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For 50 Years, It's Been "Me" And "Want" And It's Not "Fair"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Across 5.2 million books and 500 billion words, Google's Ngram allows a deep sociological dive into the mood of the world. It would appear that starting around the mid -60s, the world shifted to a "me, me, me" society and that's not "fair".

 

 

Source: Goldman Sachs

 

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Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:55 | 4463453 HyBrasilian
HyBrasilian's picture

I got a name...       [BETTER]

~~~

If it gets me NOWHERE... I'll go there proud...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:02 | 4463500 semperfidelis
semperfidelis's picture

It appears that the Ukrainian president has fled to Russia per this web page: http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-liveblog-day-4-yanukovych-teeters/...

Interesting thing is that the entire eastern part of Ukraine is now revolting, and they are mostly Russian.

Moscow must be boiling right now, the Russians need to move fast on the board or they will lose Belarus come spring. This has the potential to get really ugly very fast.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:08 | 4463522 The Vineyard
The Vineyard's picture

OK.  Ok.  People are selfish.  And we all want a free ride.  Forgive us.  Blockheads.

Sat, 02/22/2014 - 07:51 | 4464661 The Mist
The Mist's picture

Oh look, another meaningless chart on Zerohedge, how fascinating

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:40 | 4463454 TeamDepends
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It was the Brown Acid.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:57 | 4463491 Bunders
Bunders's picture

That was not specifically too good?

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:52 | 4463661 graneros
graneros's picture

Woodstock. Nevermind.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 21:41 | 4463928 phaedrus1952
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Close, perhaps, gran.

In arguably the second-most read/referenced editorial in American journalism (the first being the NY Sun's 1897 "Yes, Virginia)  the WSJ's "No Guardrails" in 1993 eloquently describes the point at which we may have left the tracks.

Sobering five minute read ... both then and now.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:25 | 4463574 LMAOLORI
LMAOLORI's picture

 

 

                                                         Purple Haze

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:59 | 4463675 graneros
graneros's picture

Orange Sunshine circa 1970.  Better make sure you have a week to recover.  Before dropping put your name and address where others will be able to see it in case you forget...your part of the human race.

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly;
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:52 | 4463816 johnQpublic
johnQpublic's picture

4 way window pane

100 way red dragon

so fresh you just had to touch it

Sat, 02/22/2014 - 01:50 | 4464454 Nobody For President
Nobody For President's picture

Owsley.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:42 | 4463459 MayIMommaDogFac...
MayIMommaDogFace2theBananaPatch's picture

I, me, mine -- I, me, mine -- I, me, mine

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:05 | 4463509 Bananamerican
Bananamerican's picture

" The ' Me ' Decade and the Third Great Awakening " -Tom Wolfe (summer 1976)

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:52 | 4463477 Stanley Kubrick
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Where does "Fuck 'em all" rank?

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:55 | 4463483 NOTaREALmerican
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I blame rock-n-role.   That that Elvis devil.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 18:57 | 4463490 J S Bach
J S Bach's picture

"Me Want Fair"... sounds like my little kids in the summertime.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:05 | 4463510 eatthebanksters
eatthebanksters's picture

It's all Hugh Hefner's fault!

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:08 | 4463521 rustymason
rustymason's picture

This graph correlates perfectly with the Tribal takeover of Western culture in the 1950's and 1960's. 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:29 | 4463580 Harbanger
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They won the Counterculture revolution.  There's hardly any western culture left and conservatives are now seen as rebels.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:48 | 4463653 NoDebt
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Terrorists.  And you're on the list right below me.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:13 | 4463531 Motorhead
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Mid-60s...about the time TV took off...and, of course, LBJ's "Great Society".  Gag me.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:15 | 4463545 Robsabi
Robsabi's picture

My God, sometimes Tyler is as bad as the 9/11 deniers - posting "evidence" and then openly misnterpreting it as they see fit, right in the view of anyone who can think for themselves.

So, it appears that "want" truly did experience a big upswing starting in the mid-60s.

But, it turns out the "me" generation wasn't in the 70s. It didn't really pick up until the early 80s - the land of Reagan. So the real "me"s weren't liberal hippies, but greedy conservatives.

As for "fair", well, would you look at that. It started turning down around 1900. So rather than a generation of people saying "It's not fair" since the 60s, it looks more like the nation was more concerned with ideals such as fairness until right around when the robber-barrons came into their own and began to define the financial agenda, at which point it seems they began to beat the idea of fairness out of society.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:32 | 4463602 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Absolutely.

Reagan became President and the 'greedy conservatives' sprung fully grown like Athena from Zeus's forehead and infested Wall St.

