As I enter the final quarter of my life this month, there’s a tendency to look back and evaluate just what a long, strange trip it’s been. Lately, I’ve been thinking about 1950, the year of my birth. Anyone traveling directly from then to the present would find a world so different as being akin to  another planet.

The year 1950 was the apex of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, where writers predicted fantastic visions of being able to order groceries from a home computer, self-driving cars, robots performing human tasks and landing men on the Moon. Overall, the tone was one of optimism in which it was assumed that war, poverty, crime and prejudice would all be eradicated by the far-off 21st century.

Needless to say, that didn’t happen, but the actual changes would be both encouraging and debilitating. On one hand, a black American president, the end of colonialism and astounding advances in medicine and technology. Characters seen on television and in the movies reflect the full spectrum of ethnicities and identities. Civilization is a more global entity with tens of millions lifted out of poverty. The divisiveness of traditional religions is giving way to a more universal spirituality.

Conversely, a sitting American president tried to overthrow our government, personal service is no longer provided by businesses (“Please stay on the line. Your call will be answered after you cut your throat in frustration …”) Social media and artificial intelligence are both a blessing and a danger. Kids no longer spend their time outdoors as a group, creating adventures and playing pickup games of football and softball without adult interference. And Russia is still an aggressor nation.

In reflecting the Fifties, “Happy Days” and “Grease” are nonsensical fluff. In reality, the Fonz would have been run out of town as a juvenile, delinquent and if Sandy Olsson showed up to school dressed as she was in the final scene of “Grease,” she’d be arrested for indecent exposure.

If you weren’t a straight white man, life during that decade was, by our standards, trying. Perusing old magazines from that era, the one thing you will notice is that people of color are largely absent from the advertisements. The only Black people to be seen are either a smiling aunt or uncle serving a bowl of rice or a Pullman porter schlepping luggage to a train. Hispanics are toothy, sombrero-wearing stereotypes and Asians wear kimonos and live in the “exotic” East.

One never sees a non-white couple buying a new Chevrolet, flying to a vacation on Pan-Am or sharing a Schlitz with friends. Women are housewives confined to the kitchen surrounded by shiny new appliances. Needless to say, gay and trans individuals don’t exist except in crime magazines where they are being arrested with black rectangles printed over their eyes. Environmental consciousness is nonexistent. Nine out of 10 doctors recommend a cigarette that will eventually kill you with lung cancer.

The theme of a decade rarely begins on the zero year. The Sixties truly arrived somewhere between Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 and the coming of the Beatles to America three months later. The 2000s began on 9/11. The Fifties were influenced by the previous pivotal years of 1948 and 1949. In 1948, the Berlin Airlift heralded the Cold War, the state of Israel and the resulting Palestinian exodus came into being, and South Africa instituted its policy of apartheid.

In 1949, the Soviet Union developed their atomic bomb while Mao took over China. Both of these world-shaking events brought about the terror and paranoia of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s witch hunt, which lives on today with right-wing Republicans dog-whistling “communist” at progressives who challenge their backward policies.

Are we better off today?

If anything, we seem to be pulling in several directions at once. People who were once overlooked have gained equal rights while others legislate to restrict them. Americans recycle, drive hybrid vehicles and use reusable shopping bags while the Earth continues to heat up. Advances in science walk hand in hand with conspiracy lunacy like QAnon.

Colonialism is gone, although democracy is in peril across the globe. A United States once united is in danger of dissolving into various warring tribes. Our government is more interested in partisan destruction than governing for the good of its citizens.

We are in the middle of a maelstrom where the end result is unknown. I believe the better impulses of humanity will prevail, but it might be by the skin of our teeth.

Daniel A. Brown lived in Franklin County for 44 years and is a frequent contributor to the Recorder. He lives in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa, and dog, Cody.

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