Eisenhower Conformity Intersecting with Kennedy Administration Hope - A Very Different Time

 The two hours and four minutes engrossed in "Downton Abbey: A New Era" lets us time-travel out of the current ugliness. 

The ethos in that Grantham ecosystem is social cohesion. That blurs the boundaries among socio-economic classes, generations, genders, occupations, and nations. How uplifting from this period of economic, political, and social extreme fragmentation. 

Then there are the old-fashioned values and behavior. It is against Mary's code to do what she wants - start a romance with the film director. So she dosen't and that's that. In addition, there are the good manners. Those include the lack of expletives. Right now the "F" word is mandatory to express a strong feeling. And all feelings are strong these days. Even if they are about the long line in a fast-food drive-thru.

I am a boomer who grew up amidst Eisenhower conformity and the wild optimism of the Kennedy Administration. It was a different time. We felt we knew the rules and each other. Also we had hope.

That's not my little world in 2022. And I might not live long enough to celebrate a return to what America had been about. But nostalgia or a hungering for the past is unattractive. It brands one as "old."

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

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