A perfectly rational explanation that Tyler circumvents to dupe you.

Sheer brilliance.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:54 | 4463822 johnQpublic
johnQpublic's picture

there are still people that deny 9/11 was an inside job?

Sat, 02/22/2014 - 14:53 | 4465634 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

YES, there are.

A short list: McCain, Bush (all of them), Cheney, Podhertz, Wolfowitz, Blair, Bremer, The MSM, Obama, Netenyahu, The PNAC members, The RNC, the DNC, and most of the militarized police force commanders. Not to forget: The 9/11 commision head, NIST, The History Channel, Raytheon, the TSA, the DHS, and others.

Qui Bono? See the list above.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 21:00 | 4463839 InjuredThales
InjuredThales's picture

One of the biggest issues with this data is that it does not take into account the fact that the colloquial meaning of words can (can and does) change over time.  The best example of this is the word "fair", which, for the longest time, was much more apt to be used as an expression of prettiness/handsomeness/beauty than it was to describe justness or unjustness in the sense that "fairness" is used today.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 22:04 | 4463981 StychoKiller
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"Want" can indicate a desire for something missing in life, or hunger.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:23 | 4463568 NoWayJose
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This is a bit similar to the US athletes that bombed at the Olympics. The ones that were happy just to be there are the winners, and several of those won medals. The 'me' athletes who went in expecting to win are the ones who are coming home dissappointed about how 'un-fair' things went, and how it was poor snow conditions, or vented uniforms, or other malarkey...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 22:06 | 4463985 StychoKiller
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Aww, not everyone got a medal for just participating.  Wonder where they could have got such an idea...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:48 | 4463646 e2thex
e2thex's picture

 

Augustus Owsley Stanley

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:55 | 4463830 johnQpublic
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kid charlemagne

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:48 | 4463652 akak
akak's picture

Well, why not?

I mean, just look at our current president --- you can't spell "Obama" without "I".

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:53 | 4463664 samsara
samsara's picture

I Me Mine

George Harrison - 1970


All I can hear I me mine, I me mine, I me mine,
Even those tears I me mine, I me mine, I me mine,
No-one's frightened of playing it,
Everyone's saying it,
Flowing more freely than wine,
All through your life I me mine.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 19:55 | 4463668 xamax
xamax's picture

Symptom of our narcissic society which gives a fuck about future generations
What I often hear around my social network when its about to raise money for a good project:

" I find that a great idea but OTHERS should pay for it"

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:07 | 4463709 HeavydutyMexica...
HeavydutyMexicanOfTheNorthernKingdom's picture

Just punch a baby boomer in the face bitchez! ha

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:24 | 4463759 Henry Chinaski
Henry Chinaski's picture

Needs. Check.

Wants...

Looks like a result of an increase in the standard of living.  Food, antibiotics, relative period of peace for most people.  Well at least for the people who were published...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:35 | 4463778 samsara
samsara's picture

I think the collective memory owes much to Bernays and the "Recorded" memory of those times as much as any thing else.

I remember one guy's quote from my year book, '71

"Society don't use your superficial fruits
as proof that your materialistic society is right."

So there were many of us saw it differently.

But the MSM '80s playscript droned "The Future's So Bright, Ya gotta wear shades" meme on and on via tv shows and everything else.

Good morning America.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:49 | 4463810 SuperRay
SuperRay's picture

IT WAS ALL A HUGE CONSPIRACY (CONSPIRACY, CONSPIRACY, CONSPIRACY)

Proof:

http://vimeo.com/67977038

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:51 | 4463814 Nick Jihad
Nick Jihad's picture

Hate to be a party pooper, but I'd think that the decline in "fair" begins in the late 19th century, when people stopped using 'fair' as a synonym for 'good' or 'pretty', as in 'fair wind', 'fair lady', 'fair countenance'.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 21:02 | 4463847 InjuredThales
InjuredThales's picture

^This.

Damn, you beat me to it.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 22:28 | 4464029 Emergency Ward
Emergency Ward's picture

-- From MY FAIR LADY, "Wouldn't it be Loverly", Lerner/Loewe.  Julie Andrews sings on the Original Cast Album version (1956)

 

All I want is a room somewhere
Far away from the cold night air
With one enormous chair
Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?

Lots of chocolate for me to eat
Lots of coal makin' lots of heat
Warm face, warm hands, warm feet
Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?

....Someone's head restin' on my knee
Warm and tender as he can be
Who takes good care of me
Oh, wouldn't it be loverly
Loverly, loverly, loverly, loverly...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 20:54 | 4463824 JuliaS
JuliaS's picture

Shiver me timbers!

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 21:46 | 4463942 Wait What
Wait What's picture

Zizek goes in depth into the popular films of America's 'me' generation to illustrate how ideology has been driving the movement:

"The pervert's guide to ideology"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6kB3d9qZZhs

good watch, highly recommended

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