Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History End Of The Cold War Youth Culture 20220806

So something about the future is important and as ive been thinking about the last part of the 20th century the 1990s i think makes sense to really dig into in terms of how people thought about the future in culture in popular cultural as well as in politics. So the themes and overviews that i want to talk about in terms of this do a little bit of looking back looking forward and then theyre kind of going to be two halves of the lecture links to kind of politics and links to pop culture. So i want to talk about the end of the cold war and especially how it manifested and how americans thought about politics. Then i want to talk about pop culture and think about the the way the 90s thought about the future and thought about the present even in terms of like everything is great or everything is terrible. The future will be wonderful or the future is going to be awful. Um adding here that as with all of my lectures im not going for comp like comprehensive coverage. But especially asking people to think about change over time and then like how does idology how does Youth Culture how do systems of power change over time . So theres going to be i think asking you all to think about how the 90s were actually quite different than today, and ive got some examples that i think will be interesting. Oops in terms of looking forward looking back a reminder how were combining psychology in history. Its an interdisciplinary program, so im not going to be talking much about psychology. Thats my coteaching nathalies job, but thinking about how the disciplines have different orientations. And ive really been thinking a lot and were going to talk about this in the afternoon. We kind of stumbled last week on experiments. And how like history cant do experiments and like theres no reason theres like Historical Research is not grounded in the ability to ask people different questions about the experiences. They lived through in the moment. We can do it with oral history, but like contemporaneous documents. Cant be changed. So thats structuring a little bit of my thinking. Im not going to talk too much about that this morning, but definitely this afternoon. And then this is also a chance to return to things where we began really week one week two week three and fall quarter about National Identity because of how like developmental and adolescent psych is all about change is all about development. How modernity has kind of posited the nation state as as an individual as a person or as a family which we read all in the family and just yeah development and adolescents and Youth Culture. Okay questions about where we are everybody just making sense sound familiar. Okay. Okay, so i talked some on thursday about the collapse of the soviet union. And i remember someone and i forget who it was sort of like oh now i fully get how the idea of from generation disaster the reading we had how a Certain Group of people would have grown up in the aftermath of the end of the cold war with really triumphant kind of like yay america has done it sort of thinking. So we we thought some about like the the kind of National Narrative of triumph. I really also want to focus not only on the end of the cold war as a National Triumph but in a sort of like us versus them but really go into the ideology ideological triumph the idea that the promise of liberal western democracy and capitalism has triumphed internationally. So some of this is like these little post formal thought to Different Things at once were asking you to think about National Politics and ideology and then Youth Culture so its not like teenagers. Were gonna im gonna give some like geopolitical stuff. The teenagers wouldnt have been thinking much about but i think theres think theres something shared in the ethos. So were going real like nation state and national ideology. And particularly around capitalism and just elevating stuff that you all set in our seminar for week 7 um in week seven we were reading about Like International consumerism do people remember Like International consumerism. 12 yes. Yes. Yeah girl scouts that that Girl Scouts National International Reading and one thing that you all said in seminar was the idea that like capitalism never ends. That with consumer culture, especially like tech centered youth consumer culture and remember sony walkman 1980. Its like oh new stuff is always demonstrating the superiority of capitalism. Like as long as theres new stuff to consume capitalism is obviously dominant. And so like that is that was very much a shared idea. Um, and so that like the if collapse of the soviet union the fall of the berlin wall were seen geopolitically as like success the evil empire has been defeated. But then also a little bit of like everything is great. With not just Like National conflict but like our ideology about consumer capitalism has been has been triumphant. So just really like hitting 1989 follow the berlin wall vermeulen in generation disaster points 1989 as the like the starting point. Theres a whole section in the introduction to people remember that about like why 1989 is important. In 1989 like came up a lot in some of the stuff i was looking at as well. So the cultural dominance of capitalism here. Even like tended to span the political spectrum. In the United States so both folks on the right and folks on the left tended to in some ways. C capitalism has having been validated and so just like things that might have been coded as negative or were coded as negative like deindustrialization. Theres a client of factories. Um, were often framed or understood in a sort of like, oh the world is coming together. The world is technology is connecting us. The tech boom of the 1990s the real flourishing of Silicon Valley and the. Com bubble was not seen as a bubble. It was seen as like Oh Technology is causing unprecedented economic growth. So the 1990s saw like government surpluses booming economy, right . It turns out the wages were stagnant, but it seemed like wages were rising it seemed like, you know know technology was going to solve. Solve more or less every single problem um their work occurrence of opposition and this is an area where like thinking about change over time is possible like looking through the evergreen newspapers of the 1980s and 1990s. There were lots of examples of people being like not entirely on board with things or the system seemed seems fractured. But nothing in the 1990s happened in the same way that like in 2000 Seattle World Trade Organization protests. Of people are familiar with this that there were big riots against the meeting of the wto in seattle starbucks windows got smashed and then the National Media coverage of it was like, how did this happen . Why are people angry at starbucks . Where did this come from . So there are currents in the 90s that like exploded in the 2000s. But since 2000 i mean there was the 20082010 occupy movement the 2016 Bernie Sanders Campaign Just real centerings of critiques of capitalism. Across the political spectrum exists now that definitely didnt exist in the 1990s, nick. The 1990s that wages seem to be rising, but actually werent was that