The Off Topic Topic

[The Brain]

Yeah I've never in my life heard of the 1970s being called an optimistic time - in particular in the UK.

Things could only get better.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I've never in my life heard of the 1970s being called an optimistic time - in particular in the UK.

Well punk and Joy Division were, in many ways, reflections of the optimistic pizzazz of the UK in the 70s

[The Brain]

Well, punk, you could watch your tone.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Young people, at least the ones I knew, were pretty optimistic back then. We were going to get rid of racism, sexism and homophobia. The basics of life were pretty cheap and freely available, though luxuries were few and far between. Of course I've never had much contact or understanding with the net-curtain twitchers in the suburbs, they hated it I guess 

[Syt]

When I think British 70s, I think Velvet Goldmine.

Well, and my English text books in school which were from the mid-70s and of which Velvet Goldmine reminded me a lot

[Jacob]

I was too young to have much of a view of 70s Britain except through retrospective pop-culture appreciation and political analysis. One thing, however will always stand out.

In grade 6, or maybe 7, we had a British originated English textbook from the early 70s. It had all the usual stuff. There was one reading comprehension passage written from the perspective of a young woman who really into some (fictional) rock and roll band. Her bedroom was plastered with their posters and all that, and she went to all their concerts hoping to be noticed and getting to go backstage with them. Rock and Roll musicians were simply the coolest. Near the end of the passage she reveals that she went to a local concert with a lesser, local band and did get to go backstage, and she did have sex with one of the guys in the band. It wasn't very satisfying and it meant much less to the guy than to her. Disappointing. Nonetheless, the passage concluded, it was probably disappointing because the guy "wasn't very famous." Surely sleeping with her idol from the big band would be much better, oh and how she hoped she'd get to do that. The end.

I don't think that would fly today, targetted at grade 6 or 7 students.

[The Brain]

Our books didn't include as much action.

[Jacob]

Our books didn't include as much action.

Ours typically didn't, which is why it stood out so much.

To be fair, the teacher didn't make us read the passage - I just came across it flipping through the book when bored one day.

[Barrister]

I remember reading a book in high school english called In Search of April Raintree.  In some ways it would be a perfect book for the modern culture - it was written by an aboriginal author, dealing with issues of racism and the effects of colonialism.  However because it also deals with rape and suicide I wonder if it would still be part of a high school curriculum, or if it would be tossed for being "triggering".

[Josquius]

However because it also deals with rape and suicide I wonder if it would still be part of a high school curriculum, or if it would be tossed for being "triggering".

Does this ever happen?

More likely that sort of thing would be protested by conservatives angry at it mentioning the existence of sex to children.

Yeah I've never in my life heard of the 1970s being called an optimistic time - in particular in the UK.

Things could only get better.

Is essence I think that's it.
Of course with the yom kippur war fallout and the collapse of b
Bretton Woods and all that the world economy was in a bit of a mess with the UK particularly exposed and hit hard.
Nonetheless unlike in the aftermath of 2008 there doesn't seem to have been the same sense of pessimism and doom and gloom out of it all. Stuff kept getting done. There was a big sense of excitement that the future was coming.
The reformation of the archaic local government system and creation of the metropolitan counties introduced a sense of vibrancy in the biggest cities of the land, massive investments were being made - in Tyne and wear we got the building of our metro at this time (would never happen these days) , and a major city centre indoor shopping centre (one of those debatable good ideas). It was also when air travel was picking up, the tech revolution was starting up, Britain was joining Europe....
It really did seem to be a period of optimism for the future despite the economic state which wasn't so obvious to the man on the street and was felt to be a temporary thing.

[Sheilbh]

I was too young to have much of a view of 70s Britain except through retrospective pop-culture appreciation and political analysis. One thing, however will always stand out.

In grade 6, or maybe 7, we had a British originated English textbook from the early 70s. It had all the usual stuff. There was one reading comprehension passage written from the perspective of a young woman who really into some (fictional) rock and roll band. Her bedroom was plastered with their posters and all that, and she went to all their concerts hoping to be noticed and getting to go backstage with them. Rock and Roll musicians were simply the coolest. Near the end of the passage she reveals that she went to a local concert with a lesser, local band and did get to go backstage, and she did have sex with one of the guys in the band. It wasn't very satisfying and it meant much less to the guy than to her. Disappointing. Nonetheless, the passage concluded, it was probably disappointing because the guy "wasn't very famous." Surely sleeping with her idol from the big band would be much better, oh and how she hoped she'd get to do that. The end.

I don't think that would fly today, targetted at grade 6 or 7 students.

That does sound like Britain in the 70s

[Syt]

I was too young to have much of a view of 70s Britain except through retrospective pop-culture appreciation and political analysis. One thing, however will always stand out.

In grade 6, or maybe 7, we had a British originated English textbook from the early 70s. It had all the usual stuff. There was one reading comprehension passage written from the perspective of a young woman who really into some (fictional) rock and roll band. Her bedroom was plastered with their posters and all that, and she went to all their concerts hoping to be noticed and getting to go backstage with them. Rock and Roll musicians were simply the coolest. Near the end of the passage she reveals that she went to a local concert with a lesser, local band and did get to go backstage, and she did have sex with one of the guys in the band. It wasn't very satisfying and it meant much less to the guy than to her. Disappointing. Nonetheless, the passage concluded, it was probably disappointing because the guy "wasn't very famous." Surely sleeping with her idol from the big band would be much better, oh and how she hoped she'd get to do that. The end.

I don't think that would fly today, targetted at grade 6 or 7 students.

We didn't have that, but we had "Oranges from Tangiers", about a drug smuggling operation. In grade 7 or so they also started introducing Pakistani characters.

[The Larch]

To me the true "optimistic UK" time was the Swinging London era, so mid-late 60s I'd say. British Invasion bands, Mini Coopers, pop fashion, mods, young Michael Caine movies, The (British) Avengers, early James Bond, and so on and so forth.

[Admiral Yi]

It's just the UK was really into looking like an industrial dystopia before our shift into post-industrial dystopia

[Sheilbh]

To me the true "optimistic UK" time was the Swinging London era, so mid-late 60s I'd say. British Invasion bands, Mini Coopers, pop fashion, mods, young Michael Caine movies, The (British) Avengers, early James Bond, and so on and so forth.

Yeah - I think the 60s (and then 1997-2003 cool Britannia) is basically optimistic, positive Britain. On a more prosaic level it's moving properly out of rationing and austerity from the 40s and 50s into a consumer society. It's also sort of the point when more or less everyone has the mass produced consumer goods like TVs and fridges and hoovers etc. But I think the 60s are sort of the centre of our nostalgia for older people and then cool Britannia for 40-somethings.

I feel like it's similar in France.

Then everything starts to spiral into the 70s.