If you left school in the 1980s, you had much greater chance of understanding yourself and your future directions, compared with today's internet-interrupted society.
Your parents or grandparents may have pushed you just a bit from behind, because they wanted you to have security. They did not grow up in a world where it was aceptable to have the middle-class career aspirations. How could they, when Australia did not have a middle-class until the 1950s?
Many people defined the 80s as the Era of Excess or the Decade of Decadence. This era caused a rise in newfangled career options, at unprescedented levels, among other things.
By the 80s, someone or something had often pulled the World War 2 security blanket out from under people who sought such reassurances. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher gave us neoliberalism in the 80s, after Richard Nixon removed the gold backing from the US dollar in 1970. Over time, Nixon's actions caused countries throughout Europe to float their currencies. Australia floated its dollar in 1983.
These issues preceeded the recessions, economic slowdowns and redundancies of the 90s.
If we take a journey back to the late 1960s, in Australia many people have said it was possible to go down the street and find work, immediately. Those days have gone. These times were reminiscent of an era of straight shooters, compared with today.
There is one thing that has always fascinated me from the old days..... In the late 1960s the Melbourne Age commissioned the Lifestyle Study in 4D. It was a dream come true for all lovers of psychographics.
Loosly speaking, there were two major categories: active organisers and experience seekers.
Active organisers were family and community oriented people who loved taking their children to Saturday sport. They were the tabloid readers. They read today's equivalent of Sydney's Daily Telegraph and the variuous other tabloid publications of the day.
Experience seekers, on the other hand were more likely to read the broadsheets of the day - similar to the Australian. They would travel overseas for their holidays and were coniseurs of fine food and fine wine (if they drank alcohol). They would try new things and were more accepting of new ideas.
The world was a much more simple place back then. These ideas of people fitting into one of two main categories (largely) shows how, ultimately, people were more likely to be 'straight shooters.'
To be honest with you, I believe that if you put aside today's 'internet-interrupted society' for a day, then maybe you can consider whether you are an active organiser or experience seeker.
If you can take the time to answer this pressing question, without all the internet gaga hurtling through your brain at a million miles a second, then maybe you have a greater chance of defining yourself. If everyone can define themselves and if, as a consequence, they can work within the framework of who they truly are, then maybe we can make the world a better place ― Joseph Walz