related to inflation. Um, i dont see it. Everyone was kind of like, oh look we fixed inflation. There isnt much of a problem. The idea. Was that even though economics would later see a like stagnant wage growth. Like the media was covering stories. I mean, i will say i was a college. No, i was a High School Student in the in the late 1990s and there was a time when burger king was offering 3,000 signing bonuses. Yeah. So there is this idea signing bonus for working at burger king. Some are 1998. Thats three grand for signing a contract saying ill work for you. Yes. Fast food jobs. I know it seems like im incredulous but im shocked. Well, this is actually there are things like this in our economy right now that like theres there a lot of entry level jobs that are offering big paychecks to begin and people are framing it as the great resignation. People are like leaving the job how many of you have like left a job and started a new one for better wages in the last. A couple of months right theres another matthew had a question. So at what what point again did this whole oh, what was it called . The clward trade World Trade Organization. Yeah trade organization protests started was it . In the late 90s or early 2000s. Thats one thing that i dont actually know about the like specific groups the protested they all existed before but there was like some meeting in the summer of 2000 that protests turned into, you know direct action of people smashing windows against globalization against the kind of sort of international you know unfettered capitalism. And this happened . Did just happen in seattle or did happen in . Other cities like across the Country International opposition, but it was the meeting was in seattle and so like the event was only in seattle and it was covered as if it was just seattle. And there was lots of like Media Coverage. That was like whats going on . Why are why are these kids breaking windows hannah . Shared memory of the cold war was like an ideological capitalism versus capitalism versus communism is that the reason that like the afterwards the triumph was also ideological even though that was like a reductive view. Yes, i think so. Youre asking like the idea that it was triumphant was ideological out of the war is yeah ideological between capitalism communists exactly exactly if there is a victory there has been a struggle one side has been defeated. Were going to look at some stuff that grounds this and like actual text but spencer. Yeah, i think i think i understand. Im just gonna i think im good. Im gonna chew its a lot of complex thinking. I think im just gonna chew the fat i think. Yeah. Well, well come back to it. Um okay, two two things to um, maybe three things to kind of ground this before then moving to the next just about like how there was a kind of across the political spectrum . The way that like the wto protests or the occupied movement were really like capitalism terrible and needs to be not just reformed but change that was really absent in the in the 1990s and i want to illustrate that in a couple of ways things that weve weve thought about so if you remember queer activism in the 1970s was very much about like a antidiscrimination in jobs and kind of like whole political inclusion, and there was lots of like we need to get more gay activists elected to political office. It was very very very very political 1980s 1990s the aids epidemic totally changed. Queer activism to be very much like people are dying. So the idea that like the system was rigged was a political one, but it was not a like intersectional radical like queer identity can lead to a different kind of capitalism which did exist in the 1970s and maybe kind of exists some on like tumblr today. So like queer activism. The Civil Rights Movement. I think this hannah this might answer your question. Remember how like radical of the critique of the Civil Rights Movement . In the long Civil Rights Movement framing was like march for jobs and freedoms. Not just i have a dream most activists felt that postvoting rights act 1967 1968 1969 that the movement had kind of failed in lots of substantive ways. The the Poor Peoples Campaign by Martin Luther king before his assassination and then after his assassination seen as like didnt accomplish a goals they kind of fell apart. So hardcore activists that had a like really intertwined critique of politics of economics. Felt that like the movement had fallen apart and the 70s were a time of great declension. Contrast that with the National Triumph, right . Like, how did Many Americans were kind of like hey. We solved the racism problem segregation is gone. And kind of full inclusion regardless of race is now not just possible but happening. So theres this real like oh weve triumphed if capitalism is triumphed then oh, the more radical critiques dont need to be listened to so theres a british jamaican theorist stuart hall. Have we talked about stuart hall . I feel like hes come up in some of our readings. Does lots of cultural critique sociologists and i dont know if wed put him in the post structuralist school. Um, he he has said that the 1970s 1980s then the 1990s. Globally, the left increasingly engaged in questions of identity inclusion. Instead of critiques of capitalism theres a certain kind of identity politics. That is all about like who is in the system whos not in the system not the system is rigged and needs to be overthrown or taken apart. So like who is involved who is not involved is a different question of like how just are our systems . This is making sense. That kind of tracking. On the right as well kind of american conservatives also to a certain extent felt that american capitalism was obviously dominant it was triumphant and there wasnt a lot of like we need to teach people how great capitalism is or there was like rahrah yay america, but the main strand in of like grassroots activism in the 1980s, and then it carried on to the 1990s. Its all about family values and morality. You remember the all in the Family Reading it starts with dan quayle Vice President under George Hw Bush saying like we now have to Center Family values. Evangelical christians formally entered politics in ways that like most evangelical christians throughout like throughout the United States had a very tenuous relationship with politics because thats the world of like caesar. Thats thats the world. That is not the sacred world. Thats the secular world. 