Good Times or Bad Times??? What is it? (This Decade)
 

Is this Decade a good decade or bad decade? Overall. Somtimes I see a bleak future for us, than at times I see the best view of it. Sometimes I feel like I can't have fun because, so much shit is going on. And at times I feel like fuck it. Well Can someone tell me is it a good decade or bad decade?

Yr supposed to wait till yr 35 and nostalgic before you analize decades.

The 2000s are a '...meh' decade, on par with perhaps the Dark Ages. I can't think of anything particularly interesting that has happened- 8 years of Bush? iPods? Thats it.

Yeah, I sometimes see it that way. Nothing special has happened to this generation.

Bad times. It is always bad times. 155,000 people dying every single day!

"Defining events" and "generations" exist only at Barnes and Noble and VH1

it's the 80's all over again, only with less great music. and bush is unleashing apocolypse. yeah, grovy.

It's the '80s: repackaged, reloaded, and regurgitated.

Whose idea was it to start aggressively marketing nostalgia?

shweet, after the 80s is either the 70s or the 90s and im pretty happy with both :D

The fashion this era is better - girls are wearing dresses and shit. The thing people will look back and laugh at are the damn kids with the fringes in their eyes. It's gonna be seen just as silly as the 80s haircuts. The 90s was pretty plain for everything.

I know you're looking more at politics but I opted for a light-hearted perspective of this era we live in.

It's like everything's been done already. What are we supposed to do now?

Nothing?

Norma, people are just vomiting up old shitty '80s fashion now, though. And when they aren't, I don't really see any defining fashion... a lot of moronic looking "gangster" fashion, though... fucking idiots wearing it, too. And lots of atrociious sluts...

right?

It's like everything that's been done is begining to repeat itself. In fashion, movies, music, politics, yadda yadda.

Well not necessarly. I guess it depends where you live. Here the guys fashion has gone somewhat 80s mixed with 90s and a whole new 'emo' thing is upon us. But womens fashion isn't necessarly 80s. Womens fashion is more 50s, 60s, and even 70s here. I watch That 70s Show and the fashion seems normal nowadays compared to when it started on the air.

Exactly what i mean. People of our times are just using what has already been done. There is no definition these days, but there are also no boundaries.

I agree. But with that will come creation. It's just that time/era that society needs to reflect rather than create.

Wise insight. But what's next? I mean really, what is there yet to come? I mean, we are the age of technology, and that's one thing that I don't want to see more creation of. I'm tired with all these "new add-ons for your dog's cousin's ipod this Christmas!". Know what I mean?

it's the 80s again yeah, but there was no internet then, so the underground is stronger and more close-knit then it was then

but one thing about the internet is that there is no one voice, but a multitude, which is a double ended sword, no singular voice hinders many movements, everyone wants to go their own way and doesn't stand up for common causes enough

Is there even an underground now? It seems nothing is pure, and everything's so exploited. Maybe I'm just a drag..

yeah, it just doesn't seem like it cause the internet allows anybody to hear samples of music and video even

20 years ago it was tape trading and zines, so that type of underground is obsolete, underground is harder to define now

I do think we are repeating the same things all the other generations have been doing.

That's why I think everything has taken a back-step - because the technology we have today - people want to get back to the core of things - away from the technology. Well not everyone of course, but that's what you see with the current trends etc these days. But out of this, you have a continuation of what once was - you have bands rehashing sounds, but creating new songs out of that old sound. Some just plain mimick, but that's ok to, sometimes it's good and it's sometimes needed.

Where to next? I don't know. If I knew I'd do it and make a truck load haha.

not to oversimplify, but that has to do with postmodernism, the end of "master narratives", the defeat of communism, the splintering of the left into "issue politics"... you know: one is for the environment, another is for unions, these ones want universal health care, others want pay equality for women, others want gay rights, etc. etc., nobody wants the same thing: a pro-union persoon may not care about the environment, the one who wants pay equality may be for private health care, some people are for gay rights, others for human rights, others for reproductive rights, etc. not all these issues coincide for example, there is a growing environmentalism among religious fundamentalists these days-- it's not just new age hippies or science types. those religious people are also against abortion and a woman's reproductive rights-- how can they join a single party?

the other thing that the internet has brought is the way people work, buy and sell. and with that a growing sense of a) possibilities for independent enterprise (you can start a little company that in 20 years is a giant, and you don't need a huge startup capital to do it, like in the industiral era), b) a growing freedom in the way we work and organize our time, c) a grater sense of a global economy.

this is definitely not the 80's, though on the surface it may appear that way.. but in a different sense we are still living under various paradigms started in the 80s (the arrival of home computers, for example, and the splintering of ideological blocks).

what else... oh, my brain is full of alcohol... oww...

