Was Britain a better, happier place in the 70s?

[SenoraPostrophe]

I've just been reading this brilliant review from Saturday's Grauniad (it takes me a while to read it).
books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2189645,00.html

Briefly, the review is of a book which suggest that "more Britons today probably feel aggrieved for more of the time; but their feelings are much more difficult to mobilise into effective political protest ... Britain is now dominated by individualistic consumerism ... It has become so firmly entrenched that even those who complain about it are themselves individualistic consumers by the standards of 1975"

Now, we're so used to hearing about the winter of discontent (and that better, mythical time that was the 50s) and all that, that I found this very interesting.

It's true that British society today is more individualistic than in the past, and is probably more consumerist (though I'm not sure about that - think it may just be that stuff is cheaper). It is also true that there is little effective protest now, and that certainly isn't because we are all fat and happy. I am inclined to agree with the book that it might just be part of a general malaise attributable to the elevation of the entrepeneur to a mad prophet-like status.

what do you think? are we really happy now? if not, where are the protests?

oh go on. I'm fed up with child-rearing "method" debates.

I was a child in the 70s, and it's difficult to comment because childhood carries with it a cocoon from the real world.

I certainly believe that people are more individualistic. People sought and gave favours far more easily then. And children played out more ... they had far more freedom.

The biggest single factor in the prevention of the pursuit of happiness, in my opinion, is the rise of the motor car.

Closely followed by the parental belief that every child must have a university degree in order to lead a fulfilling life.

I could go on, and on.

I don't agree about the entrepeneur business. What was Victorian society built on, if not the entrepeneur? Easy, Guardianesqe scapegoat.

no idea as i am too young to remember it [smirk smirk]

Well I feel sorry for you! And all that smirking will give you wrinkles, you know

it was an inner smirk, so no wrinkles

.... yet!

I was too young to be "sentient" for lack of a better word, in the seventies, but there is one thing I have noticed, and that is the "lack of a cause" in todays youth. Have everybody started to not give a fuck?

I have so many causes I was passionate about when I was young. Heck, I even joined the "wheelchair support associating" with the ONLY agenda to hack up the cornerstones of pavements to make crossing the streets more accessible for wheelchair users, the "Old Norse Juule appreciation society", and that was in addition to the usual environmental groups the young at my time seemed to embrace.

Young people dont seem to protest any more. Are we disillusioned? Have we realized it is not working? Or do we really not care?

Desi, I agree with your point about freedom and playing out. I miss that on behalf of my kids. We would just roam around, it was safe to do so.

And no. I am not happy. But the world has become so complex I see no easy way to change it.

No internet in the 70s, so no, was not better.

Not sure about the 70s. There was a lot of cheesecloth about which can't be a good thing!

This is an interesting one, was watching a 70's programme the other night (nothing else on and wanted something on in the background whilst knitting) and they were moaning about the state of the NHS and how kids were out of control.
I do think that in some respects, the rosy glow of nostalgia makes things seem better than they were.
I was born in the early 70s and all I really remember about it, was that it was cold (no central heating), being creeped out by Freddie Mercury's boney face on that Bohemian Rhapsody video and the comforting presence of 'paint the whole world with a rainbow'. Oh and until I was 5, we shared a room with my parents because they could only afford a one bedroom (rented) flat.

there is little effective protest - please don't sigh - but i think this is truly becuase everyone considers themselves middle class, gone are the ideals and principles of mass injustice.

i think there is an over americanisation now that tere certainly wasn't in the 70's - with regards to consumerism and in particular with regards to advertising.

i also think that the mythical time that was the 50's applied only to TV MC america not to britain - but we must remember that the 70's came hot off the radical revolution which was the decade of the 60's. the economy in the 70's was certainly different where one could walk into a job and if you didn't like it - walk out and into another - the masses - the labour had the upper hand.

However there was always aspiration - not to be confused with commercialisation. Aspiration with regards to owning ones own home - but the diference being that the end to the means ( in Home ownership) was making sure no one could chuck you out - it was yours - you were safe. Whereas Today it seems to be for large amounts of money - which fits i witht he consumerism society.

I remember the sheer blinding awfulness of Sunday afternoons.

Sunday afternoons are still blindingly awful!

But in the early evening, we would listen to the Top 40 chart countdown on the radio.

Bohemian Rhapsody was No. 1 for most of my childhood!

Followed by Mull of Kintyre. Now that was crap.

You speak sense Custy, but when I was young (and gawd how i hate to use that phrase) all the youngsters I knew were politically active in youth groups of the major parties, be it Radical Reds, Labour party, Right wink, or to the right of right wing, everybody was involved, and were members of environmental groups. Now, of course, I dont know if it was like this in Britain, I grew up in Norway, but I am amazed it is not like that now.

