What was the social climate?

[Juiicy CoutuRe]

What was the social climate in the early 70s and what was causing much social unrest?

[NW Jack]

I see you are a Yank, so I assume that you are referring to the social climate in the USA. In 1970, the most divisive issue was whether or not to continue the war in Vietnam (1). In February, 1973 this issue was mostly resolved with the Paris Peace Accords (2), and the new front page issue quickly became Watergate (3). Nevertheless, what really divided Americans after Vietnam was the Abortion debate (4).

If anything, racial issues were more severe back then. There were 4 major race riots between 1970 and 1974 in the USA, but only 2 in the last 5 years (5). Interracial dating (6) and marriage was more difficult back then (6A).

The internet had not been invented, nobody had a computer, or a cell phone. Nearly all communication was done over rotary dial phones and by meeting up in person. If you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to a theater, or watch one on television. Your television probably had between 3 and 10 channels total depending on where you lived. So, your choices were limited.

You had to be very careful dating. Effective birth control was difficult to come by for minors, and it was not always safe to use (7). It accidental pregnancy happened, abortion was not legal until 1973 (8). There were dangerous illegal abortions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-induced_abortion
People went to prison for trying to protect women who determined they needed an abortion from such abuse. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...56,00.html

However, AIDS was unknown back then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_...hemisphere
Instead, the diseases used to by authorities to scare teens out of premarital sex were syphilis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis
and gonorrhea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonorrhea
It did have some effect, but probably not as much as AIDS does today.

@Love Big Words: "We all had a VCR"
Almost nobody could afford what passed for a VCR back then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Casse...ny_U-matic

"japanese cars were everywhere"
Not until later. The early 70s was the heyday of the Super Beatle, the Gremlin, and the P-into. Japanese cars were being sold in the US back then, but they were just begining to make respectable sales. They had small market shares compared to American and German makes. http://processtrends.com/images/chart_sm...hor_01.gif

"Some nit wit invented disco"
Along with Saturday Night Live (belonged to the 1980s), Jimmy Carter, and 3 Mile Island, that belonged to the late 70s, not the early 70s.

"Disco is a genre of music which was popular from the mid to late 1970s." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco
For early 70s pop music, think Elton John, The Who, Carley Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, and Jim Crocer.

[Love big words]

It started out with a war in southeast Asia in a country no one had ever heard of or ever wanted to protect. Mostly, we were pissing in the wind on that one.

We were tired of pot and wanted something more. So we moved to coke, but it was expensive.

Many of our musicians were dying and we got kind of sad about that.

We couldn't figure out how corruption and politics became so intertwined. Our President was a paranoid fool.

We went to the moon so many times we forgot how dangerous it was until Apollo 13 reminded us that in space, no one can hear you scream. We went a few more times just to prove we could, took a car up there to drive around and pick up a bunch more rocks and stuff and safely returned earth. The result of the whole thing was an orange drink called Tang which tasted like Sunny Delight with some fine sand mixed in it.

And everyone who was getting a good job back on Earth and then couldn't ever be fired was black. It was called Affirmative Action and it still sucks.

We all had a VCR but could not keep the clock set. And only a few understood how to set the timer to record a show at a later time. They were the geniuses.

The japanese cars were everywhere and we started liking them more and more but had to buy what they had and couldn't customize them.

Our clothes sucked but we had to wear something.

We bought microwaves and the first thing we made was either hot water or popcorn. Some thought it was radioactive so they ate cold food.

Some nit wit invented disco and it became a parody of itself. We did it, not liking it, but we needed to date so we could have promiscuity, or perhaps the idea of it.

Saturday Night Live was absolutely phenomenal, most of the time.

Everyone started turning gay not knowing a monkey virus called AIDS was about to kill them.

Later, we had probably the worst President ever in Jimmy Carter. His brother was a freaking total embarrassment.

We prayed the USSR wouldn't nuke us. And they, as it turned out, felt the same. The term thermonuclear war and intercontinental ballistic missile became mainstream.

We had our first little hiccup at a nuclear power plant called Three Mile Island. It was sobering.

Towards the end of the 70's our economy was really petering out, Iran took a bunch of Americans hostage but we all had a Farrah Faucet poster so we could imagine her naked. She had big hair and nice teeth. She was dumb as a post but a real trophy. We had Farrah and the stupid Soviets didn't, so there!

And then we elected Ronald Reagan and we started to believe in ourselves again.