1979 Jerry Falwell forms an Organization Called the moral majority lots of american evangelicals begin saying that like politics is an area for morality for encouraging family values. So its like not linked to the whole, you know, communism is bad, but theres a certain bit with like weve won now weve just got to like keep these kids from getting perverted and and becoming immoral. Okay, so it hannah does that help kind of make sense about the ideology . To kind of like the shared thing. So the most important or the the example that everyone points to as like the ideological expression of this idea is an essay by an economist Francis Fukuyama called the end of history have people heard of how many people have heard of the end of history in france of hands . Heard of end of history, but its one of those things where im honest like if you put a gun to matter like have you heard of the end of history paper by francis . Fukuyama, id be like ive heard of the end of history. I dont know who this person is or this essay. So like familiar, im gonna im gonna illustrate that in in a little bit. So fuguayama was a scholar. He wrote an article in publication called the National Interest a couple years later turned the article into a book. Lots of people look back on it and ive seen conversations about how like fukuyamas argument is more sophisticated than people think of it. And its going to seem the the outline of it might seem a little silly based on what happened next in the world. I think its important to think of it as like descriptive of how people thought as opposed to fukuyama saying this is how things are. Its more like this is this is the ethos right now. So the pull code i have here the triumph of the west of the western idea is evident. First of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to western liberalism. So follow the berlin wall. That summer its like the triumph of the west is evident, so ill even ill even call up and ill link this on canvas. So people can read it. In totality that this is like the very beginning of it like here it is on jstor the very beginning. In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so. It is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in World History. The past year has seen a flood of argument articles commemorating the end of the cold war and the fact that peace in quotes seems to be breaking out in many regions of the world. Its interesting. Its like so pieces in quotation marks because the idea that the cold war didnt have much conflict which we talked about how like how much conflict there was last week. Most of these analysis lack any larger conceptual framework for distinguishing between what is essential and what is contingent or accidental in World History and are predictably superficial. So here this paragraph. He does some of his definition like defining and kind of background and context and then heres the pull quote. The triumph of the west of the western idea is evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to western liberalism. So like with the fall of communism. There are no alternatives to western liberalism. Like this, is it hannah . Relationship between capitalism and western liberalism use of it in this their their their completely intertwined. So here here you see like this paragraph or this sentence, but the century that began full of selfconfidence in the ultimate triumph of western liberal democracy. So 1900. Selfconfidence that ultimately western liberal democracy would triumph over monarchy. He says and then totalitarian and absolutism. At its closed seems to be turning full circle to where it started not to an end of ideology or is a convergence between capitalism and socialism. But to an unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism. Economic and political liberalism. So fukuyama is defining that like, yeah, there is economic liberalism. Theres political liberalism, but all of these are wrapped up into one. Sure, and yeah chewing the fat yeah and not breaking my teeth. So basically im getting kind of a im reminded of this because they were basically kind of an attitude of almost like if you dont like if you arent like who are america capitalisms great. It feels like theres almost like a like confusing the part where its like oh, but like we won. What are you talking about . Like you like the idea of like like that line of oh, theres no like large systematic like thinking with basically in my mind. Im like, okay well like people exist outside of like america and like like people exist in the foothills of god knows where just living in existence thing. So like people exist and stuff. So basically, i i get the feeling its its very like like weve won weve done the good were prosperous blah blah and then create some comes up and theres kind of thing of like, oh like what like a dirty communist living in the in the hills just like theres a i dont know. Yeah, yeah or or what youre kind of suggesting its almost like what is the criticism like . Theres no need to respond to the criticism. Yeah, exactly. Like well, weve won what do you yeah, its its selfevident on the like so its evident. Its evident. Like boom we won and then the very next sentence in the past decade there have been unmistakable changes in the intellectual climate of the worlds two largest communist countries and the beginnings of significant reform movements in both. So its mainly soviet union slash russia and china. So like even the communist bastions are now embracing a kind of economic liberalism. So its not its its no longer even like an ideological conflict anymore nick i wasnt alive throughout most of the 90s, but imagine what would you feel like at this point in time experiencing world politics. Did you feel like there was an inevitable march towards western liberalism. I think youll see it. Well, thats why i want to turn to pop culture. Hannah was this shared by like minorities that were actively experiencing the like exploitative oppressive. Nature of capitalism was this shared by them or were they just invalidated by by this idea . That success had been met. Im going to let that question percolate. Im not going to answer that. I think well well see a little bit. Well well itll come up but i mean that that is a question about like who matters and ideological frameworks. And who doesnt so this i didnt i didnt copy all of it, but this whole journal fukuyamas was the first article and then there were massive responses from people who were really really prominent including the democratic senator Daniel Patrick moynihan. Who created the moynihan report we read some about the moynihan report in not straight not white. Pathologizing kind of queer blackness. So the moynihan report was all about like, why are black families falling apart . It must be something pathological about about the family. So there was like across the political spectrum response, but it really the kind of media cup popular in academic Media Coverage wasnt much listening. And theres a little bit of like how did the 2000s . Highlight exactly what you asked because the parameters like gay like white gay men and i guess lesbians too but like white gay men becoming like very capitalized like i remember when i was a kid. The gay material stuff was more like perverted isnt the word. Im looking for but you know, it was it was a spooky it wasnt like normalized. It was communism to to heteronormativity, whatever but like it feels like guy, i know theres a connection but like like other queer a lot of creeperable criticize because the white gaming because theres basically this thing of like you like were advertised to be like a mortgages and cars and stuff. Like if you read prime magazine, its like a straight suburbian kind of ad thing and like gay vacations and so it kind of feels like its kind of creation. I dont know. I mean, thats what i was trying to suggest about like where activism went. It went to hiv aids and then it went to Marriage Equality, especially when like the bush the Second Bush Administration in the 2000s began and