Sometime around 1990 I was attending a community college in Illinois. Between classes, I’d go to the library and go through every issue of every magazine that seemed relevant. I was short of funds and the photocopier kinda stunk, so I was selective in what I copied. This strategy, sadly, has led to a few minor disappointments… in particular I distinctly recall seeing a painting depicting the interior of a Dyson sphere. But rather than a simple spherical ball, it was made from stacks of differently-sized ringworlds, forming sort of a sphere. I did not photocopy it at the time.
For reasons which seem good to me, a few weeks ago I decided that I *needed* to find that illustration. I felt certain that it was in “Futurist” magazine. So a few weeks ago I went to the USU library and looked through every issue of “Futurist” from the mid-1970’s to 1990. No luck. I went back again and looked through every issue of “Space World” magazine from the mid 70’s to the end of magazine in 1988. Again, no luck.
While I didn’t find what I was looking for, I did find some other stuff of interest. But what struck me the most was something I picked up in both magazines: the 1970’s were fundamentally very different from the 1980’s.
The magazines from the 80’s could pass for present-day magazines. Sure, the technologies presented are seriously out of date… but they are recognizable as early versions of what we have now. The fashions were different, but not *too* different. The graphic design of the magazines, as well as the paper and the color photos and other graphics, are more or less up to current standards.
But the 70’s issues…. ah, no. Just… no. Everything was different. Everything seemed alien. Even the tone was just plain *off.* The 70’s gave the world some ideas that are just plain ballsy, such as space colonies and solar power satellites; but the activism behind them was enthusiastic to a degree that smacks of desperation. And from what I can remember of the 70’s, “desperation” pretty much fits the bill. Everything was awful… the Arabs and oil, the Soviets and nukes, Nam, Nixon, terrorists blowing up planes and sporting events, Carter, polyester, perms, white people with fros, etc. People were, I think, resorting to excessive partying in order to avoid the reality. And thus… disco. Studio 54. Cocaine. KC and the Sunshine Band. Songs that, as a six-year-old, I thought were great tunes about the awesomeness of rockets… but really weren’t.
Whatever the cause, the 70’s were just *wrong.* The 80’s, in contrast, were the beginning of the current era. As evidence, I present this magazine ad I saw posted online earlier today. Take a guess what decade it’s from. Go on… guess.
It’s not just that the fashion shown is stuck in one very specific period, never to return again (with any luck). It’s the text. Holy carp, it’s just *bizarre.* This weird appeal to fake masculinity is something that faded out in the 80’s and has not returned, and now seems totally inconceivable.
If you want to see more mind-melting 70’s jumpsuits, here ya go.
Just… aaaaargh.
What turned the 70’s into the 80’s? Probably a vast number of things. But I do not discount Reagan. After the Sweater President, master of malaise, Reagan brought with him confident optimism. And that, coupled with the veto power, is damn near the *only* power the President Constitutionally really has that can fundamentally change a national economy. An economy is composed of a vast number of people; if they are on the whole depressed, the economy will suffer, and the people will be even more depressed. If the people can be cheered up, then the economy will improve. Even if the hard objective facts on the ground are *exactly* the same, you can get a fundamentally different economy and culture based on whether the President talks the economy up, as Reagan did with constant optimism, or talks it down, as Carter seemed to do.
And so when the tone out of Washington suddenly shifted, the culture suddenly shifted. And thus… no more jumpsuits.
But I’m still looking for that Dyson Sphere illustration. Sound familiar to anyone? Now I think it might’ve been in something like Science Digest or Omni… but who knows.