A deceased friend of mine used to raise his glass of wine and offer a toast:

"To the kings of old, who didn't have it this good."

It’s a slogan.

Does using a particular razor really make a man the best he can get?

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

By what metric are you measuring? If technology is the deciding factor, then every single day is "better" than every prior day. But, when you watch Andy Griffith, there sure is something appealing about that very simple life that is not bombarded by modern day things. I would also be willing to bet people had less stress, worry, and anxiety in the absence of the 24-hour news cycle.

Medical advances are great, but, they also brought us the opioid epidemic.

Are we measuring unity of the nation? I'd argue we have never been more unified as a people than we were after 9-11.

Greater? Well, I don't think it gets an "greater" than the Greatest Generation.

Tough question. Not sure there is a "right" answer.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Two years from today.

Maybe End of WWII? but even then life was pretty hard, and none of the technology of today.


I would go back to after WW2 without a doubt. That era was the greatest generation and I would rather be a part of that then with the people of today.


It was harder things were simpler, the exact reason why I would go. It's been my experience that the happiest people in the world are the ones who work hard but earn enough to have a home, food and can provide for their children's education. If you earn a lot more than that, people are less happy. In almost every way, I don't like the way society is progressing in general. We are getting more comfortable but less happy and our labour saving devices are just making us busier by wasting more time.

Guessing that blacks, gays, working women, and a whole host of non-white, non-Catholic people would *not* agree that post-WWII was a better time.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

September 10th ....pre-facebook, pre-Clinton investigation

Guessing that blacks, gays, working women, and a whole host of non-white, non-Catholic people would agree that post-WWII was a better time.


Today is better for all of them. It's also better in terms of medical advances, personal wealth and a whole host of things. However for me personally, and I was only writing from a personal perspective, I admire that generation and would have preferred to be a part of rebuilding things after the war years.

Sorry, I meant to say that today is, of course, better for all these groups. So "Make America Great Again" might only refer to two years ago.

That generation did throw all those working women, who manned the factories during the war, out on their aproned asses when the war was over. They did continue with Jim Crow laws in many parts of the US, too. They did participate in the McCarthy red scare period, too.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

No real men don't shave.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

Thanks I agree, and live that way.

I don't need to go back in time and have to deal with carburetors that always had to be adjusted, cars that actually advertised how much oil you had to add every 1000 miles. When was the last time when it was cold you got out and played with your engine to get it to start? When have you added oil to your car engine? And thats just some of the minor changes in cars that have made them easier to use.

I agree about the time suck of technology, and laugh at people who get all this stuff then complain about them breaking and spending time fixing them.

It is pretty easy to live a simple life in today's world and do so much more comfortably then you could in the 50's and 60's. But instead of forced into it now you get to choose.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

I use a trimmer. I guess I’m half real man.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

It's more than a slogan. I see it as a genuine belief that America circa the 1950's was peak America, in every sense. Social, economic, military, cuisine, geopolitical dominance, cuisine, music, sports, etc.

Is it easier holding Trump's balls in your mouth after you trim them?

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

A lot of people have genuine beliefs in slogans that really just meaningless bullshit...

Jesus is Lord

Allahu akbar

Hope and Change

Save the planet

MAGA

Bullshit

Bullshit

Bullshit

Bullshit

Bullshit

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

If there's a genuine belief behind it, it's not really meaningless, in my book. It maybe be absurd. But it has meaning.

The Trump slogan has genius to it. It reflects masculine primacy and looking to (something mythical) glorious past. Even the simple red background is genius.

It has real meaning for some.

I think it’s bullshit.

Because it’s bullshit.

And I wouldn’t go assigning a gender to it. It’s not like we’re selling razors here. :)

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I never cared for the MAGA slogan because it suggests America wasn't great during his campaign. The USA was great, is great, and will continue to be great without or without crazy uncle donnie.

Greatness is subjective. I wish it were a simpler time. I have fond memories of the mid 80s. No cell phone, no internet, no cable (for us). If you didn't like the news you tgrew the paper away and kept yourself largely insulated from the noise. Now it's almost unavoidable.

I'm sure a certain poster will call me an idiot. The kind of poster that for some reason thinks because you're behind your keyboard you can speak to people in a manner you wouldn't dream of in person.

It's a relative, rather than absolute, concept.
There's plenty of evidence that people like to be rich, but what they are really measuring, motivated by, made happy or discontent by is whether they are doing well compared to their peers, neighbours, annoying brother-in-law etc.