and state governments began outlawing gay marriage and marriage became a real battleground and then the obergefell decision 2014 legalizing gay marriage. They were like npr reports where it was like this Gay Organization that had advocated for Marriage Equality forever whats it gonna do now . Its its like, oh were gonna disband. Because like it has been achieved so like full include so this is about like a certain kind of identitybased politics being all about inclusion inclusion as opposed to systematic critique. And associate with capitalism. Yes. Yes, because because capitalism is triumphant. Yeah. Yeah. Okay because capitalism triumph and why would there be any alternative is the mindset . Okay. I am chewing with that. Yes. Its like you have equal access to participate in capitalism. Yes. Okay. Yes full equal access to participate. So yeah, you can compete on anyones ground on any one terms. Yeah, matthew. So from what im understanding capitalism is like or like it was a gay marriage. Theyre just here that with gay marriage the legalized. The Gay Community is can engage in capitalism . Sort of it. Its more that like as opposed to like thoroughly connected critiques of all parts of a society that would marginalize and exclude people. Its not about like full like. A whole, you know a society that is wrapped up in excluding in marginalizing some people the critique of that falls away when you get included. So when you when you can have the two kids white picket fence golden retriever despite being a samesex couple. Can have your Television Set you can live in suburbia . Um, why would have a more . Interconnected critique, is that is that making sense . So online but wouldnt the the critique be considered invalid because if your group gains inclusion while others remain excluded then there still is not. Inclusion, even though you feel like youre on one side of it inclusion does not exist. Unless everyones included. Yes. And so this is a tension in a lot of and a lot of social movements and in a lot of yeah. Groups that advocate for equality is like is it about us or is it about everyone and so there are lots of things about you know, as as long as one person is none of us are free as long as one of us in chains. Thats a critique of that is directly interacting with. With that other more superficial critique yeah, and and so i want to i want to make clear that there were lots and lots of people and this is why things like the protest of the World Trade Organization pop up in 2000 because there are lots of people that are like no no. No, this isnt enough. The dominant ideology is not including the radical critique that we have more change has to happen. Are you . Curious what intersectionalism looked like at the time in relation to that then. Yes, i mean, this is all 1989 is someone needs to help me find when Patricia Hill collins all in the family was written. Whats the date of that . But it is after kimberly crenshaws article that we read. It is after bell hookss now, what was the name of the book we read from bell hooks. What was that . Feminist theory right . Its after that so like it the kamahi River Collective was in the 1970s. So there was lots of like widespread. Activists and intellectual critique of it. It just wasnt finding purchase in like mainstream politics. Like could like ivory tower like all these people theyre they only talk about intersectionalism like inactivating thing but like on the street man people arent or if its so weird talk about history about something that i was technically alive for half the decade thats been your question all along. Like, how do we do this . Yeah, its im doing it. Having like how social activism . They were able to go to school to prod. Published these pieces was the idea. Oh, like they can publish the piece so we dont really have to like do anything with it. Theres enough like progress achieved because they can at least do it but the critique wasnt like fully considered or or actualized until later. Does that make sense . Yeah, it does and i dont know how i dont know how often people articulated in that way. I dont know how often that was subconscious. Wed really have to the way to answer that question is to look into like how did mainstream organizations respond to critiques that they werent you know, actually radical. Thats where we would see that. Okay, i want to talk one more thing about two more things about the end of history, and then im going to come back to something thats really going to illustrate this so. The reason fukuyama describes it as the end of history. And this is the thing that like i think is the like whoa, this seems really superficial is his whats the term operational definition of history . That according to fukuyama history is a hegelian struggle, you know dialectical struggle between two opposing forces. The history is best understood as theyre always kind of two forces fighting and through all of the 20th century. Its been liberal democracy and liberal economics versus authoritarianism and communism. Theres been this struggle that and that has produced history in the conflict comes history. Two poles conflict generates history what happens when one of those is gone . Its the end of history. Theyre no longer is any history happening . Another im not certain im setting this up in the right timeline, but Thomas Friedman in a book oh, i know i have the name of it. Oh, its about its Something Like the olive tree tom friedman in the 1990s. He writes for the new york times. He wrote a book where he posited that no two countries that both had mcdonalds had other gone to war with each other. At the time he wrote it he was wrong the us had like invaded panama. Both of those had mcdonalds. But since the 1990s through the 1990s into the 2000s. Theres been more and more evidence of like oh. Liberal economics and liberal democracy doesnt mean that there wont be conflict. But at the time there was this like widespread shared idea that there was so i want to talk about the legacy and then i want to move on to the the response of the left. To just really kind of so i and this is going to to spend such thing about ive heard of it, but i dont have if you had a gun to my head. So i just was like, where is the end of history in the Evergreen Library catalog . I was just legitimately looking for the book to see if we had an ebook of it. But then i was like this is really fascinating. So just pay some attention to the topics that people use 4 can focus see it can folks see the book titles. So this is the book 1992. That fociyama turned the article into the end of history in the last man. But then date 2000 the curious fate of american materialism to folks remember dairy dah from mohammed had bin laden realization for this homicide bomber phenomenon operation theology after the shape of the signifier 1967 to the end of history, so like we spent so much time on postmodernism. American fiction in the 1990s after the end and then i just thought this was like oh this is kind of our program, right . The marketplace utopia and the fragmentation of intellectual life. Its just really getting back to these ideas of utopias. Is this connecting with people . Like this is american utopian. Thinking history is is over solved off