Let me explain what I mean, but it seems less common to me among most people.

In the '80s and '90s (both from what I can remember myself, or seeing tv shows, movies and other time capsules) it seemed like there were lots of people who didn't much care about politics. I don't know if it was simply not caring about things in general, or just not being informed on them? It could've also been that those were slower-paced times (in relation to today) to where those things didn't affect daily lives as much. It was easier to just turn the other cheek and forget about it.

Whereas after September 11th and the Iraq War, I've noticed it's basically impossible to ignore certain issues, so lots more people seem socially conscious or at least political. Maybe the proliferation of the Internet since the late '90s also made it easier to know about current events too, since it's another huge media outlet we didn't have before. It also makes things seem even more realistic and closer, whereas even with television and newspapers it was a little easier to detach yourself from it. Especially if it was happening halfway across the country or even the world.

I know it's a cliched statement every generation in history has probably made in reference to a quarter-century earlier, but the world in general honestly does seem "less innocent" since 2001ish.

Times of war, recession, and incompetent leadership tend to make people more politically alert.  People are also starting to realize the materialistic lifestyle we enjoyed post-WWII through the 1990s is coming to an end.  Three generations of Americans assumed the petrochemical world was boundless and endless.  Now we know it is not.  People are bitter and frightened and looking for some one to blame.
::)

I see your point. There did seem to be a certain apathetic attitude toward politics that developed in the '70s, and reached a peak in the '80s and '90s. If you use voter turnout as a measurement, at least 60% of the voting age population voted in every presidential election until 1968. After that, there was a noticeable drop in turnout, with the nadir coming in 1996 when only 49% of the voting age population came to vote.

Today, that number has gone up quite a bit. 56% turned out in the last election, and with the number of voters turning out in the primaries so far this year, I would expect that number to be possibly even higher in November. You could attribute that to alot of things, but the simple truth is, your vote has alot more at stake in 2008 than it did in 1996.   

9/11 finally crushed the naivete of the American experience.  This was a good thing.  Granted, I'm not saying the tragedy was good, but being more existentialist and hardened to the world's chaos is good.

The problem is that...  we could have used 9/11 as a staging point for moving away from the patriotic idiocy that allowed us to make excuses for the meddling we've done in the affairs of other countries, but instead, 9/11 has actually made most people MORE supportive of interventionism.  This is the part that isn't so good....

Now that most of us understand how stupid invading Iraq was, it's hard not to be political.  More specifically, it's hard to support or even excuse the actions of the neoconservatives, but unfortunately, many still do.

Iraq = Vietnam Part II, not in casualties, but in mindset.  Most of America wants us out of Iraq, but most of the government wants to stay in.

Iraq = Vietnam Part II, not in casualties, but in mindset.  Most of America wants us out of Iraq, but most of the government wants to stay in.

If we had only 1968 medical know-how at our disposal, the casualty rate would be much, much higher.  A lot of these guys are coming back alive...but barely.
:(

That's a good point, Max.  Sadly, this is also why the murder rate has gone down in some areas in America.  It's not that less shootings have occurred, it's that less deaths occur from them -- where people live hooked up to a machine for the rest of their lives.  These soldiers face a similar (but much worse) fate from terrorist attacks and often end up with only a few limbs left.

That's a good point, Max.  Sadly, this is also why the murder rate has gone down in some areas in America.  It's not that less shootings have occurred, it's that less deaths occur from them -- where people live hooked up to a machine for the rest of their lives.  These soldiers face a similar (but much worse) fate from terrorist attacks and often end up with only a few limbs left.


So long as everything goes right in utero, you're still only born with four limbs.  Can't afford to lose too many.  There are also soldiers coming back with permanently incapacitating internal and/or cerebral/psychiatric injuries.  Now is not the time to be cutting the VA budget...and it won't be for the next 60 years.  They did not die on the battlefield like they would have in 'nam, but they're going to require constant medical care--around-the-clock in many cases--for the rest of their lives.  Their country at least owes them that much.

It's completely the other way around this side of the pond: there is such little difference between the main two parties, and such a minisule chance of anyone else getting elected, that the majority of the electorate really don't give a s**t any more.

It's completely the other way around this side of the pond: there is such little difference between the main two parties, and such a minisule chance of anyone else getting elected, that the majority of the electorate really don't give a s**t any more.

It's the same here, really.  The Republican and Democratic parties are both at the beck and call of big business.
::)

So long as everything goes right in utero, you're still only born with four limbs. 