Now men in suits battle for the environment, and scientists. I guess the young are too busy sitting on Bebo and the like to care much about the world around them.....

As for the original question? I think my parents were happier in the seventies than I am now. They had job satisfaction and job stability, security in home ownership, their own little timbershack in the forest for weekend retreats, enough money to get by. I think the most important factor was stability: secure jobs and secure homes = happy people.

No no no. Mull of Kintyre was marvellous. Sacrilege. You're thinking of Seasons in the Sun.

think people nolonger protest collectively; rather individually and express their malaise on a personal level eg seeking counselling, litigation. perhaps this is a social construct - agree with custard re: middle class collective conciousness, we are protected much more effectively by legeslation than ever before. and as a consequence people just cant be arsed. all huge generalisations of course. the rise of the 'have it now' enterpreneur worshipping thing is partly there as well. my cousin lives in california and is so loaded, been on the cover of time magazine, property developer of the year, so so successful. nice guy as well...but but he has never read a 'classic' book, knows nothing of art or arcitecture. his (undoubted) expertise is so shallow. and hes going to run for congress when he cashes in his company.
the seventies was dull with bad jumpers. btw

I think I should just leave this thread. I dont know if my experiences of childhood and musings over the seventies are cultural or not. I cannot relate to britain in the seventies at all. I only came here in the nineties.

But I used to love sunday afternoons. We always used to go out at the weekend. Foraging for fruit and berries in the mountains and forests, fishing to fill over freezers with cod, coalfish and herring and river salmon for the winter. Most likely cultural...

My god, my own sadness overwhelms me so tonight I shall go read The Devil and Ms Prym.

If you accepted that it was OK for white men to rule the world, you were probably happier. But women were still being legally paid lots less than men for doing the same jobs (the difference between the 'family wage' and 'pin money) and racial tensions were a problem as well as complete ignorance of other cultures among a lot of people.

OK I was a little kid so most of my life was just fine - Top Of The Pops, my Action Girl and Barbie dolls, playing with my mates etc 0 but there was a certain amont of 'girls can't/don't do that', and there were the power cuts and the 3-day week (which I didn;'t understand but which was scary, I think because my parents were worried).

But I think the generation born in the 70s were largely apathetic aswell. I am certainly one of few people in my school leaving year who didn't go to uni (sic) and I was the only one who was an active trade union member, In fact trade unions were populated by middle aged men. I was the only 19 year old female at most of the conferences I attended, back in the day.

I was born in the seventies and watched, listened and followed the example of those slightly older than me at school etc and was very concious of the need to change things, the environment was top of the list with the whole cfc thing raging. I agree though that I don't remember any of us being particularly 'into' politics, we just wanted to save things all the time, and vote green because they were green rather than get really stuck into what their policies were/are.
In fact i remember voting green merely to piss my dad off when I was 18.
Don't forget though we were grungy teenagers in the nineties, after watching you lot in the power dressing eighties lol

desiderata - it wasn't the guardian that blamed the rise of the entrepeneur for some of [what the book sees as] the deterioration of society, but the book, which is by Willie Whitelaw's authorised biographer (hardly guardianesque). The phrase used was " by the 70s Britain had developed an unhealthy preference for the arty and the cerebral over the vigorously entrepreneurial" and it's true that entrepeneurs are more revered now than they were in the 70s, both in the general sense and in the taxes (or lack thereof) that they pay.

the review also points out (and I agree) that the rigid class system and pathetic reverence of the upper classes of the early 20th century has been partially replaced by a pathetic reverence for rich people in general (and, I would add, pointless celebrities). at the same time, the government allows the gap between rich and poor to widen to victorian levels (yes, they did have lots of entrepeneurs didn't they? they also had slums, serious poverty and terrible inequality in health and life expectancy), with barely a murmer of protest. the rich pay a lower proportion of tax than they used to, and new city finance laws have fuelled the growth of the super rich at the expense of the ordinary.

custardo: I think more people are middle class now in the sense that they have middle class jobs or qualifications, but that's because of the decline of factories/mines/farming etc. the new inequalities are between the jobless and the employed, and between the people in normal jobs and the people earning silly money gambling with other people's livlihoods/homes. on the plus side: at least there's less snobbery than there used to be.

I don't have good memories of England in the 1970s - I had a privileged childhood by the standards of the times but I was still often cold, the food horrible, teachers at school were sadistic Old Maids...

I have much better memories of the 1980s, much of which I spent in other European countries, but also in the UK. Much more comfortable but also serious and hardworking. That was my favourite decade. All downhill since

Well that told me!