19: 1970s Malaise

Many of those who died – though certainly not all – did feel they died for what they believed in. If dying for an honorable cause is considered an act of heroism, these people would have been held on pedestals for their bravery and courage… if the circumstances of their deaths had been different. Unfortunately, they have been ridiculed and made fun of.

There were two ways to see movies in those days: in the theater or on network TV, whenever the networks decided to bring them out, usually a year or so after the theater release. There was no way to own a movie in a home library—no VHS cassettes, no DVDs, no streaming. Video stores hadn’t yet appeared. Particular movies were wondrous events that bloomed like rare flowers, and you had to be there when they did.

Such things simply <em>had not been shown</em> on a screen before.

And the swearing. This was an era when, if a movie character said “shit” audiences would giggle in nervous glee. We were years away from the f-bomb.

<p>I try not to commit a deliberate sin. I recognize that I'm going to do it anyhow, because I'm human and I'm tempted. And Christ set some almost impossible standards for us. Christ said, "I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery."</p> <p>I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do—and I have done it—and God forgives me for it. But that doesn't mean that I condemn someone who not only looks on a woman with lust but who leaves his wife and shacks up with somebody out of wedlock.</p>

the 1970s help us understand the transformation from “the American century” of the postwar years to the new era of globalization that we still live in today. Be it the transition from a unionized industrial heartland to a globalizing service and information economy; the switch from civil rights debates to campaigns for law and order, the decline of federal dominion and the rise of the tax revolt, or the birth of the Culture War – the 1970s hold the key for understanding the second half of the twentieth century.