Eh, on one hand not really but on the other hand sorta'. It was definitely taught that
american involvement of substantial note was hinged pretty strongly on the pearl harbor attack. Which, y'know. US being US might have well been teaching it didn't start until PH :V
There's no harm in people longing for a simpler time when you never had to worry about all the pettiness inherent to social media, not having to worry about having your job being obsoleted by a robot (Well, unless you were a horse and buggy driver 
), not having to worry about the world going up in a cloud of nuclear flame. It was a simpler time, and we live in an era that is increasingly saturated with things that humans were simply never evolved to handle.
It kinda' wasn't a simpler time, though. Just different kinds of complicated. There may not be much harm in wanting things to be simpler (though only may, because as they say, for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
wrong.), but there is in fooling yourself and trying to fool others into thinking something that wasn't simple, was. Or that the simple thing was better in... just about any way.
And really, we aren't getting terribly much more saturated, it's just that we've currently got a few generations that still remember (and more importantly,
grew up) when our current stuff wasn't around. Let that lot die off and then another generation or two later the current lot will be the ones complaining about simpler times, except they'll be talking about the late 90s/early aughts and whatnot. People tend to remember their younger years as much better than they were, ha. And by extension remember growing up around people that were the same way, leading to pretty romanticized views of ye' olden times.
Though @ Yoink... man, that's so untrue it's almost painful. A lot more of yesteryear was spent sitting on your arse waiting to die or plodding away at the exact same damn thing every day for your whole bloody life than it is now. You had more wars and violence and whatnot, but you also had a hell of a lot less to do, and a hell of a lot less options to choose from so far as what you did goes. Even war is something like 90% waiting and 10% existential panic and dying/being maimed.
One of the biggest reasons I'd hate to see a regression to pre-internet et al days is because they were goddamn
boring, particularly on a personal level. People found ways to entertain themselves, but I'd rather not be stuck with moonshine and town drama m'self, tyvm. Social media may be petty but there is bloody
nothing more petty than someone that doesn't like you and knew yer momma.
If you really want to go experience the "excitement" of war, though, nowadays they're just a plane trip and a meeting with some shady fanatics that will probably kill you away. Couple hundred/few dozen years ago you largely had to wait for it to come to you. Now you actually get to choose! If you're bugnuts enough to actually want to live that sort of thing, anyway.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14476977 times)