I disagree. As someone born in the early seventies I was already an adult in 1997. The problems did exist back then but the scale of them was different and henc

I disagree. As someone born in the early seventies I was already an adult in 1997. The problems did exist back then but the scale of them was different and hence was the focus and so the mood of the population not just in America but in places like Eastern Europe, Asia and hell, even the Middle East was that of unbridled optimism. Sure, Africa was a mess and South America wasn't a lot of fun but the mood after the end of the cold War was jubilant to the level I don't recall before or since. It culminated in the dotcom mania of 1999. But somehow it all made sense. We all read Kurzweil and believed it. I bemoan young people who never got to experience this brief and obviously misguided period of euphoria but it was so much fun while it lasted :)