[Cid_Yama]

I found a site a while back called Pandora Radio. It allows you to create stations that eventually play just what you want through a thumbs-up, thumbs-down process.

One of my stations is early-mid '60's and it got me reminiscing.

In 1963 there were 3 million people on the planet. Less than half of the number now.

Life was much slower then. Back then they rolled up the sidewalks at 5 PM. Nothing was open overnight.

FM was not widely implemented and AM stations signed on at dawn and signed off at dusk.

There were 3 television stations where I lived and they were all signed off by 1 AM.

Dave Clark Five, the Beatles and the Beach Boys set the pace and defined a Generation.

It was a very innocent world. Kids fell in love with their high school sweethearts and got married. The wedding night was still a big deal.

People socialized, getting together to play cards on evenings with nothing much better to do. We read more.

The evening sky was filled with fireflies so numerous, kids had fun collecting jars full in the early darkness.

The drive-in and the beach were special outings we all looked forward to.

The future was infinite, clean and bright.

How different from today.

The world is dying. By the 1970's it was already noticibly browner.

That was when we started looking closely to see what was wrong. We knew pollution was a problem. LA was experiencing smog that was opaque purple and rolled up over the hills, blotting out everything.

Science Fiction speculated a world of the future where people lived in domed cities and the atmosphere outside was toxic.

Little did we know we could actually really make the planet uninhabitable. Man just wasn't that stupid or immoral, so we thought.

We had already passed the Clean Air Act and the Air Quality Act and President Carter was putting solar panels on the White House roof. An entire generation became ecologically conscious.

Unfortunately, the 80's brough a new generation, the Yuppies, who were interested in one thing, wealth and the things money could buy.

This was the first generation raised totally on television. Consumerism was poured into their heads right from the start. Commercials were targeted directly at them on Saturday mornings, urging them to drive their parents crazy about having to have the latest toy.

Practically no one realized the danger and insideousness of this device that had become the centerpiece in the American home.

Everyone every evening gathered around the conditioning box, watching TV families with all the luxuries they did not have, making it appear everyone had it but them, and creating an unsatiable hunger.

America went insane. Then spread it to the rest of the world.

The population was double that of 1963 in 2000. The ever increasing demand for consumer goods led mankind to totally ravage the planet, and now we have killed it.

It is too late, we are terminal. There is no way to reverse what we have done and the ecosphere is dying.

In Copenhagen, we were just told to expect a rise in global temperature of 4-6C. That is a lethal fever. A death sentence.

That puts us in the same climate as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a time when alligators swam in the Arctic Ocean. When all the moisture was transported to the poles and the rest of the planet became desert. A time when much of the life on the planet died.

There is no guarantee that the temperature rise will stop there.

So I grieve for the future we will never have, for the lives that could have been, but will never be. For all the suffering that is yet to come.

[ReverseEngineer]

So I grieve for the future we will never have, for the lives that could have been, but will never be. For all the suffering that is yet to come.

I remember the innocence also Cid. When I was a boy in NYC, I went summers to Camps in New Hampshire and Maine. The city already seemed so dirty, the Camp was fresh and clean. I observed through my life how the dirt expanded, the cleanliness receeded. The world has become a sewer of filth, few places are left now that have a semblance of cleanliness. I am fortunate to live on the Last Great Frontier, I can look out the window of my cabin on the Mountains and the Trees. If I lived long enough, this would probably be consumed also, but I don't think I will live that long, nor do I think the Oil Civilization will continue long enough to spoil this place. The House of Cards is coming down now, and there will be few left when all is said and done. I just hope some are left, and those who are will be good stewards of their planet. If not, we will pass into history as a species. So it goes.

Reverse Engineer

[Cloud9]

Me too, the Klan was burning crosses in the neigborhood. Kennedy nearly bout got us nuked. Vietnam was heating up. Good old days indeed.

[Uranian22]

I have nostalgia for the time when J.S. Bach walked 60 miles to study with Buxtehude, when gorgeous was the world in 1639 I just wanted to be a poet, happy, walking the soil. I became just another consumer, wasting time, but I did have my phase of wanting to save the world through some higher ideal. I pine for one last renaissance. I believe I might have heard some new Kate Bush music that was rather ethereal.

[Tanada]

Me too, the Klan was burning crosses in the neigborhood. Kennedy nearly bout got us nuked. Vietnam was heating up. Good old days indeed.

You forgot to mention that Smallpox was still a major concern and millions were dieing from it every decade, birth controll was very primative, life expectency was 15 years less, and the Youth had no respect for their Elders!

[Ludi]

That puts us in the same climate as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a time when alligators swam in the Arctic Ocean. When all the moisture was transported to the poles and the rest of the planet became desert. A time when much of the life on the planet died.

It's also when many of the modern mammals evolved, though in smaller forms. So life will go on, just possibly (probably) without Homo sapiens.

[mos6507]

The planet can take great care of itself if we leave it alone.

How do you propose we "leave it alone"?

[Ludi]

I just wanted to be a poet, happy, walking the soil. .

Who is stopping you?

[Cid_Yama]

the Klan was burning crosses in the neigborhood. Kennedy nearly bout got us nuked.

My reference was to climate changes and our use of the planet. I will address your statement though.

I was in Michigan at the time, but well aware of the conservative policies of the south. How they could call themselves "Christians" is beyond my comprehension. As you can see, Conservative ideology has been really screwed up for a very long time.

Far worse than cross burnings, there was a resergence in lynchings in response to the Civil Rights movement, with mobs 'coon hunting' and hanging them from the nearest tree.

If Kennedy had not intervened, there would have been a race war in the South. The atrocities against 'coloreds' had to end.

Also, If Kennedy had not done what he had done with regards to Cuba, the planet would now be a glowing pile of radioactive rubble.

Khrushchev was attempting to place intermediate range nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy stopped him.

Reagan on the other hand, taking a page from the Khrushchev playbook, placed intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe in 1981, placing the Soviets in a position of "use 'em or lose 'em". Thankfully they chose the latter, but it was a close thing. I was required to keep a 'bug out' bag in my vehicle and in my front closet and be prepared to be evacuated on a moments notice.

Obviously you are an idiot and did not live back then.

[Lore]

the Klan was burning crosses in the neigborhood. Kennedy nearly bout got us nuked.

Obviously you are an idiot and did not live back then.

Yes, this is rather apparent; where do these people come from?

[VMarcHart]

The future was infinite, clean and bright.

Homo colossus was still blind. Now Homo colossus is still blind of one eye and extremely myopic on the other eye.

[Munqi]

I wasnt even born then but i find it hard to believe that people were any better back then. Some things may have been better but people just had different flaws. For example, people these days may be more narsistic but we have never been more open minded. I think thats alot more important.

I can understand why the 60's look better now though - we still hadnt messed everything up back then.

[vision-master]

I wasnt even born then but i find it hard to believe that people were any better back then. Some things may have been better but people just had different flaws. For example, people these days may be more narsistic but we have never been more open minded. I think thats alot more important.

I can understand why the 60's look better now though - we still hadnt messed everything up back then.

The music sure was better, never to reach that level again. Too bad you missed the Summer of Love & Woodstock.

The cars were pretty neat too. That 429scj was a rocket.

Every kid had to have a 383 Road Runner or SS 396!