[lbo-talk] Warm summers or dark ages?

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>Of course, popular culture has become completely mindless and we have 
>>regressed over a century in political and economic consciousness, but it's 
>>a treat avoiding constant watch repair.
>
>When was this golden age? What were its products? The Whiffenpoof Song? 
>Hazel? We just remember the good stuff and forget the tons of crap that all 
>the highdomes of the time lamented. And politics - you nostalgic for 
>Coolidge? McCarthy? Tippecanoe and Tyler too? Property requirements for the 
>(men-only) vote? The poll tax? Jim Crow?

Ho, ho.  No, thank you very much -- I am not going to wander down that 
corridor of whirling knives and defend those particulars.  I say we have 
*regressed* politically/economically, but obviously there's little to cheer 
about in the past except its sense of *forward* movement in these areas.  
Deregulation and the shredding of safety nets are hurtling us back to the 
social savagery of the 19th century.

As for cultural devolution, I believe I can amply demonstrate catastrophic 
decline in a single generation by contrasting that giant of American comedy 
Bob Elliot with his seriously unfunny son Chris.

Carl