There is no doubt that Americans are, on average, richer than ever. Many other factors that my impact upon perceptions of 'greatness' are at, or near, historic highs. However in relative terms the USA is slipping. It has fallen to sometimes middling ranks in many indicators of quality of life, of personal freedoms, of quality of democracy, and even in global influence.

The apex, in relative terms, of US greatness was from the late 1950s to the start of the 70s. There's also a real sense in which US greatness "won" the cold war. That type of greatness is gone, receding further and never coming back. But the USA will remain a great country for the rest of our lives and beyond, and now is a great time to be alive.

This is a weird day. I’m in agreement with you, BarryP and FindingFrestyle, and in disagreement with JSA.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

It is pretty easy to live a simple life in today's world and do so much more comfortably then you could in the 50's and 60's. But instead of forced into it now you get to choose.


Your initial question is a good one and I've often thought about it. I like the idea of being in my early working years right after WW2. So many great people came out of that generation, including my parents. I know people always talk about the good old days and often thru rose colored glasses but when you read about or see in person some of the people who grew up then, it just seems they had more great people.


I don't think I've ever wanted to go further back than that though. I've never had a desire to go back to the Lincoln days of the mid 1850's for example, life was significantly harder. The late 40's and early 50's seemed to be the time where things started switching towards a more comfortable life. It seemed to me based on my parents that once they hit the mid-50's, they had a nice balance of being comfortable without having too much.

Depends on by what metric. I agree if we mean greatness in terms of economic or geopolitical dominance, gains in standard-of-living for most people.

But I still prefer now for a variety of reasons.

WTF is your fascination with razors... yeah i saw the video, hardly worth bringing it up every chance you get. It really seems your trying to out BK.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

Humor.

Recognize it or you’ll die alone and angry.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Why do you think the concept of MAGA is about a specific time. Maybe it is about taking the best of various times which may not be the same times for all people. Some people may have been better off in the 80, or 90's or 50's and 60's. Some things like family time might have been better in the 80's than today other things like medicine are probably better now. What's wrong with wanting to get to the best for all aspects of life for all people.

My problem with it, is the implication we are currently not Great. I would rather a POTUS has a vision for the future not just trying to get us back to the past.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

that’s the genius of the slogan. Each person can assign there own version of its meaning.

It’s the same with “hope and change”.

In both cases people were tired of the status quo (in many cases it’s THE SAME PEOPLE) and wanted something to Hope for, things to Change and to make America Great Again like it was when each individual person imagines it.

It’s not like “a chicken in every pot”. If you promise that and I don’t get my chicken I will never trust you again (this is why the wall is “important”, it was a specific promise).

But we can provide “hope” and we can provide “change” and we can make things “great again” without really doing anything other than make people feel like that is what’s happening.

Same coin, two sides.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

The post WWII era was great if you were a straight white male. It took a while for everyone else to join the party and there is still some progress to be made. We still could probably use more women and minority representation in government and upper management.

Or we can judge people by their actions and character and let the chips fall where they may.

I black woman can represent me just as well as a white man.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I'm going with when people could talk with each other, not at each other.
When people weren't offended by every little thing.
When pointing out a persons fault was honesty, and didn't make you the bad person.

And one more as a resident of Colorado: Anytime before pot was legalized.

In an ideal world yes. We still have some work ahead to reach that world.

Sadly we still live in a world where certain men think it's ok to grab em by the p*ssy.

If they want you to grab the pussy it is ok.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Just wondering why? Do you live in a big city, or suburb or in the sticks?

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

I live in a Denver Suburb. I hate the smell. And every where we go you smell it. Pretty sure the is a grow house in the neighborhood. Smells when ridding down the S Platte bike trail. Smelled it coming from a car leaving a restaurant yesterday. Smell it at the mall. People all over are smoking and they reak of pot. Like people used to from smoking. It's disgusting.

I was for legalization. And I think if people followed the law it might be OK. But they don't believe the law applies to them.

What’s interesting is that one of the claims (and I fully believed it myself) was that legalization wouldn’t increase use. At least anecdotally it certainly has. There are pot shortages (was NEVER a problem scoring an 1/8 when it was illegal) and it seems people are smoking weed everywhere.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I'm guessing there aren't many women who would want an old fat asshole with small hands touch them under any circumstances. They might allow it because of money or intimidation, but that doesn't mean they think it's ok.

I think it has empowered people. Removed the "shame". People used to do it in private. Now they feel that since it is legal, they can do it anywhere. Funny thing is in Colorado, it is illegal to smoke in public. But if you go downtown, you will see people openly smoking on the 16th street mall.