The Cold War Era Seemed A Better Time, Somehow
Today, we’re more fragmented than ever and we’ve forgotten how precarious our civilisation really is.
I thought that as you got older you became more content, more tolerant, and less bothered by things.
For me, that simply isn’t true. Not at all.
I grew up during the time of Carter, Brezhnev, Reagan, Andropov, Chernenko, and latterly Gorbachov. There were the Protect and Survive leaflets and videos, iodine tablets, painting your windows white, The Young One’s “Bomb”, Threads on the BBC, and the chilling animation When the Wind Blows — a nuclear holocaust was always just 4 minutes away.
But, in many ways it was a somehow easier time than today.
The dividing lines were clear, ideology vs. ideology, communism vs. democracy for the most part, and everyone knew where they were and what, ultimately was at stake if it all went completely tits up.
Although there was ridiculous brinkmanship, propaganda and sabre-rattling, and a few literal near misses the world went on turning without tearing itself apart.
Countries, their leaders, and most importantly their people knew very clearly what could happen.
Even pop music spoke out regularly about the stark reality of what war would be, how it would be…
