Perhaps it’s a generational thing – maybe it’s all in our imaginations. In 1960 we were convinced the world (and America in particular) were teetering on the amoral – we were overcome with prostitution, violence, drug addiction, alcoholism. No sexual boundaries – no sense of moral values. The gist of this program, an episode of Small World which ran in the late 1950s/early 1960s, held a somewhat pessimistic assessment of what we were all about and what we had become.
And then we’re reminded, we’ve always teetered on the abyss – with much of our past behaviors considerably more alarming than the present day. We just didn’t know it at the time.
On this program, moderated by Eric Sevareid, the guests include Arnold Toynbee, Robert Graves and Philip Wylie – all figures of considerable prominence during the earlly decades of the 20th century.
When asked if society would still exist a hundred years from now (1961) – Toynbee emphatically declared we would – that all the talk about our moral compass being out of whack and our sexual behavior running to the depraved couldn’t hold a candle to what was going on in Victorian England during the 1800’s. That what we had imagined (and been told) as a stiffly formal and overly prudish society was indeed fiction – that the covered up piano legs and the less skin shown the better was total fabrication and that the reality was considerably different than the fantasy. And that the critics and observers from the era were convinced Society was doomed and that we, as a society wouldn’t see the 20th century were indeed wrong; that humans were in fact resilient – that our morals were doing just fine, thank you – and that there was a future as there always had been, despite protests to the contrary. Protests which accompanied every generation since humans emerged from caves and no doubt before then.
In short – no matter what, it all works out. And for the 1960’s that seemed like a tall order, if we were to take into consideration the Cold War, the Atomic Bomb, the rise in alcohol and drug abuse – the prevalence of the disenfranchised of society and loose morals.
So, some sixty years after this broadcast, the argument comes up again. This time they all say it’s for real – we’re doomed. Fentanyl is poised to wipe out a generation – COVID and the lockdown ruined formative years. The internet has killed otherwise healthy sex lives – we’ve become a society raked with fear and hate and no one knows what to believe anymore – lines clearly drawn before are muddled now. No morals.
Maybe this time they’re right – but in a way, it doesn’t seem that far removed from a hundred, a hundred-fifty, even two hundred years ago.
The nice part about knowing History is that you get to sit quietly and say “it’ll all work out – always has – always will”.
But for now, it’s back to 1961 and the luxury of being part of that future they were worried about with Eric Sevareid, Arnold Toynbee, Robert Graves and Philip Wylie.
Technical caveat: The first few seconds are strongly over-modulated and distort – but the volume settles down after about 30 seconds and we’re okay after that. Sorry. Whoever originally recorded it . . . .