Men have five.  :P

Good topic, Marty. I think as everyone grows older their socio-political (is that even a real word?) stance changes. When I was younger I didn't care about politics at all. I didn't care much for social issues then etiher (and by social issues, I mean high school social issues). Nowadays, I pay much more attention to real social issues and politics.

Ant

Men have five.  :P

Good topic, Marty. I think as everyone grows older their socio-political (is that even a real word?) stance changes. When I was younger I didn't care about politics at all. I didn't care much for social issues then etiher (and by social issues, I mean high school social issues). Nowadays, I pay much more attention to real social issues and politics.

Ant


Thanks. :) I mostly agree. Lots of people regardless of age I think have the tendency to only care about an issue if it relates to them or their lives. So probably just because there's more turbulent stuff going on the world now that affects us, kinda how it was in the 1960s (and to a lesser extent the '70s)...that's why you see more people who are concerned about issues. Also I'd say the Internet and mass media has something to do with it. You can't really sit back and pretend certain things don't exist anymore, whereas the world seemed bigger before the 'net was popular IMO.


Personally I was always interested in certain things and I cared about the world, but as a kid and a younger teen it was more peripheral. In other words I'd feel bad for someone I saw on tv or the news that was going through a hard time, but I wasn't really interested in politics in general.

It didn't start to feel personal to me until I was about 15. Things seemed a bit "less innocent" to me around the time I started high school, because I kinda knew the full extent of the way everything in the world worked or how people thought. I think that's when stuff started affecting me more personally, so I began caring about things that didn't necesarilly have to do with me. Coincidentally that's also about when the more fast-paced Internet era started taking off circa 1997.

*BUMP*

Is it just me, or are more kids and teenagers politically aware or concerned now? Lots of kids I went to school with either thought it was boring or just didn't care because the issues had little to no affect on them.

Even older people were kinda like that too. For instance, my mom generally didn't care about politics beyond a surface level until 9/11. I think it was just easier in the '80s and 90s for people (adults included) to kinda live their lives unaffected by what was going on in the world. Most of the bad stuff was just routine crime or isolated tragedies, so it probably just didn't pervade our daily lives so much, and was easier to ignore.


P.S. I was sorta in the middle. I wasn't as informed as I am now (or since high school), but I cared probably more than most kids did. Heck I watched Dateline and the news when I was 12 sometimes, lol. I more thought about general stuff like poverty or crime victims, as opposed to policy issues (which I didn't understand sometimes).

Interesting topic.  I think you are all right in your observations.

So long as everything goes right in utero, you're still only born with four limbs.  Can't afford to lose too many.  There are also soldiers coming back with permanently incapacitating internal and/or cerebral/psychiatric injuries.  Now is not the time to be cutting the VA budget...and it won't be for the next 60 years.  They did not die on the battlefield like they would have in 'nam, but they're going to require constant medical care--around-the-clock in many cases--for the rest of their lives.  Their country at least owes them that much.


Good points...  I think the issue would be mostly resolved by socializing medicine altogether.  In most markets, I support privatization, but we've tried unsuccessfully to do that in medicine already.  Healthcare is one of the few areas where socialization is actually more efficient than privatization.  Insurance is another.

I am a sinistrovalent!
8)

*BUMP*

Is it just me, or are more kids and teenagers politically aware or concerned now? Lots of kids I went to school with either thought it was boring or just didn't care because the issues had little to no affect on them.

Even older people were kinda like that too. For instance, my mom generally didn't care about politics beyond a surface level until 9/11. I think it was just easier in the '80s and 90s for people (adults included) to kinda live their lives unaffected by what was going on in the world. Most of the bad stuff was just routine crime or isolated tragedies, so it probably just didn't pervade our daily lives so much, and was easier to ignore.


P.S. I was sorta in the middle. I wasn't as informed as I am now (or since high school), but I cared probably more than most kids did. Heck I watched Dateline and the news when I was 12 sometimes, lol. I more thought about general stuff like poverty or crime victims, as opposed to policy issues (which I didn't understand sometimes).



I didn't care about issues or world events at all when I was a kid/young teenager. The fact is, after the recession and the Gulf War in the early '90s, the '90s was one of the more peaceful periods we have had. The bad things that did happen (Oklahoma City Bombing in '95, Olympic Park Bombing in '96 for example) seemed more like isolated incidents, and the fear of terrorist attack wasn't really an issue as it is today. At least that's the way it seemed to me at the time.

As far as politics, it could just be that I was a kid but, even though we talked about current events all the time in school, the only major political issue I remember from the '90s was Bill Clinton's sex life. ;)