"When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country" G. Gordon Liddy
Liddy is only a few years older than I and his book really hit home with me. If you're in your thirties or forties you really ought to read it. You will be shocked.
Prager is right that liberal policies have made life much less pleasant than it could be, especially for normal people.
dennis is my favorite media person.
yesterday while driving into los angeles
he was talking about the united nations aids heterosexual hoax.
unbelievable, and dennis was right decades ago.
Of course, every time you say this to a liberal they will come back at you and say “you would not say that if you were black and grew up in the South, or if you were a woman,” etc. etc. And they are right about that.
So? I'd rather die a freeperson at 50 than to live to 101 as a slave!
Interesting article! I may not agree with every single point, but he’s right to demonstrate that many of the changes are not “progress” but sometimes merely replacing one set of prejudices for another.
It’s also ironic how smoking cigarettes can disqualify one for a job on health grounds, but engaging in extremely high-risk homosexual practices is now a fundamental Constitutional right.
I recall a wise man telling me once that “when you have more memories than you do dreams, that’s when you know you’re growing old.”
I wonder if the same can said for an entire nation?
When I was a little boy, the world seemed a better place than it is today. But then, I could be writing that because I’m getting old.
For the thousandth time could people stop propagating the myth of increased lifespan!! Life expectancy at birth is not necessarily a measure of longetivity; if one analyzes the census data they will find that the diffference is almost completely due to infant mortality. If you look at the actual numbers you will see that since the 1950s, people are not living longer at all, fewer infants and children are dying. Big difference. In fact, even if you go back to the first complete census you will see that in 1871 the life expectancy for a 65 year old male was 10 years. In 1991 the life expectancy for a male was 12 years - 120 years of medicine and we get a two year difference that may not even be statistically significant.
I was an Assistant Scout Master at one time. We did not need gun control because we knew that guns were dangerous and kids were careful. We did not date because we were too young. We kicked out those who smoked and no one used drugs. We had a good time. Shortly after I went to Viet Nam. It wasn’t that bad Then I came home to Jane Hanoi Fonda, John Kerry and the label of being a baby killer. It wasn’t just technology but my troubles came form liberals.
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, if you're going to make mutually exclusive statements, you need to put a LOT more padding between them.
On the other hand, when I was a kid there was only one telephone company, long distance was $7 per minute, and cell phones did not exist.
The internet was eight DoD computers connected by coax.
Computers were huge, fantastically-expensive room-sized installations that used magnetic tape for memory and were programmed using holes mechanically punched in cardboard. PCs did not exist.
Most homes were without air conditioning.
American cooking (both home and restaurant) was mostly bland, unhealthy crap made from pre-packaged, industrially-produced ingredients. Only hippies and hicks ate fresh foods.
There was no effective treatment for depression.
Automobiles were oversized, poorly engineered, and inefficient.
Air, water, and soil pollution was far worse than it is today.
Type was set with clunky, photosetting machines, or by hand using lead slugs.
A calculator cost over $300, in the money of the time.
I could go on, but I won’t. A lot of things were better back then... but a lot were worse than today as well.
"When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country" G. Gordon Liddy
Liddy is only a few years older than I and his book really hit home with me. If you're in your thirties or forties you really ought to read it. You will be shocked.
When I was a kid, self-serve gas was unheard of. You pulled into a gas station and the personnel not only filled the tank but checked the oil and cleaned the windshield.
For I don’t know, twenty cents a gallon maybe.
There are many differences, good and bad, between the past and the present. Here are a few that should be considered:
What was bad in the past:
MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction, not the magazine, which was good, at least for a while). There was a continual, nagging fear that nuclear war could begin at any time.
Pollution was awful. SMOG was dangerous. Metallic lead was everywhere. Waterways were contaminated. Trash littered the highways.
Communism threatened to destroy the world. The Soviet Union defined evil and its sick philosophy ruled half the world. Its American proponents were clearly crazy, and utterly ruthless.
Middle America was incredibly boring. One of the reasons scouting and garage bands were so popular is because there was little else to do. The women’s movement started out of educated women living in agonizing boredom.
The first experiments in welfare statism began. LBJ’s Great Society did help to bust up some of the more grinding poverty in rural America, but it was a disaster in the urban areas.
The Vietnam War became intolerable because of the micromanagement of its conduct by politicians, a completely unfair military draft, the lying propaganda of the MSM, as well as the left-wing takeover of academia.
I might also add that the food back then was not particularly distinct, pleasant, or healthy. Health care was a lot more primitive. Most adults smoke and drank too much liquor. Entertainment for adults was the 3 network broadcast TV, theater movies, and bars.
Oh yes. Hippies STANK. It was a badge of honor for them to smell like a cesspit and be utterly filthy. At least the old hippies today know how to bathe every now and then.
Kids today need to be informed of their constitutional rights and be encouraged to fight for them in the future.