remember 1989-90?

[Citizen James]

Yes, as a matter of fact I do.  It was my Sr. year of college (first degree).  I was more or less busy searching for work and dealing with senioritis to pay too much attention to world events at the time - so I checked the wiki year listings to see what rings a bell.

I remember all too well the problems with air safety (a plane lost part of it's roof and several passengers, plus the infamous terrorism on flight 103. 

The tien a mein square massacre is something I remember all too well.  It's somewhat sad how some of the posters here don't realize how ruthless China's regime is - murdering thousands of people in front of numerous reporters and cameras.   Sadly, economic systems are no guarentor of freedom.

The execution of Ceauşescu meant the fall of the last vestages of the iron curtain, and made for a heady optimism for that part of the world.

The Marcos trial captured a fair amount of public attention (anybody want some shoes...)

I remember the beginning of gulf war well.  My first reaction was - damn, there goes my chances at a real job (I was working McJobs at the time).  But there was a massive patriotism which rivals the early post-9/11 days in the air.  Even those who opposed the war went out of their way to be respectful of the troops.   Yellow ribbons were everywhere.  Several songs were associated with the war - from Lee Greenwood's hyperpatriotic "God bless the USA", to Vanessa Williams sentemental "get here" to the semi-protest "praying for time" by George Michael and "from a distance" from Bette Midler.

Bush was seriously considered absolutely unbeatable for reelection.  (Unfortunately, he ran such a lousy campaign he actually managed to convince voters such as myself not to vote for him in the waining days of the campaign).

So in short, that particualar timespan was a fairly heady time for me - with some economic concerns, and terrorism wasn't far from people's minds (nor the brutality of the PRC), but also a strong patriotism (In many ways stronger than the current cult of personallity that surrounds W, because the love was for the USA, not a specific party or politician).  There was a great optimism for the post-war world.

And the idea of danger - vs. the public's perception of danger, are two very different things.  Of course we can look at history with the benefit of hindsite and we know how things turned out.   WW2 was not considered a sure victory in 1942, no matter how much we waved the flag and encouraged optimism.

Probably the biggest difference it that in no other time of history that I am aware of has the government encouraged the people to be fearful.   Vigliant to be sure, hateful even, but not fearful.   And yet fear is very handy when you want to manipulate people.  That's probably the biggest difference in my opinion of the two Bushs - I believe that Bush Sr. honestly cared about the well being of America, I don't think W. cares about anything more than keeping power and the well being of his cronies - and that he sees the people as little more than sheep to be fleeced.

Times are always dangerous.  I think these times are more dangerous than some (the late post war 40's, or the 90's when we took preventing and dealing with terrorism seriously - as a task rather than a political gimmick), but less so than the cuban missile crisis of the 60's, the second world war, or (to make a major contrast) the black plague which killed off about a third of Europe.