Joe Moody’s Web Adventures

The metallic 80’s morph into an earthier 90’s, remnants of the 70s like bell-bottoms, Earth Day and the Grateful Dead reemerge. This youthful interest was not seen as any final answer to life, but something different to try in the increasingly colorful wheel of life.

The young generation’s overall mood shifted from materialistic to apathetic: “Black hole sun, won’t you come,” grunged Soundgarden to the slacker nation.

Culture shifted to the cynical, from “Hands across America” to Beavis and Butthead: “Drums, guitar and Death. They finally got it right…huhhh huhh huh.”

When Douglas Copeland released the book “Generation X” in 1991, it branded the new generation. Generation X implied a void, nothing too special, spoiled by too much peace and economic prosperity, hyper-intellectual and utterly cynical.

There was no Viet Nam for Generation X, no Watergate. But we watched the freeing of the hostages to the relentless pursuit to win the Cold War.

For years since the mid-1960’s trust in government had eroded to all-time lows by 1980. This reversed for the first time in two decades as Generation X came of age during the Reagan 80s.

Then the 90s begin with a miracle: the iron curtain melts. Russians aren’t commies anymore, they’re Russians again, revealing a much more human, struggling and desperately attractive people we’d ever known.

The Russian’s were tired of waiting in bread lines, tired of wondering if the grass is greener in the Western World. We welcomed them with open arms and both superpowers agreed to dismantle more nukes.

And so our greatest adversary quietly evolved beyond their political manifesto, and seemingly looking toward us for guidance.

The peaceful end to the Cold War became a pivotal moment in understanding the coming brave new information society.

Meanwhile America’s weapons, gadgets and way of life evolved.