What Mad Men Gets Wrong The fifties, a decade of forgotten loyalty, honor, and patriotism

City Journal ^ | 10/29/08 | Harry Stein

[cold666pack]

This is a fantastic article about the many differences in America today, versus fifty years ago. It jumped out at me being a Mad men junkie, but there's so much more to it than that.

[mrsmel]

It IS a fantastic article, thank you. I have long felt there is much common sense in “staying together for the children” in many cases(obviously, not abusive ones). Sometimes people are in a mid-life crisis (our parents were working too hard to pay bills and raise families to have many of those) and will come out of it, sometimes it’s just the natural consequence of the “I want it all and I want it now” generation. There is MUCH to be said for the concept of just being together at the end, especially after years of shared living.

[oh8eleven]

I'm a leading edge Baby Boomer and one of the pictures I have is of a 3 or 4 year old me saluting the flag that's on the TV screen.
Today's kids watch TV and learn how greedy, evil Americans are destroying the planet.

[mrsmel]

Yep, they get ‘em young with the pictures of cute little furry mammals, and whales, birds, etc. It’s just a skip from there to “Mother Earth”, and then down the primrose path to all liberal ideologies. They don’t care spit about saving the planet, it’s a hook for socialist and globalist agendas. Some of the fruitcakes wind up worshipping “Gaia”, and call the Bible a “fairytale”?!

[Fu-fu2]

bump from another Mad Men junkie....

[tet68]

I gave up TV so don’t personally know what Madmen is about
other that it’s about Madison Ave and the lives of ad men
and sales.

But I would be interested in hearing what Zig Zigler
has to say about it. His scathing critic of “Death of
a Salesman” changed my whole perspective of what was and
is considered by liberals a great play. He said it set
sales back fifty years and took the salesman from being
one of the builders of America to scorn and ridicule.
He hated it.

So I’m wondering if this isn’t just another subtle attack
on those who made america what it is today.
I watch TV at my mom’s house when I go over to do repairs,
I am shocked at the propaganda sloganeering that I hear
slipped into what were and should be simple commercial
announcements. Case in point, a car commercial that ends
with the phrase “Change is Good!”, and the car company
GM, I’m just surprised Obama wasn’t in it himself.

[truthguy]

When did TV (Entertainment) ever get anything right?

For that matter half of what we saw in the News was wrong or distorted.

[VR-21]

I agree with the other posters that the article was very good. I never watched Mad Men for the very reason that I can’t stand the way the American left (i.e. Hollywood) portrays the 50’s. It may have had it’s problems with regard to racial equality, but the scumminess of subsequent decades (no thanks to Hollywood) would not measure up well against the 50’s in any honest comparison. It was a better America in most regards.

[yarddog]

The article touched on one of my pet peeves.

I can’t even begin to remember the number of times I have seen TV sitcoms of the 50’s mocked as stupid and how the characters are clueless idiots. They act as if the Mothers are Stepford wives and everyone lives in some type of fairytale world. Of course there are also the slurs about racism, sexism, etc.

The fact is those shows were far more realistic that what has been on for the last 30 or so years. In modern shows, the Husband/Father is always a complete moron, sometimes a likable buffoon or sometimes just a weakling.

“Leave it to Beaver” in fact was in many ways exactly like our family growing up. It also dealt with many problems such as alcoholism, divorce etc. They just didn’t beat you over the head with heavy handed propaganda.

The kids acted like real kids not some wise cracking know-it-all. Most of today’s TV kids are simply evil. Cute but in fact really mean.

[hinckley buzzard]

Having been born in 1946 and now having raised three kids, I can verify definitively that the nation was better then. On any significant social measure, the fifties were a time of relative stability, communal strength, and yes prosperity, which America will never see again.

[mrsmel]

I quit watching TV too, and the smart-aleck know-it-all kids and weak or moronic men were just part of the reason. I really came to see the truth of the “garbage in, garbage out” slogan. Almost all TV is garbage, it’s just not worth the bother to pick through it anymore.

And I’ve had the same thought about the TV families of the 50s-in my experience, they were closer to real life than any of the dysfunctional families (that includes the token dads in “regular” families) and smart-aleck or precocious kids I’ve ever seen in TV families since then.

[oh8eleven]

It may have had it’s problems with regard to racial equality,
Without a doubt. But take a look at "black america" today ... 12% of the population commits 70% of the crime; less than 40% graduate high school; 35% are on welfare and there's an 80% illegitimacy rate.
If you went back in time and quoted those numbers to MLK, he'd be convinced the KKK ran the entire country for 50 years.

[Nosterrex]

I have watched nearly all of the Mad Men episodes. I was born in 1950, so I lived through much of the era of the Mad Men. The people in Mad Men are far, far different than the adults that I knew. We lived in a typical middle class neighborhood and went to public school. I never knew of a single family that had experienced a divorce. I never remember a single girl in school that was pregnant. I never knew of a single homosexual boy or girl. I never remember anyone talking about abortion. I could ride my bicycle anywhere I wanted and never feared being kidnapped. We walked to school. Men were expected to provide for their families, and marriage was for life. My father and his friends fought in WW2 and Korea, and they were proud of their service.
Even though I like Man Men, it does not reflect my life in the 1950’ and 60’s. It is more fiction than reality.

[nkycincinnatikid]

mark for wife

[VR-21]

"If you went back in time and quoted those numbers to MLK, he'd be convinced the KKK ran the entire country for 50 years."

I agree. Black America sold it's soul.

[AreaMan]

As New York Times op-ed columnist Timothy Egan summed it up in his paean to Mad Men, the half-century from then to now has been a steady “march toward a more tolerant, equitable, less socially inauthentic society.”

Ahh one of the the holy trinities of idiotic leftists:

• Tolerance
• Equity
• Authenticity

  I mean who would argue against any of these things? The problem lies in what they mean by tolerance, equity and authenticity.

  In their world view it usually works out to mean tolerance = acceptance and not just acceptance but approval and equality, i.e. no moral judgments allowed.

  Equitable means not just fairness or equality of opportunity but equality of outcome. Think Harrison Bergeron or, "From each according to his ability to each according to his need"

  Authentic usually means shameless, flagrant, immodest, etc. Social mores are stifling chains that should be thrown off lest we be hypocrites....the horror.

[AreaMan]

Allowing Mad Men to represent the 50's - 60's is like allowing a movie about the Donner Party to represent 19'th century California.

[Ukiapah Heep]

The kids acted like real kids not some wise cracking know-it-all.

What about Eddie Haskell?

[cold666pack]

They also learn how America is not the greatest country in the world. That would be marginalizing every other deserving country in their eyes. They also learn there is no good religion, except the religion of environmentalism.

[cold666pack]

I think it is pretty authentic in many ways. It does not demean salesmen, but it does demean those that don’t sell a product. Don Draper sells ideas, much like Republicans like to fancy themselves the party of ideas. Don is respected amongst his peers, other ad men, for his skill at spin, but amongst everyone else, the fact that he’s an ad guy is not all that respectable, i think his respect could be comparable to that we extend ambulance chasers even.