Monday, July 14, 2008

In Praise of 1978

I’ve never thought that 1978, the year I graduated high school and started college, held much historical significance. Greatly interested in current events even back then, I found the news of the day largely boring and uninspiring. However, Kenneth S. Baer in the Washington Post says 1978 was actually a very important year that, among other things, began the modern political era.

Time Magazine Cover From Early 1978

Baer makes a pretty good case, but I think you could make similar arguments for about any year. I mean, things happen and evolve all the time. Still, the retrospective does remind me that it was a time when things were about to begin changing more rapidly (computers for example) even if it wasn’t apparent at the time how far reaching these developments would be. Sometimes it’s interesting to look back at the significance of even seemingly boring times.

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