Liked the 90s better than the 00s and 10s. Though I admit TV has gotten better (and movies worse.) https://t.co/4ajDgjYt18
— Ian Welsh (@iwelsh) February 3, 2021
I’m not sure I liked the 90s better, but it was the last time of general, society-wide optimism about the future and what we could achieve together.
That was all crushed, annihilated by the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The uncontested rise of neoliberalism to complete dominance and the ascendance of the algorithm just torpedoed that. And also a major contributor of course was identity politics and its re-segregating absurdities.
It’s hard for me to explain to people too young to remember or not yet born how it felt in 1989 after the Berlin Wall fell and the possibility of a better world opened before us. Racism and sexism seemed in retreat. The economy was booming. People were living longer, better lives. Yes, there were still problems but it genuinely felt like we could and would solve them.
We squandered it all. We let the plutes and the worst of us extinguish that possibility and that hope. Now even liberals are safety-obsessed, content to hide away from the light like Morlocks, wanting to take away long-distance travel, decent food, and any chance of raising people up with more fulfilling, richer lives. Nowadays, even the liberals are perfectly content to tell us how we must be reduced and diminished for our own good.
When I woke up every day in 1993, I felt hope for the future. When I wake up now, I’m just surprised there is still a future to concern myself with.