What I remember was not regimentation or bureaucratization. In the language of the day, retrospectively, I clearly recall stagflation, fiscal crisis, legitimation crisis and motivation crisis and shit hitting the fan left and right - from Stonewall to Kent State to Watergate to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and on to Oil Shocks, CIA hearings, Nicaragua and Iran. I remember rock operas, arena rock, and soul collapsing in the face of reggae, disco, punk and early hip hop. It all felt like chaos rather than regimentation and bureaucratization - perhaps because I was too young to see the ramifications of Carter's Trilateralism.
At the same time, Reaganism struck me as an explosion of regimentation and bureaucratization. The Reagan recession really seemed to be the death knell of getting a hand shake or a nod from a town to use their park for a picnic, softball or ultimate, the litigiousness of the era seemed additionally to freak out all public officials. The greater volume of crap my brother felt obliged to "achieve" in HS, starting college in 1985 relative to what I did, starting in 1980, was nuts... and I remember that dealing with the NJ DMV just got harder and harder and harder... but this is all from the perspective of a kid, teen and political but w/o all that much depth or range at the time.
On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 4:37 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> "Did actual American life seem so much more regimented or
> bureaucratized in the 70's?"
>
> It was more a question of expectations. The countercultural movement of the
> sixties had raised expectations and fed the desire for real connections
> between people, for the actual satisfaction of desire, and for freedom.
>
> Bureaucracy served as the counter-practice to all that.
>
> Joanna
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319