Reply #32: The 50s [View All]

[andym]

Cryingshame, I didn't see the movie "Quiz Show", but I grew up
shortly after this time, and was personally influenced
by the persistence of 50s culture in the early 60s.

The 1950s apparently were a time of great faith in people's inherent goodness, and yet at the same time there was a strong conformist attitude that allowed dark currents such as McCarthyism and legalized racism to flourish. Fortunately, to some extent these currents were neutralized in the 60s. It's very interesting that the General's New American Patriotism of promoting dissent, is essentially exactly counter to McCarthyism, and I doubt that it was accidental that he used the term "McCarthyism" metaphorically in the last debate.