I have to agree with earlier comments by both sdgrrl and Zeitgeist– in ways, society has gotten both nicer and less polite. I guess I should put it, common courtesy, at least among whites, has waned while egalitarianism has greatly improved.
In my childhood in a white surburb in first half of the 60’s, there was indeed that civility. Teenagers always said “ma’am” and “sir” to adults, there was a dress code, and there was a place for everything (and everyone). It actually seemed rather stultifying in some ways. If you were a white male it was probably pretty nice, but as a white female child I realized pretty quick that a lot of doors were closed to me. I asked my parents at a pretty early age, “where are the women scientists?” and the only example they could come up with was Marie Curie. I can only imagine (I’ve heard stories) of what life was like for black and brown people of all origins at that time.
Then after 1965 things started opening up. In my school in the 2nd grade they allowed girls to wear pants for the first time, and suddenly I had full run of the playground equipment without having to worry about an embarassing “accidental revelation”. Dr. Leakey sicced his four women grad students on the four different great apes, and soon documentaries about Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey began to land on the TV. The Civil Rights Act was passed, the voting age lowered to 18, and many other changes that gave many more opportunities to those who had not had them before.
Speaking of “radicals”, in my childhood the following ideas were considered radical:
-women being able to apply to Yale and Harvard and be considered on their merits;
-women being allowed to run the Boston Marathon;
-a talented black tennis player;
-women and/or black newscasters;
-women and/or black judges, doctors, lawyers, scientists, veterinarians, Congresspeople, mayors, etc;
-girls’ sports covered in the newspapers at all, let alone with pictures;
-sports for girls beside cheerleading and tennis, period;
-and too many more to list here
For my growing-up years, it seemed like the doors opened just as I reached them. I would not have wanted to have been born even a year earlier than I was. Thank God for the feminists, civil rights activists, and all the others who forced those doors open.
At the same time, people also threw off some of the “chains” of politeness, and swear words, rudeness, and “acting out” became much more common. At first it seemed like a liberation from stultifying authoritarianism, but by now the flailing crass language about, overbearingness on the road, etc just seems needless and overdone to me.
The sexual revolution involved some badly-needed dialogue about family planning, compassionate sexual relations, rape, child molestation, etc… but also over-swung into heedless and careless promiscuity, the latter resulting in upswings in STDs, not to mention the spread of AIDS.
The ’80’s seemed to be a backlash, not just against the excesses, but also against the worthy gains of the 60’s and 70’s, with many propaganda efforts to push women back into the kitchen, etc. The ’90’s and ’00’s, thankfully, seem to have wrung most of the anti-egalitarian sentiment out of our culture.
Still, I did not believe that I would see so soon a solid female or solid black candidate for president, who had a credible chance of winning, let alone both at the same time. Even in 1990 Hillary would have been generally laughed off the playing field, as Geraldine Ferraro was in the ’80’s. So to see this election, and especially the primary, was absolutely brilliant to me. I had favored a different candidate, but still, watching the battle between Hillary and Obama was one of the sweetest times of my life, for what it meant– a woman and a black man competing, and being judged by, the content of their character.