conflict. Yeah. Part of the probably what would happen i guess my question is like what is after histories . I think thats what like people in the 90s were grappling with. Okay. So anyway the legacy i thought was really interesting. And then this is trying to really nail home the the way that the like mainstream american political left was kind of put in a vice. By the end of the cold war. Oh, sorry, matthew. Yeah, just real quickly. What was of the full name of of fukuyamas book the end of history and the last man thank you. Which also like i mean . We could take 15 minutes. Just talking about that, right . The last man, why is it just a man . Why is it not last human . What about gender is in there . Why does there have to be a last man . How look i mean, im so used to seeing last man and like academic or historic things just to mean people like all men are created equal that it honestly didnt and this is technically 20th century. It did not occur to me that man would be a gendered option. I was like, oh old timey english. Yes. Yes, but then also how the article has a question mark in the book doesnt people are returning to fukuyamas. Book ive seen conversations about how theres theres a lot smart in it it but you know, it really is a it was understood the time as yay, weve won now what but theres going to be no conflict. Eventually the worlds going to come at peace. Very utopian thinking about where things are going. At the same time. Its like utopian about where things are going. This is an article and i was just browsing through the journal the so this you know National Interest, so this is National Interest same issue couple pages later and i do not know who. Alan tunnelson is i did not look him up. Um, but he writes this manifesto for democrats. The cold war. What should democrats do . And the answer is a complete overhaul in their Foreign Policy thing and the he goes up here and he talks about party has lost the white house in five of its last six tries that Michael Dukakis is 10 state hall was an encouraging showing the Democratic Party needs all the help it can get so what should they do . Abandoned internationalism abandon the no longer affordable strategy of grounding American Security and prosperity and a congenial world environment. Instead the party needs an approach that emphasizes the restoration of military and economic strength that is more discriminating about Foreign Policy commitments and more willing to use force unilateral to secure important interests. That advocates tougher trade policies seeks greater selfsufficiency a new nationalism so like in the same time where its like weve won what needs to happen what should the left do . Get tougher and so yeah, i link it there. This is a time to talk just a little bit briefly about bill clinton. And bill clintons utopian thinking so bill clinton in 1992. His Campaign Song was fleetwoods max. Dont stop thinking about tomorrow. Yesterdays gone yesterdays gone dont start thinking about tomorrow like bill clinton was this like really charismatic figure that was very much like the future is bright. He came from a town called hope, arkansas. So he was the boy from hope literally the boy from hope. Like the future is bright and in all of his state of the unions, he always which were always very long. He always would discuss like what new technological achievements are happening. You know, what are the break the tech breakthroughs that are going to make our life and our society better. His policy he and many people like him dubbed himself third way democrats. That in this maps onto the old end of history framework too that the Democratic Party had been the party of like the left and critiques of capitalism supposedly, but just the this real like that there were only two sides of the culture wars. They were only two signs of the economic wars the party of of johnson and the Great Society was no longer viable. So the third way needed to be found. Which is like we need to reform some of these systems and we need to do things like welfare reform. There are too many people on welfare, and were too soft on crime there need to be crime bills increased mandatory sentencing requirements three strikes in youre out. So it was the Democratic Party in the 1990s that actually got quote unquote tougher on a lot of issues. So i think this is like i hope is this connecting right . Its like oh the idea that the system is rigged and needs to be overthrown which you know existed in some circles is not what the main Political Parties were saying. Yeah online is that just because that line of thinking is absent of the perspectives of the people still experiencing a very dichotomous worldview that being like the preston the oppressors so they still think theres conflict. They still think that there are things to be done. They dont think there is a triumph. So is that view just absent that perspective . It it is it is somewhat absent at perspective. Then theyre also a sort of like. Yes, theyre still oppression. Yes, theyre still marginalization. What prescriptions do we have . The drug of communism has poisoned as i get thats a badge that thats not the prescription there needs to be more liberal like the the exclusion the oppression is not because the system is terrible but like people arent being included in the right way. So i mean one of the reasons for for crime bills and many of the like legislative architects of them. Its like well the black community is being decimated by crime. The crime is killing lots and lots of africanamerican folks and there were a lot of black legislators who like supported and wrote the legislation because of what it did to communities. So as opposed to being like oh, mass incarceration is leading to violence. It was like we need mass incarceration to protect communities. System so like oh if the individuals just are not on welfare or or not committing crime instead of like poverty has put people in positions where they need to commit crime focus off of poverty focus on to peoples response to poverty. So like is this a shift to individual versus like systemic in the 70s and things i i think think somewhat but the real way to answer that is actually to like, okay. So what were people on the left side . What were these debit like to go to the literature to be like what actually because i could see systematic critiques. That it would have existed in the 1990s that dont look like Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016. That just have a have a different flavor to kind of like overarching that could be very systems thinking. That would blame systems. Would not say the answer is socialism. Because socialism has been disproven. Of what other answers might there be is that a little clear . I just wanted to like what is the key difference between the neoliberalism of the 90s and the know the physical conservatism of the 80s and also why is it that the gop continually acts like it is a party of Bernie Sanders ways the the party of bill clinton . Um, hmm. I dont think i can the second one. In terms of the difference between the so this is why it was third way, so democrat the knee like the economic neoliberalism of the 1990s. Would reject some of the like some of reagans policies of the 1980s. Im struggling