Why Were Students Happier In The 1980s?

 

There is a general consensus that schoolkids were happier in the 1980s than they are today. Significantly so. Why were students (and people in general) happier in the 1980s?! Why were the rates of depression, mental illness, and suicidal thought so much lower than they are today?

For one thing, “educators” didn't teach kids to hate their own country and their own race, and that religion, save Islam, is a farce. Oh, and they didn't routinely try to have sex with them or convince them to switch out their genitalia. I’m guessing that might have had something to do with it. Combine that with the preposterous indoctrination that colleges and universities subject them to, and the embarrassing agenda-first (as well as last, and only) conduct of the mainstream fake news media, and you have a toxic mix that would make nearly anyone want to take advantage of medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID).

But wait, that’s not all! The more recent predominance of computers, cell phones, smart phones, social media, the internet-- and now Artificial Intelligence (AI)-- has vastly degraded peoples’ contentment, privacy, dignity, attention spans, self-esteem, and ability to be happily independent. In the ‘80s, kids still went outside to play…with other kids. Without multiple cameras and helicopter parents monitoring their every move. Today, most look into a screen to be electronically stimulated and amused, to the tune of many hours each and every day. Biking, exploring, and hide-and-seek have largely been replaced by sheltering in place and exploring the internet. To say that this has deleterious effects on children, and consequently the nation, is an understatement.

Today, many younger folks do not even wish to have children, because they have been told that climate change and other inevitable calamities will make doing so hard on them—and devastating to the planet.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan confidently strode forth and told us that it “was morning in America.” He told us that we could do anything we set our minds to do. “After all,” he said, “we are Americans.” It is no wonder that kids were more confident, folks were happier, and the music was more upbeat.

Despite being a very different personality, to put it mildly, President Trump has said essentially the same things. But the usual suspects have been joined by the rogue, run amok judiciary, as well as an ever-increasing number of utterly unhinged individuals, to try to sabotage Trump’s administration as they did his last one.

Ronald Reagan set the tone and the table for the Awesome Eighties. His work also paved the way for the prosperous Nineties. On more than one occasion he stated, appropriating the lyrics of a 1970s Canadian rock band’s song, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Well, we’ve seen a lot since then. Not much of it good. Canada has apparently decided to medically assist itself in dying, and much of the rest of the world has gone crazy.

We in the United States were granted a reprieve, given a rebirth with the election of Ronald Reagan and the onset of the eighties. And there are ties to today. Remember, our hostages, kept for 444 days of the Carter administration, were promptly released on the very day Reagan was inaugurated.

No wonder we were happy. It was morning in America. Conversely, during the Obama-Biden Era, it was mourning in America.

Let us hope that President Trump can somehow return us to those halcyon days, or an approximation thereof, despite the staggering array of evil aligned against him.