I’m genuinely curious, how was increasing crime related to emissions from leaded gasoline?
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Here is an excellent article explaining the association:
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I remember in Girl Scouts we had “survival suppers” where all you could have were canned foods and a can opener (and I guess water) because if you survived the bomb drop, you could only eat things in cans that would not be poisoned by radiation. Even as a kid I figured that was not a likely scenario.
I think it was similar to kids today thinking about global issues and climate change: nuclear war was something that you didn’t want to think about and which seemed unlikely, but still scary.
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We know a family who owned a rental and was sued over lead paint (resultant issues with renters child). Of course, the lawsuit happened immediately after our family friend won the lottery. That was the 1980’s.
Lead issues are real but like everything might be blown out of proportion. If your kid is eating lead paint flakes you have an issue, but gasoline with normal usage? Hmm.
Try Kent State killing of students by National Guard troops (1970), the VietNam War protests, Watergate hearings, Nixon’s impeachment–a few events that might lead to pessimism. As a kid just about to start college Kent State horrified me.
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The lead in the gasoline went out the tailpipe to be breathed in or land everywhere for kids to unknowingly touch and eat. Note also that the crime wave that rose and fell 20 years after lead emissions rose and fell hit dense urban areas (with heavy traffic and high vehicle exhaust emission density, as indicated by visible smog domes over such areas at the time) the hardest.
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Do you know balsamic vinegar has lead?
Had to reread this. At first, I thought to myself “we don’t have high unemployment anymore and Trump never resigned?” Then I realized we were talking about the 1970s, not the 2020s.
Sure, there were a lot of bad events in the 70s. I remember them, but there were positives, too. I came of age in the 70s and early 80s (class of '82 here). I just don’t remember a sense of pervasive gloom and doom when I think of the 70s. I remember the sexy me generation. I remember streakers (and wondering if my older brother was streaking at college). There were definitely bad things going down. I watched the Watergate hearings and the Iran Hostage situation and remember lines at the gas station and all that stuff, but I just did not get a sense of dystopia that I get now. Then as we transitioned into the 80s and “morning in America” there was even more of “me” “greed is good” “he who dies with the most toys wins” sense of ‘optimism’ and ‘I’m gonna get mine’.
But that’s just my perception. I’m sure if you were majorly impacted by some of the events in the 70s your perception would be different.
For me, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago things felt like at least as good as 2 steps back, 2 steps forward so we were holding steady and sometimes it felt like 1 step back, 2 steps forward. Right now, the vibe I get from my kids (21 and 18) is they feel more like it’s in a 1 step forward, 2 steps back mode.
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Bromfield- Kent State was traumatic for sure. If you were heading off to college having participated in anti-war demonstrations- with law enforcement standing on the sidelines “just in case” (or not showing up at all) that was the wakeup call for us. Thank you for pointing that out.
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And don’t forget the upbeat message of Hollywood. Beating the Russians (Rocky IV), Having it All, including a job on Wall St (Working Girl) or as a fighter pilot (Top Gun) etc.
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Thank you @ucbalumnus , that made for interesting reading, and I appreciate the food for thought.
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Would be interesting to REALLY know what % of young adults are optimistic/pessimistic v. earlier decades. My guess would be the raw % has changed. There are some for whom nothing fazes them and others who have an issue with everything. Makes the world go round.
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Ummm, all of those movies were from the 1980s.
Rocky IV - 1985
Top Gun - 1986
Working Girl - 1988
Movies of the 1970s:
Rocky and Rocky II
Assault on Precinct 13
All of the President’s Men
Network
Serpico
The Sting
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter
Dirty Harry
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest
American Graffiti
The Last Picture Show
Alien
Chinatown
Taxi Driver
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather
Star Wars
A lot of movies about uncontrolled crime, Vietnam trauma, Watergate, dying American towns, etc.
Hardly upbeat messages.
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Yes that was my point. Those (like myself) whose formative years were the 1980s, received an increasingly upbeat message about US superiority and the promise of a brighter future as the decade went on, compared to those who grew up in the 1970s.
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Did you just pull that list out of your head? Because it is probably more informative to the vibe of the 1970s to go with the highest grossing movies of the decade. Here’s a cool site that breaks down the highest grossing films by decade and by each year. All-Time Top Box-Office Films By Decade and Year
Here’s the 70s. The majority, though certainly not all, are upbeat I’d say.
TOP 1970s FILMS
(unadjusted domestic gross totals)
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
- Jaws (1975)
- Grease (1978)
- The Sting (1973)
- Superman (1978)
- The Godfather (1972)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
- (National Lampoon’s) Animal House (1978)
- Blazing Saddles (1974)
- Rocky (1976)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977/80)
- The Towering Inferno (1974)
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- Love Story (1970)
- Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
- Airport (1970)
- American Graffiti (1973)
- Saturday Night Fever (1977)
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
- The Amityville Horror (1979)
- Young Frankenstein (1974)
- Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
- Rocky II (1979)
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
- The Goodbye Girl (1977)
- Heaven Can Wait (1978)
- Alien (1979)
- Hooper (1978)
- Jaws 2 (1978)
-
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) TOP 1970s FILMS BY YEAR
(unadjusted domestic gross totals)
1970: Love Story (1970)
1971: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
1972: The Godfather (1972)
1973: The Sting (1973)
1974: Blazing Saddles (1974)
1975: Jaws (1975)
1976: Rocky (1976)
1977: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
1978: Grease (1978)
1979: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
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But the 1980s movies are almost universally positive (way more than the 1970s). 1990s and 2000s mostly positive (as you’d expect TBH) and then the 2010s seem pretty depressing to me. Maybe it’s a good sentiment tracker.
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Exactly. It’s hard to make a case for the 1970s as a happy-go-lucky, optimistic period when you look at most of the major movies of the era. Since I had a car and was attending college in the 70s I also remember gas lines, when based on your license plate number, you could only buy gas on either even or odd days, providing of course that the gas station where you were in line didn’t run out of gas before you got to the head of the line.
Divorce rates were rising through the roof and the country was reeling from the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal, causing Americans faith in their own government to drop to unprecedented lows. On top of all that, we were experiencing a recession and runaway inflation.
Any young people who felt optimistic in the 1970s simply weren’t paying attention.
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Both my sons have expressed interest in having kids, though I don’t see it happening on the short-term horizon. I certainly haven’t asked about plans or put any pressure on them. Geopolitical events have affected S2 profoundly in his life. He was in 4th grade when 9/11 happened, and he was already a history buff then. It’s in his blood and has had a major effect on what he’s done with his life. Ukraine is not an abstraction for our family right now; my prayer is that he gets home whole in body and soul.
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