to think of specific examples. They would they would say things like to prevent outsourcing they would say like outsourcing is bad in american corporations shouldnt be encouraged to outsource. We should have tax incentives to keep jobs at home and we should also make sure that we invest in Tech Training to really support the workers that are being suffered from it. So its like heres a systematic answer to a problem that is caused by the capitalist system. So they would have a critique of it. Whereas i think the right would. Have less of that critique and the right answer was often like people need to buy american cars like gm wont be shipping cars overseas if people were just buying american cars. No crazy. This may be somewhat disconnected but im really curious how like y2k professor into this and like whether thats a dystopian ideology whether thats like more connected to like preventative measures yeah, things like that. I have y2k on a slide in like three slides. And this is for this this is i think the good a Good Opportunity to change from so so to go from the end of cold war the supposed end of history. So one quote, so this is from the bottom of the first page of end of history. But ill show it on the slide instead. For how fukuyama and folks like him then link this to culture as well. So in fact that what fukuyama is saying is this phenomenon being the triumph of liberal economics and liberal politics this triumph this phenomenon. Exist beyond high politics i can also be seen in the inlecuable which means kind of inevitable going everywhere not able to be stopped spread of consumerist western culture in such diverse context and this gets dispensers thing about what about well, peasants markets. Color Television Sets now omnipresent throughout china. Cooperative restaurants and Clothing Stores opened last year in moscow the beethoven piped into Japanese Department stores and the rock music enjoyed a like in prague rangoon and tehran. So rock music american pop culture i do remember lots of things about blue jeans. And people in the soviet block not having access to blue jeans and blue jeans being a sign of freedom on the march and in fact a french social philosopher regime dobre says there was more power in blue jeans and rock and roll than the entire red army. I had a history teacher in the high school. Who was a do it. But the people on the flight that of serve you yes, dude is and you know back in the day and going russia and her on the flight would pack. Jam everything they could with blue jeans because once they got the mosca, they gotta play and just make hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars per pair of blue jeans. No she was yeah. She was like, oh no they with their blue jeans. Its a symbol of freedom. So i think its interesting to think about or transition to okay, but what was rock . After the triumph um, and so this is setting up the 90s as like optimistic or pessimistic so like brief detour to our own home. A reminder that nirvana practiced right there. Theres a clip on youtube of nirvana from the Evergreen State College Television Studio like right there playing. Kurt cobain grew up in aberdeen. He did not attend evergreen. He had lots of friends who did one of his friends was one of the founders of the riot Girl Movement folks know about riot girl music in the 90s. I mean, hopefully this is like deeply ingrained in your blood as like even if you hate it like this is where were three artists with three r three rs that sounds less familiar, but so Kathleen Hannah was a friend of kurt cobain. She graduated evergreen. She wrote on one of his walls at one point that kurt smells like teen spirit. She meant the deodorant. Apparently kurt cobain claims that he didnt know what the dieter was and he thought it was linked to the kinds of conversations. They had about anarchism the kinds of conversations they had about social inequality and about the decadence and oppressiveness of American Consumer culture. So its also really interesting to think about like rock and roll is like ah American Freedom and then rock and rollers are like this freedom has me feeling left out matthew. Is that where . Kurt cobain got the the title of just smells like teen spirit. Yes, it was written on his door or on his apartment door by an evergreen grad. So i just like so he turned that into the lyrics of a song that they were jamming about and so this is ill show briefly that i got lots of different. Articles from the cooper point journal from the 1990s, which theres this whole thing about like the new Strategic Plan for evergreen which then in this issue, theres lots of discussion. Well one discussion of evergreen or alien abductees. Heres so bruce smith. Thats he had 34 offspring with that alien that he drew. Maybe maybe one of those offspring is now a student here. I did think that there was lots of this critique of evergreen Strategic Plan. I found really interesting because of how like relevant it seems today that like the assumption that just cooperative teaching will spread cultural sensitivity and knowledge can be exploitative people of color. Sometimes get tired of always being the teachers once again victims are made to be responsible for solving the problems caused by the dominant culture. I mean, this is like intersectional theory like lived in critique, you know in critiques of evergreens model then anyway, lots of lots of interesting stuff on that super secret panel hides the truth about ufos amnesty international. Oops. Defense human rights so i mean one one place that you know, the left really went was a fullscale doubling down on human rights violations. And how how exploitative and how destructive things are so like there, you know, theres lots of systematic critiques that wasnt the solution of socialism that wasnt the solution. Um, this is neat. Everything everywhere is political. Oh, i did want to show especially nathaly this open door lecture and film series, maybe some of you also took nancy koppelmans class with an athlete. She was a she was a student at the time here and she wrote about evergreen and if you know nancy, this is so funny evergreen is so fractured. We need to have a central schedule of program lectures and files that are open to the Community Films that are open to the Community Respect the integrity of the program stay for the whole dont dont leave. But then Everything Everything was political. Theres tv coverage and but then here is a little coverage of nirvana and i think its its funny. My favorite part of this whats the only thing like im lifting this up is just like how everyone in the Olympia Community like what would no nirvana and so its very offhanded the album sells for way too much in seattle. And then heres the press kit nirvana consists of kurt with a d and two ks cobain extreme less basis christ novolacek and not of ex drummer chad chanting so that the the publicity photo they had was with the old drummer who stopped touring with them as they instead brought in a new drummer dave scream. There was a punk band in the area scream. Thats dave grohl. No, no, no. No, its it. Its the same guy. Dave scream is dave grohl. How does the abolitionist narrative of like the the talks that youre talking about with . Kurt