago

We’re still around.