Reason for Optimism

I've been thinking about Tom's Hofstadter posts, and I've decided they represent cause for optimism. After all, Hofstadter wrote fortysome years ago, and we got out of it that time.

The reactionary 50s brought us the freewheeling 60s and 70s. Then came the backlash. We haven't lost all the ground we gained (although we've lost some previously untouched ground). It's more a spiral than a circle. Despite the Right's efforts, we still have legal abortion (in 49 states), and access to birth control. Women can control their own credit, can seek their own medical care, and maternity leave is a matter of law. Evidence of premarital sex will not get you ostracized in most communities. Blacks and whites have managed to eat at the same lunch counters for quite a few years now without deliterious effect.

My point is, we took more steps forward than we are taking back, and the fact that we , as a culture, overcame intense repression in the 50s and found another way means we can do it again in the 21st century.

(Cross-posted at my place.)

[That's all, folks]