The 1980’s

Do you think it is true that the 1980’s are when the United States truly became an irreligious society?  I think that claim is tenable, even if I don’t want to make it emphatically.

Yes, you had the Religious Right, but that only existed because the solution split.  We separated into curds and whey.  You pick who is which.

If I might echo the Tao Te Ching, a Religious Right can only appear when religion is in decline.  Prior to the 1980’s, do you not think most Americans, even if they supported the legalization of abortion, opposed the procedure–that of killing an unborn and completely helpless infant–itself?

Somewhere in the 1980’s, the Left became so ascendant–the anti-Reagan propaganda was so effective–that it stopped being possible to have honest, open hearted, sincere dialogues.  It became difficult or impossible for genuinely good people to say things like “I don’t want women using coat hangars to abort unwanted babies, but I also think killing babies is wrong, and every possible means needs to be employed to prevent unwanted babies, and to deliver them to foster parents whenever possible”.

Adoption became solely a “right wing” argument.  Personal responsibility became almost solely a “right wing” argument.

All moral standards got soft.  They were attacked in the 60’s and 70’s and gave way in the 1980’s.  I think this is true.

I grew up in this period.  I came of age in this period.  I graduated high school in the mid-80’s.  And I am sitting here today, watching some videos, reading some stories, recollecting, and the sheer awfulness of that time–what I myself felt at that time, in any event, the confusion and Verworfenheit–is coming back.

This is all good.  I am processing things I have long put off.