One of the points I tried to make in this piece this October was the similarity of the radicalism of the 1980s to the radicalism of the 1960s – and how both were responsible for overturning the economic and social stability of the 1950s and early 1960s. But Stephen Metcalf in a review of Tom Cruise’s career for Slate summarized almost my entire point with this:
The ’80s did for money what the ’60s did for sex.
Metcalf goes on:
They told a miraculously tempting lie about the curative powers of disinhibition. It took AIDS, feminism, and sociobiology a while to catch up to our illusions about free love. It has taken cronyism, speculation, and manic overleveraging a while to catch up to our illusions about free money.
One reply on “The Twin Radical 20th Century American Revolutions”
I’ve always thought Tom Cruise was hot ever since I first saw _Endless_Love_ in February 1982! As for whether or not he ever gets back with Nicole, I bet he’s going to become this polygamist and he’ll be married to Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman and me all at the same time! Of course, he’ll have to be sharing Nicole with Karl! My understanding is he may be friends with Nicole’s new hubby! You want to join the harem! (I’ma she, so don’t worry, I’m not a gay man.) I don’t care whether or not he’s cocky! I don’t even notice it. I think that the guys are just jealous over him because all of us gals think he’s so sexy! I think that’s a part of his problem. The guys who aren’t in the movies are all jealous of Tom Cruise!