cobain, how does that fit within the idea of like socialism has failed if abolition is is still a thing like what after abolition what . What would the alternative to get what im saying . What did that look like . I think i think so. Or was it just an opposition to the rest of the ideological . Support of capitalism i want to just keep mulling on it. Or i want you to keep mulling on it. So heres another thing theres a theres another issue where theres a review of the concert that they have. In olympia, thats like it was a good show, but it was way too popular. Too many screaming teenage punk rockers nirvana mania poorly dressed record executives to step away from new lincoln continentals handing out diamond studded cards. So theres a little bit of whats the right word . Cynicism about like even nirvana is too popular. So this is where i wanted to just have us think some about pop music pop culture of the 1990s as moving between two poles of optimism and pessimism that either like everything is great or like well socialism might have failed and were not going to advocate for socialism, but boy American Culture sure is oppressive sure is dominating sure makes us feel left out. I mean, you know the the lyrics did i read out the lyrics of tell smells like teen spirit. The first stanza is load up on on guns bring your friends. Its fun to lose and to pretend shes overboard and selfassured. Oh, no, no, i know a dirty word. Listen to the actual song dont listen to me. Like terrible representative of nirvana definitely dont listen to me. But like boy American Culture sure, like thats not so if i would just ask you is nirvana an example of optimism or pessimism about the future youd probably say pessimism. Okay. I want to do this with a couple of other acts. Okay, so in a different note. The back street boys are they optimistic about the world or pessimistic about the world . Optimistic tupac shakur optimistic about the world or pessimistic pessimistic boys to men optimistic or pessimism rage against the machine celine dion ultimate my heart will go on my heart will go on does anyone know the band garbage . Guard one of garbages big singles. Im only happy when it rains very happy to run i only know that they did the bond the song for one of pierce brosnans last bond movies. Which one did they do . What is it . The world is not enough the world is not enough optimistic or pessimistic. Having any other context i mean they pessimistic but as an very optimistic. I i got i got i got some really like the more i thought about it the more fun it became like Marilyn Manson customers creed kind of like christian rock band sort of like creed is like rei are you . You know obviously something with families. So like the point is not that theres one or the other its just that like i feel like there was a lot of disaffection and a lot of like hopeful optimism, so i came up with another another couple of examples of this just of like dichotomies about the future. So, i dont know if youre a big action movie fan from the 80s and 90s, but in the original terminator that is a bad vision of the future Arnold Schwarzenegger comes back to try and kill sarah connor because shes going to have a son john connor who will be the leader of the Human Resistance army to the so, you know, theyre ai led the robots to to launch nuclear strikes against all of humanity and to try and seek to exterminate humanity john connor is the only hope and boy that is a negative film in 2000 in 1991 terminator 2 Arnold Schwarzenegger comes back as the hero. And in fact, he is the robot that learns to care for john connor learns to care for human life doesnt actually kill anybody john connor the kid eddie for a long tells him like he cant kill anybody so he only shoots Police Officers in the knees. And the you know, there is no fate but what we make so 1980s. Its like the future is terrible 1990s. Its like well there might be nuclear war and robots might be trying to kill us but some of the robots can learn to love deep in their hearts. Theres been theres a new new ish. Hbo documentary about woodstock 1999. So there were two festivals to celebrate woodstocks 25th anniversary and 30th anniversary 1994. There was lots of like peace and love and harmony and it was like not a greatly run festival, but it it certainly emphasized the peace love and harmony woodstock. 1999 is like this dystopian vision of people like tearing things down setting stuff on fire and mud it. Acid like i hear stuff about like woodstock in bed i might be maybe there might have been bad drugs. Theres theres a great documentary. I just remember like an idea of like a woodstock or maybe the woodstock and like people losing their mind in mud. And yeah being like it. Yes like that image youre saying im like, i feel like i have a specific thing of it. Just no reference there was much more of that in 1999 like bonfires and real like Media Coverage of it is like lord of the flies people are turning against each other. Yeah kai, question with all the questions representation like everyone did that have an effect on. Takes out yeah, so i mean, i think this is a question like what what did these depictions do for politics . I think its im trying to. To show that there was like there was a lot of optimism and there was a lot of ambivalence and it didnt map neatly onto the Political Parties. That theres a lot of like that that bill clinton is the boy from hope. Um, and that technology can make the way and so another thing i have down here is there was all this conversation of the internet as the information superhighway it would lead us as the bridged to the 21st century. That have been another Like Campaign slogan of clinton in 1996. We need to like get on the bridge to the 21st century. But then no queasy asked about y2k. Were all gonna die like the computers are not going to understand the difference of 99 to 0 0 theyre going to every all Computer Systems are going to go back to zero zero zero the bug is going to knock out power plants airlines are going to crash. Its going to be mass hysteria. So like tons and tons of coders spent lots of lots of time to actually fix the problem, but the idea of like the future is really really dark with y2k is contrasted with like the information superhighway. And keeping this idea of like its like we have all this because you say you talk about utopian thinking its not all i can think of its like were stuck in this like utopian thinking. But its not like utopian thinking from the start of like a communist scene is utopian thinking of start of like a horror movie about a family like i just keep thinking about like that like i dont watch a lot of horror, but just that like a horribly like ruining the family like that, you know that comes up a lot. So im just keep thinking that. That wasnt until the pleasantville. Like like all like society gets really like were all going to be so homogeneous. Were all going to be in cookie cutter little boxes. No ones going to fit in so its like yeah, its positive but like oh no queasy. Just as a anything connection that im just thinking of Octavia Butler parable of the sower. Yes. I think that a lot of people are like, oh my goodness. She predicted like so much and were so close to it, but it seems like that