Cal, I also agree that not only were people less greedy in 1975, they were more violent too!
There has been a weird move in recent times - people are less physically violent, but more emotionally violent. I have commented on that before, but I have to say that is the strangest and most troubling aspect of life today. Perhaps it's a rerun - I picture the crowds at the last brutal circuses at the fall of Rome as a collection of cruel wimps.
Randy
Randy,
I think in the past the violence was due to a different kind of oppression, a different culture, and a much different form of expressing anger. I feel that culturally we have become a rather large group of entitled whiners. I grew up on Long Island and a researcher discovered that people from Long Island whine five times more than the national average. Also Long Island is the largest concentration of single females in the country. I have a theory that because daughters like to remain close to their mothers, and because men like me left Long Island to leave unhappy whining people behind that this is why Long Island has become the highest concentration of single women.
Also know that the possibility of getting killed in Vietnam created a culture of nihilism. Me and my friends grew up knowing that we could be killed or maimed in a senseless war so we lived like we had no future. The songs from the Ramones in the early seventies summed up our lifestyle "I don't care" and "I wanna be sedated."
I had a friend who is now dead who beat the crap out of a Nassau County cop when he was perhaps 16 or 17. Tommy was getting roughed up by the cop, but Tommy threw the cop down and gave him a beating.
Twice before I was eighteen I had guns drawn on me, both times were NYPD. Once in a case of mistaken identity in the early 70's. I remember the song "Heartbreaker" from the Rolling Stones because when the cops surprised me, almost running me down, it would of been instinct to run, and I likely would of been shot just like in the song. It seems that the cops were hunting some other Asian because they left as quickly as they surprised me after warning me not to move quickly or they'll shoot. The only thing I imagine is that it was Tommy TXX from the next town. Even though I never met Tommy Txx, I knew of him because Asians were a novelty in our respective communities.
The second time the cops had there guns drawn I was in the line of fire was when a robber was standing behind me when I was working a cash register at a McDonald's in Queens. Luckily the robber had the gun laying on top of the box full of money when the cops stormed the McDonalds before there were SWAT Teams. When they yelled freeze no one listened and froze except me and the robber. If shots were fired I surely would have become ventilated. Also if the robber had the pistol in his hand I could of become a hostage.
Just earlier it was four men, two with pistols and two with rifles, and when one of the managers went after one of the robbers leaving shots were fired. Also the guy who stood behind me when the cops stormed in was the same guy who was pistol whipping the other manager because he would not open the safe.
After this robber was cuffed and was being monitored by a cop, I saw the manager who took the beating get his revenge. Hector jumped the counter and threw down his ass-sail-ent and began repeatedly kicking him in the head like a soccer ball on an open goal as the cop stood nearby watching. Eventually the cop spoke up and said, "That's enough," but the way the cop said it was like permission to give one more final kick to a handcuffed man laying on the floor.
Cal
