“It seems there was a sort of naïveté, a willing suspension of natural skepticism.”
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I think the key to it was, Americans did not have the sick, jaded view that infests our society today. The “natural skepicism” was not so natural back then, at least it wasn’t front and center. These days if you aren’t worldly wise and cynical you are viewed as a polyanna, naive or unsophisticated.
In the things that matter, people of that era were every bit as sophisticated and worldly as we are today. They were just more positive, optimistic and quite frankly, civilized.
That’s my take looking down the retrospective gateway. Take it for what its worth, as I was born in 1958.
I was born in 1965, and I concur. Something bad happened to us as a nation somewhere along the way. I wish to God we could find out what it was and deal with it. The world of my childhood had its problems, but it was a fundamentally decent place. Watching America slowly crumbling into madness is horrible.
A teenager who has a broken heart will put on a show of toughness and cynicism to mask the pain. He or she will also make reckless decisions based upon emotion — decisions which can have unforeseen aftereffects that last for years. Sometimes these decisions result in disaster.
America is a country with a broken heart.