Naw, I'm with ya. Whole world's going brand-name, in alot of ways. Crass commercialism.

I need to wake up a little more before I even attempt a rant regarding this subject, as it'd be a doozy.

Fuck Starbucks, for one thing.

scuse me, srrr, but if you inhabited the united states of america circa 1992, you may know that around those times there was no place to get a decent cup of coffee in most cities and towns of this fine country, not to mention rest stops, gas stations and vending machines. starbucks capitalized on genXer fashions, and in doing so it brought a much needed service to the forlorn, ignorant masses who were accustomed to believe that folgers was the shit.

once upon a time, starbucks was somewhat of a hot place to work for people who would otherwise be flipping burgers to pay for college. they would hire hotties. and still today starbucks offers decent benefits to its workers, college scholarships, and a number of other benefits that other food service businesses would never offer. sure they are no saints and they may have many problems but there are very many worse jobs.

bless starbucks. i lets me make a stop in oklahoma city without having to consume dunkin donuts piss water.

being too successful is perhaps the greatest fault because that always invites suspicion, envy and ill will. however, they have made this country better by civilizing the coffee drinking masses. oh im not joking.

They look at me like I'm crazy when I ask for black coffee. FUCK Starbucks.

Folgers is the shit.

Dig the benefits, though. Didn't know all that.

However, there's something very wrong about there being more Starbucks in a given city than there are decent bars. DC's like that.

ha ha @ black coffee. try ordering "regular".

my favorite concoction, which is nothing but "regular" coffee, is an americano with 1/2 the water. then i add lotsa 1/2&1/2. yummy. and under $2.

folgers im afraid is a detestable beverage that requires shovels of sugar to make it palatable.

so you live in dc you mr. lucky bastard? i used to be a denizen of your town for many years, but moved out last year for health reasons (gentrifiers give me a bad rash.) went back this new year though and love it.

true, true about more starbucks than bars. but if corner bars is what you want, baltimore is a short drive/train ride away. plus there are crabs. of course alkies are never a good sight at 10 am, but what do i know.

you talking about regular bars? i used to hang out a lot at the fox & hound due to the low price of sierras. however my own neighborhood bar, the raven, was some kind of fucking tourist attraction that made it hell on thursdays. haven't been back.

anyway if you're looking for a nice bar try the temperance hall on georgia avenue & drink some shots of rye. oh sweet rye.

From an all-over perspective, this decade is a Bad Time. But, the Bad Times force people into making the Good Times. So, in the near future, if we all don't die of nuclear fallout or an asteroid or supervolcano, we will have a resurgance of activbism in many forms to turn this Shit Time into a High Time.

We'll just have to make the best out of this miserable decade.

Too right! I like your optimism.

As far as coffee goes, you guys in the states are in need of a few Tim Horton's! Great coffee, but some have complained of stomache pains, so i guess you can't win em all, right?

starbucks is shit to work for . not the shit ,but S H I T .

technology is a wonderful thing , somethign that could have us hanging out around stars if we wanted . but it seems to be used for all the wrong things . we put so much effort into advanting technology so that we can shoot up other countries, or at least make money off of them for similar reasons , while putting dvd players in monstrous metal beasts of minivans carrying litters of snotty unappreciative children . who decided that this is what we should do ? we have tools to take some steps forwards but we're using them to regress .

not to hurt canadian national pride but tim horton's coffee i had in 199...8? was nothing to write home about. maybe the've changed the recipe now so that they can compete with starbucks?


starbucks jobs are food service jobs and THEY ALL SUCK, but at least in starfucks you can get health benefits AS A PART TIMER. i know a number of people who used to work for starbucks and they were not unhappy-- better than shoveling shit or flipping burgers for sure. what entry level job doesn't suck anyway? do i hear mailroom clerk? do i hear office temp? do i hear dishwasher in a thai restaurant? no?

-- as for the technology bit, let us not get any illusions that technology was ever separate from our lives. fire is a technology. so is agriculture. if you guys think that life never chaged because of agriculture, or the fire, you are dreaming.

oh i can almost hear the ancient cavemen: "hey, that fire technology is making us weak-- i remember when we used to huddle up in the cold and people would freeze to death-- oh, those were the days!"

technology is inseparable from human nature.

Not all bad this decade. Mission of Burma reunited, that has to count for something. I think this decade is equivalent to the beginning of the last century. Basically, something REALLY GOOD is going to happen either in the 2010's or the 2020's