narrative was just so much more common than we yes often think yeah. Yes and at the same time like Octavia Butler didnt get the recognition during your lifetime that shes gotten since so like theres a theres a lot of like where was mainstream culture not listening to parable of the sower. Matthew you said a pleasant film and i want to note the there are some movie in 1998 called pleasantville with Kirsten Dunst and tobey maguire. And isnt like part of it in black and white and parts of it in color. Yeah. Origin to the town in the form of color and like the mom in in the in the bathtub and that causes the tree to both catch on fire and gain color and so people start like they have no colored size. Its not subtle. Its not subtle. Increase and like, you know, its and its a popular critique. So also like im wanting to im not wanting to overstate the like that everyone agreed with the end of history. Its just interesting how that framing really has to shape everything like history is over. The future is now whats the future going to be . So another example, i have i see your hand evan like the matrix. I was thinking about these two films within two like two months of each other the matrix and phantom menace. That like weirdly the matrix is the one where Like Technology has constrained us humans are enslaved to robots. We need to break out of it and there will be a savior who will come and like at the end neotrimps. He flies out like the oppression of the machines is going to be over the matrix has like an optimistic story arc. And is one of the like dark gritty its like not a great picture of the future the phantom menace is like this little boy Anakin Skywalker is going to be darth vader and kill a lot of people like its like a bad narrative arc, but that movie is bright. Its colorful. The pod ray scene is fun. Its like theres all this bright. I dont know. Its just really interesting to read like the and then the aesthetics like yeah it very much a spectacle which the matrix is too. So theres just i feel like there was this peoples minds were being torn in multiple different directions. Is this tracking folks evan . Okay. Firstly matrix is overrated and defense is a guilty pleasure, but im just wondering like its vaguely connected to information super highway and like how we think of the internet when you think definitively we came to like what is now called the post fact world where the facts are what you you know what you are your party believes. Ah, we talked about that in week. Two or three or four um, i think theres a real artifact of the the bush years. I was talking about like the post postmodernism and relativism and like went you know, i would say mid2000s and then people are really citing the like the 20 teens the mid20 teens as being the start of a real like information accuracy. Network or dichotomy i saw another hand. Okay, cool. Okay, im mindful of the time. So the last thing i wanted to end with was just another one of these examples. I saw this on social media and i love i love the image. Stay back, yes. So theyre bringing back. Scott neal wright, sam neill, Jeff Goldblum and laura dern theyre bringing the original cast back. But so just like Jurassic Park the dinosaurs break out they eat a lot of people Like Technology has cloned a dinosaurs. That was a huge mistake shouldnt have happened. But at the same time like the catchphrase like the main thing is like life finds away. Theres some theres like real hope in Jurassic Park and its just bright and gorgeous and the the image. I mean, even the nighttime scenes of the trex. Yeah. Yeah. Its a literal amusement park. Where are we in 2020. Its Jurassic World dominion. I cant even see their faces jeff and you cant even so yeah, right. I couldnt recognize him right like wheres the future in 2022 . Its like oh, is not good. Like theres not a lot of like the future is good happening right now in our culture. This is tracking. Yeah. Movie is the time rex. Yeah. Curious about your thoughts on like how much this kind of polarizing like utopian dystopian outlook towards the future is like tied to either the age of the people who are creating the media or the age of the people that its directed towards like i dont know. I guess im just thinking about like adolescent psychology and development and like is the more pessimistic narrative directed towards, you know adolescence and emerging adults who are more like geared towards activism and change and all right. Yeah. Yeah, thats i mean, i like my my historian hat is all often. Like what i was saying is like im not being comprehensive. This is just like looking at some change over time and looking up some snapshots an examples that are illustrating the broader trend, but i think that thats like a real strength of the generation disaster book like focusing on like no who are the people who saw 1989. Is this like breaking point who was raised in an environment where its like were triumphant and you can have any toy you want so long as your parents save the right money for it and you ask them to get you the right tickle me elmo and not the knockoff one. Um, so yeah, i like to cry not a comprehensive. I like the question. To build up what channel were sharing to to see that there is like the end of this enemy this them in the distance that we had as america and then constructing like we will we need an enemy whos gonna be enemy. Now, who do we fight in creating in our own society . Well, these people are trying to create dystopia with their political beliefs and the other side point against the us and them somehow created in culture. Yeah advancement through that. Yeah creating this sort of this facade of an enemy. Yeah. Yeah us is that and thats kind of linked to evans question too is like when did americans become i mean americans have always thought that other americans are the enemy thats not new but theres like there is a new texture to it. It seems much more great for sure. Yeah. Yeah, and i guess im just thinking like is there something in the way people age and develop that would make them more committed to a feeling of like we won and now im like coasting through to the end of my life versus when youre like emerging youre like building your own world and emerging into adulthood like are you less committed to . Feeling like you made it. Yeah, you still want to fight. Yeah. Its kind of a baby boomer question, too. Okay, i mindful of time. I think we should leave it there. So well see you after lunch. Well come back to watch a depiction of the future with star trek. Thank you all. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Washington Times for this special episode of history as it happens a podcast for people who want to think about Current Events historically. Im martin de caro and our guest today Catholic University historian. Michael kimmage. Welcome michael. Thank you for having me. Good to have you here. You are a member of the state departments policy planning staff 2014 to 2016. Your portfolio was russia and ukraine. So you bring a lot of expertise to the subject. Were going to talk about today. You are an expert on us russia relations, and that is the road to war in eastern europe. How did we get to this point where europe is seeing its first major land war