Documentary Review: The 80s: The Decade That Made Us
~o~
The 80s: The Decade That Made Us is an amazing documentary. It's doesn't have the inspirational, 'feel good' vibe that The Sixties and Seventies documentaries have, but still, it's amazing. The '80s are such a caricature of itself that you find yourself giggling at it despite the excess, corruption, and regulated greed. The '80s really was the last decade of real distinction. If a movie, song, or photograph is from the 80s, you know it. There's no mistaking it. The 1990s and 21st century, on the other hand, can more easily be mistaken for other eras.
So many of the things that Millennials are dealing with today began in the 1980s. Wall Street, corporate pirates (Donald Trump!), hostile mergers that took away our power, all of it emerged in the '80s. The 1980's obsession with instant power resulted in the loss of career advancement, promotions, pension plans, healthcare benefits, privacy, freedom, and our right to the truth.
Corporate mergers in the 1980s increased 4,000%. So it is no wonder that all of the information we are receiving today is the same; there are fewer voices providing it to us. One thing that DID belong to the people in the 80s was the product consumption.
Customer was king, and customers made the rules. Don't mess with Coca Cola's formula, for example. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Did you know that it was intentional that the cellular phone was created in the form of a great big brick? I thought it was a tech issue but no, they wanted it as BIG as possible. Like everything else in the 80s, BIG was in fashion. The more people that could see you with your great big brick phone, the better! They even sold "fake" brick cell phones so you could pretend you had the same status symbol as the wealthy. This 'putting your cell phone in your purse discreetly' shit was not the point of the 80s. lolololol. WHO KNEW? ;)
The excess was remarkable. "Greed Is Good". It's the loudest part of the 80s. It's the fun part, in a sense, because it's the caricature. It's the fantasy. The creation of the valley girl, the yuppies, credit card debt, young people spending all their life savings, charity going global, it all began in the 80s. We also had our first reality show with televangelists, Jim & Tammy Baker and we had our heroes who untangled hypochondriac myths, like Ryan White.
The biggest difference between the 1980s and today was the desire for glamour and the good life. In the 80s, soap operas ruled our culture, both daytime and primetime. From Luke and Laura to JR Euing, soap operas were BIG. As in, 80s big. Soap opera glamour, mcmansions, diamonds, fashion, and big time success. These onscreen fantasies boosted real life desires and ambitions to excel far beyond our parent's dreams. (Which is exactly what entertainment is supposed to do.)
Today, entertainment is predominately focused on grim ugliness and the lowest lows of life. 21st century entertainment greatly effects our ambitions and our desires. There is now status in being low class and projecting yourself as having as little education as possible. Hence, my current rebellion is to have class and education. My iconoclastic spirit continues to thrive. ;)
The 1980s gave us was the ability to record our own movies for the first time in history. Suddenly, WE the people had the ability to record movies on an affordable camcorder, pop the tape into the VCR and watch it immediately. This was a significant change in power. Before, the film and music industries were the only ones who had the access and the ability to record. Now, the individuals had the power to record their own lives, thoughts, and experiences.
Today, we are reversing this power yet again, returning these freedoms to the giant corporations in exchange for fast and instant access. Facebook, Netflix Streaming, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Smartphones, etc. are all resuming control of our music, films, and even our family photos.
It's a simple exchange: the power to own in exchange for instant access. We are currently exchanging the power to own our own entertainment (DVDs, photos, CDs, movies & video clips) for the addiction of instant access that these corporations provide us.
Like in the '80s, voluntary addiction consumes our freedoms. It's the cautionary tale we are going to have to re-learn. Consequences for a future that we have made into our present.
We are living in a Gen X world. A 1980s world. A world that the Gen X generation created and currently, rules. Consumption rules us again, but this time, without the glamour.
~o~