Were the American 50's the pinnacle of Western civilization?

Were the American 50's the pinnacle of Western civilization?

Our 50s were better.

No

Why not?

No, less than 40% of the population was given a lot at prosperity while the other ~60% (women, minorities, hillbillies etc) got nothing more than rudimentary skills, if that. I mean people were literally starving to death in many poor-as-fuck areas like Appalachia and rural areas, despite the image of the rest of the country doing so well. This image of wealth and peace was built on the subjugation of the other ~60%. And it led to two decades of social tumult starting in the 1960's, since it was built on extremely shaky foundations that people rightfully rose up against.

Also it was sort of a one time thing, since the prosperity experienced was only possible when we were producing literally 45% of the world's GDP despite being like 10% of the world's population, right after WWII. This in turn was only possible because we were the only developed nation that wasn't bombed back to the Stone Age, which itself was only possible because we're separated by two big oceans. Once other nations recovered, that wealth disparity was not possible.

Gilded age was better

Our 30s*

>I mean
>literally
>sort of
redditor detected

Weren't you a rural shithole in the 30s?

Your 30s my friend, home ownership all time high, unemployment 0%, free education, free healthcare. paid vacations, assistance in starting family etc..

it was the 90s, after the fall of the URSS, before 9/11, the Iraq war, and the rise of China.

The years of Clinton in which they fiscal superavits would be the best ones.
pop culture was also at a good level. the 90s before 1998 were the last time rock was the most popular genre (first with grunge, then with "alternative rock"). You had Seinfeld, and the cartoons were golden age Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Beavis & Butthead, Animaniacs, Fox X-Men, compare all that to what you have nowadays.

Those were the years of the USA seen as the only undisputed power, and champion of history (Fukuyama's the end of history was respected)
Much of it was ruined by W Bush. His tax cuts and the unnecesary invasion of Iraq created huge deficits for the USA.

LOLno. The 50s was a cultureless wasteland compared to periods like the Victorian/Edwardian era.

>I mean people were literally starving to death in many poor-as-fuck areas like Appalachia and rural areas, despite the image of the rest of the country doing so well.
This wasn't exclusive to the 50s you know.

Not an argument

Nah f4m, the Clinton era.

Ah, people did complain much about this at the time. During a 1961 Senate hearing to propose construction of a national art gallery in Washington DC, Hubert Humphrey remarked "I cannot believe how the American taxpayer objects to spending $30 million to construct a showpiece in our nation's capital, but they have absolutely no problem spending more than twice that much money on missiles and rockets which explode in the air or on the launching stand."

This guy knows what's up.

You do know that's a Youtube comment section copypaste?

Probably, but it wasn't because 50's people had the best moral values or anything like that. it had more to deal with the fact that the rest of the world's industry was bombed to shit with only American factories intact

not an argument

No, the 1920s were superior

>Probably, but it wasn't because 50's people had the best moral values or anything like that
There was a lot of unkind and not very nice stuff that was pushed under the rug, for example child and spousal abuse. Alcoholism was probably much worse since getting wasted was considered manly in those days instead of pathetic, also an entire generation of men had PTSD from WWII and Korea.

Militarism is your culture though, not art

no, I just made it on the go.

also, in the 90s we had our currency pegged to the dollar, and we had a huge crisis in 2001 because of how good the USA was doing with Clinton.
The dollar had become an extremely strong currency in the late 90s when the USA had superavits, and it had become very hard for us to export, we had a recession with deflation from 1998 to 2002.
We finally were forced to abandon the currency pegging and the argentine peso went from 1 peso = 1 dollar to 3 pesos = 1 dollar (it was an overshooting during a crisis, a 40% devaluation would have been enough).

If we had managed to resist a few more years (by the IMF giving us money in the same way Germany gives money to Greece) until the Iraq war when the dollar devaluated greatly, we would had been able to keep the currency pegged to the dollar to this day.

Why do people like you always view prosperity as a zero sum game of oppression? It's evident in the way you frame everything. The other 60% "got" nothing more than rudimentary skills. What entity was supposed to "give" them something? Losers always expect to be handed everything, and think that the success of other people is always unfair and gained through "subjugation". How the fuck was 60% of the country "subjugated" in the 1950s?

I know I've seen that pasta before.

not 60% of the population. But many american states had Apartheid style laws for blacks until the 60s.

Search about the Belle Époque.

Prior to WWII, no and actually Eisenhower was very much opposed to having a large, permanent standing army since he still very much believed in the Jeffersonian idea that those were a danger to democracy. He stubbornly resisted pressures for a large-scale military buildup to confront communism.

google it, you won't find it.
Unless you read me on Sup Forums before in some thread about Clinton in /his/, but it wouldnt have been the same text, just the same idea.

The postwar years admittedly were the last time Europe had a unique culture before Americanization took over in force.

I don't know about your social perspective but I'd take the modern technological age every time, the most powerful tool Western civilization has devised

I think with all the negative information modern media provides you guys are harking back to an age of simplicity

Yet we had various Ivory Tower elites in the 50s saying America couldn't beat communism, the Russians were organized, planned, and disciplined, but we were lazy and materialistic. A Life Magazine cover in 1957 showed a stern-looking Russian schoolboy studying a textbook next to a picture of an American teenager falling asleep in class. Hyman Rickover once complained that our school systems were slack and that the Swiss schools were the ideal we should copy. He also suggested abolishing summer vacation and instituting year-round schooling.

By tool I am obviously referring to radiofreqency communications, from to tele to the internet

Summer vacation should be abolished. Just give students a week off every 3 months.

Women are 50%, blacks are >10% = ~60%

It wasn't a fun time unless you were a white guy.

>and the cartoons were golden age Simpsons
UNA VELA

That generation was painfully insecure and eager to prove to snobbish Europeans that America was sophisticated, and the desire to show off was especially great after the years of deprivation in the Depression and WWII. Some people said "If we can only build atomic bombs and jet aircraft, but we have no culture to go along with it, are we any better than the Russians?" The Kennedys' glitzy redecoration of the White House came after complaints that the place under Truman and Eisenhower resembled a cheap Midwestern hotel. Jackie Kennedy was the first First Lady to dress like a European consort. She once harangued a bored Charles de Gaulle with her knowledge of French literature and De Gaulle appears to have had her number, for he remarked afterwards "She will end up on some tycoon's yacht."

People who want this were obviously never children themselves.

It was Kennedy and his crew who wanted to step things up into a great crusade against communism instead of Ike's policy of simply holding the line.

Now that blacks are kicking cops out of the hood, it is probably a worse time to be an African American.

Yet in the end, it was MTV and Pepsi that defeated communism.

Strange, I haven't heard of a single race riot happening since January 20 while when Obama was president, they seemed to happen on a weekly basis.