Stupidest modern decade.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

Averaging in all the things that make a decade memorable: art (serious & pop), politics, war, music, fashion, media (books, TV, movies, radio), spirituality, business/marketing, transportation, etc., which decade of the last century or so should forever be considered the stupidest, cheesiest, most embarrassing, what-the-hell-were-people-thinking one?

(Don't get too hung up on when the decades break, OK?)

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Any voters care to elaborate on their choices?

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Most of those decades were pretty darn stupid

Are you viewing them from a strictly American perspective, or a world perspective? At any rate, here is my summary:

1910s-- World War I starting because some archduke was assassinated, and even then the damn thing could have ended in a few months but the main players wanted to keep fighting, for honor and empire. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Not to mention wasp waists, corsets, child labor, extremely oppressive sexual mores and a host of other crap.

1920s-- Prohibition, the "business of America is business" decade, resurgence of the KKK in Indiana of all places, increasing anti-Oriental sentiment, Scopes "monkey trial", essentially the full-scale launch of the Age of Chemical Pollution

1930s-- Great Depression. Maybe not a "stupid" decade per se, but not one that most people would want to relive, I think.

1940s-- World War II-- Maybe not one of the "stupidest" decades, but the first five years, at least, sucked. The last 5 years were a mixed bag, with efforts being made to promote world peace (United Nations, Marshall Plan) but also the beginning of the Cold War.

1950s-- Korean War, McCarthyism, red-baiting, greezers and doo-wap. But national efforts were also being made to end Jim Crow laws

1960s-- Full-scale launch of civil rights movement, environmental movement, anti-war movement. Excitement about the Space Race. Great Society. By far the best decade for contemporary music. Decent television. Maybe America's Golden Age. On the super-sucky side-- the Vietnam War, assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, MLK.

1970s-- Sucky fashions, sucky TV, sucky music. The "Me" decade. Beginning of the end of America's downtown areas, urban sprawl gets into high gear. Arab oil embargoes. Munich Olympics. Inflation. Iranian hostage crisis. Pet rocks. Disco and KISS. Blah.

1980s-- The Reagan decade. With dumbass in charge, the foxes start their all-out raid on the henhouse. Rampant deregulation really starts to mess things up. 1987 stock market crisis. Dismantling of the Great Society. The dumbing-down of America gets into high gear. At least the Cold War winds down.

1990s-- The beginning of the end for Iraq. Body piercing and grunge music. NAFTA and welfare "reform". At least the economy wasn't too bad, and it was possible to make a decent return on savings. Perhaps the heyday of air travel.

2000s-- bu$h and Cheney. 9-11. Long-term wars and squandering of public monies. Constitution viewed as "just a goddam piece of paper". Blah.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. A lot of food for thought there. Nice summary.

[Skittles]

3. in my lifetime, certainly the 80's

more ridiculous than the 60's, 70's and 90's combined

reason, for Gidney - Reagan, idiocy and greed (made fashionable by Reagan) and big hair were the main culprits

[RandomThoughts]

4. 80s music, including some hair bands, is pretty good actually.

[Skittles]

5. who said anything about music?

[RandomThoughts]

9. Big hair was an 80s music thing.

When you said big hair, and 80s you were probably talking music, or so was my thought on it.

Some of the trends of big hair could have came from bands. Although it could have flowed from culture to big hair bands also.

[Skittles]

12. big hair was an 80's thing, period

I remember all the gals having what I called "rooster hair"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. I tend to agree.

And don't forget shoulder pads to go with the big hair.

[raccoon]

8. This one, the zeroes/the aughts. nt

[Bucky]

14. "The Nothings"

[Posteritatis]

10. Out-stupiding the First World War takes some effort. (nt)

[Old Troop]

11. I'd say the '10s were the stupidest. They started the wave that created

all the wars of the 20th century.

[Bucky]

13. Man, we thought the 70s were stupid while we were there. We didn't know what we had.

I guess the 60s seemed kind of hard to top. Now as I look back, I can see how the 60s were overdone and the 70s got the balance right.