1972: The Year That Made 2018 Seem Sane

Reason ^ | June 23, 2018 | Brian Doherty

[untenured]

The early 1970s were a strange, chaotic, terrifying time. Exactly how strange, chaotic, and terrifying has been largely forgotten, to judge from how many Americans on both sides of the Donald Trump divide view our current tensions as unprecedentedly intense.

Journalist-historians Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis are not deliberately trying to deliver a message about historical perspective. But in their thrilling The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD, they show how bad things got in a nation truly troubled by vicious culture wars, wracked by violent ideological conflict, and ruled by a near-lunatic abusing his power to pursue personal and political grudges.

Timothy Leary was a Harvard professor–turned–psychedelic advocate, a leader of the "head" faction that was rebelling against the establishment. He had been a voice for personal liberation and for "dropping out" of a stultifying culture, not a politically motivated leftist revolutionary. The U.S. government helped change that.

The war on the troublemaking psychologist is in progress as the book's narrative begins in May 1970. Leary, who had received a maximum sentence of 10 years for being caught with two charred marijuana roaches, is being shipped to a minimum security prison in San Luis Obispo, California...

[mewzilla]

I remember 1972 quite well.

This ain’t ‘72.

That said, anyone else find it ironic that the Dem party has become the very thing it professes to hate.

[OttawaFreeper]

Connie Madigan played most of his years in the old WHL with Portland, but finally made the NHL as a 38 year old with the St. Louis Blues for about 20 games. NBC broadcast two of his games on February 25, 1973 (a Sunday afternoon 5-0 loss to Detroit at the Olympia) and on March 25, 1973 (another Sunday afternoon game this time at the Philadelphia Spectrum in which the Blues lost 5-2). He basically wrapped up his days as a player the following season in 1973-74 with stops in Portland and San Diego.

[CheneyClone]

According to his bio, doherty was 4 yo in 1972.
I graduated HS in 1972 and can attest that today is much more chaotic, and dangerous for that matter, with progressive leftists now dominating academia, media and entertainment industries. They have progressed from fringe to mainstream in 40 years.

God help us.

[Charles Martel]

Yeah, there was still tension in the air, but your car wouldn’t be vandalized for displaying a Nixon bumper sticker.

Hell, man, California was still a red state, and most of Hollywood was patriotic. And the homos were still in the closet!

Sheesh, Detroit was still building muscle cars, and the NFL was a respectable organization.

Yeah, America was a better place in ‘72.

That's a pretty good summary. Hollywood was probably not "patriotic" at that point, but at least they kept their Marxist inclinations hidden for the most part. Political correctness was not yet on the scene, being used as a heavy blanket to suffocate freedom of speech.

One other big difference compared to current day: 90% of the news was local, its spread was limited by the distribution network of the newspapers or broadcast range of the TV and radio transmitters. Having everyone knowing everybody else's business and looping the video of it 24/7 is a big part of why things are worse today.

[HandyDandy]

“Come Together” was on the Abbey Road album released in 1969.

Yes, that is also true, on top of what I said. Leary’s presidential run used the slogan “Come Together” and he asked Lennon to write a campaign song using the slogan.

[Windflier]

According to his bio, Doherty was 4 yo in 1972.

I figured as much. Guy doesn't know what the eff he's talking about. He's getting his data from second hand sources, because he was too young to grasp the real tenor of the time he's writing about.

It would be no different than me opining with authority on American culture, circa 1957. I was four years old, and only dimly remember it.

[Windflier]

Wow! You really were from California, weren't you?

Yep, but it was a far different California in 1972. Nixon got plenty of votes from Cali in that year - even from the 18 to 21 set.

The issue isn't so much, how I voted in 1972, but why I voted that way.

If my parents hadn't divorced five years earlier, and I had still been an Army brat, living on base, I probably would have voted the other way.

Like I said, young skulls full of mush.

[daler]

In '72 George McGovern had to drop his running mate because it was revealed that Thomas Eagleton at one time received electroshock therapy for his mental illness.

That was before most of the Democrat party evolved into NEEDING electroshock therapy for their mental illness.

[donna]

ruled by a near-lunatic abusing his power to pursue personal and political grudges.

This is simply not true. There was a burglary and Nixon didn't even know about it.

Hillary and her kind got out of college back then and have been destroying the USA ever since.

Voters thought Jimmy Carter was a good Christian man so they voted for him. Oops!

Reagan was our guy. Then voters thought the first Bush was going to be Reagan II. Instead Bush was the "new world order".

Then Bill Clinton ran as a good Christian southern boy (against Bob Dole) and voters wanted a good Christian.

Then the elites merged in DC and pushed the next Bush on the voters. New world order again.

The decline of the elites gave us Obama.

The decline started after Nixon and never really stopped - just a pause for Reagan.

[sparklite2]

That was about the year I moved my family to Canada for a while. Didn’t miss dealing with the oil crisis or Watergate in the least.

[sparklite2]

though the lefties spewed nothing but foul language,

---

Sometime between the early to late seventies, foul language migrated to young women. It took a long time for the shock to wear off of hearing girl-next-door types wielding the F word without a thought of the company they were in.

[higgmeister]

Connie Madigan played most of his years in the old WHL with Portland, but finally made the NHL as a 38 year old with the St. Louis Blues for about 20 games. NBC broadcast two of his games on February 25, 1973 (a Sunday afternoon 5-0 loss to Detroit at the Olympia) and on March 25, 1973 (another Sunday afternoon game this time at the Philadelphia Spectrum in which the Blues lost 5-2). He basically wrapped up his days as a player the following season in 1973-74 with stops in Portland and San Diego.

As I read this I was thinking that I have never been to a hockey game and in my 65 years never even missed it. I actually don't have a clue what a "Hat Trick" is.

[higgmeister]

Hollywood was probably not "patriotic" at that point, but at least they kept their Marxist inclinations hidden for the most part.

Chairman Mao's little red book was popular at colleges and universities. You remember the prominent student on the colonade or meeting tree, would read verses and interpret the message for the proletariat.