Today is part one of a two part post. Part one describes the time of change and unrest in the 1960s and 1970s. I think, in retrospect, we were coming to an end of the Industrial Age and the strong emergence of the Information Age. People struggle with change. This two-part post is what happens in the "next age". The times of change brought a lot of cleansing and transformation, what economists term "creative destruction". Life improves on average but for those wedded to the old way of thinking, there are difficult adjustments. Anyhow, it seemed fitting to make a football reference as we enter Superbowl week.
Saturday — What is This?
The Inspiration
The upstart American Football League (AFL) was founded in 1960 to challenge the tradition of the National Football League (NFL). Two of the teams that signified change and innovation more than any others were the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. Change is not for the meek and as Bob Dylan inspired with his anthem, the times they are a changin’. Tonight and tomorrow I am posting about how change presents itself, how we resist it, and eventually, it becomes part of us. I imagine that our elders preferred Johnny Unitas in black hightop shoes with a crew cut and disdained Joe Namath with flowing hair and white cleats. I cannot imagine an old NFL team with a logo of a pirate in a football helmet with an eyepatch.
The Setup
I am a child of the 1960s. I was too young to be in the streets as important challenges to the status quo would emerge reaching into the 1970s. Even today, there is nostalgia that I struggle to understand for the “good old days” of the 1940s and 1950s America. The youth of the era were going to kick the door in and push for change now. The fight to solidify these changes continues to this day. Forcing the genie back into the bottle and the return to the “good old days” when those that propose it fail to state what they mean is a strange recipe for success in my eyes.
I believe that the onward march of understanding of our natural world will bring unimaginable transformation to our lives. The answers and revelations it brings at increasing speed are the disruptive factors that may be driving the polarization in our society. Knowledge is a two-edged sword. If you are an antiquarian Monarchist in Britain, you still embrace horsedrawn carriages gilded in gold sourced from all over the Empire to celebrate a tradition of the Monarchy. I am a lover of satire. I think each of the following is an entertaining source of thoughtful humor. Throughout my life, I have enjoyed each of them. The willingness to place everyday life before us and provide a different take is my favorite type of humor. Each of these, in its own way, is not an exercise of anti-left or anti-right bias but most consistently an embrace of reason countering the status quo. I think at times, SNL failed as a concept when it lost its way and became hung up and focused on particular people or forces in the public eye.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Mad Magazine
Second City TV (SCTV)
George Carlin
Saturday Night Live (SNL)
TheOnion
Now, each of my readers knows where my comedy sweet spot lies. I think each of these has been insightful and funny throughout my life. Back to my monarchy comment. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite movies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It became a cult movie for my generation and many came to know much of the dialog by heart. This clip is a great commentary on the Monarchy and what it is rooted in when you peek behind the curtain.
I will not get to the end of the story today but will keep to my 5-7 minute mantra. The next post will finish the story which I think is worth waiting for.
The Details
Returning to my football reference, the AFL was brash, had cooler uniforms, and had a flair lacking in the staid NFL. To be sure the better teams and old ways would rule for a bit longer. The 1960s changed America with new standards of equality and individuality. The owners of two of the most important franchises were Lamar Hunt and Al Davis, representing the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders respectively. In less than ten years the AFL would merge with the NFL creating the NFL we know and enjoy today.
In later years, Al Davis would remain an iconoclast and always was steadfast against structure and tradition. He is known for boiling down what the Raiders were all about to a simple phrase, “Just Win Baby!”. Here is a short video after Super Bowl XVIII when he popularized the phrase. The Raiders had just won the Superbowl by the then-largest winning margin in the history of the game. The NFL had just lost litigation against the Raiders and their right to move the team if that was their desire. There was bad blood between the Commissioner and the owner of the Raiders. Al Davis had stood against the NFL and all the other owners to defend his right to move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles. The video below is fun as it includes a brief commentary by John Madden. The Al Davis portion of the video begins at 2:55 for the impatient. The eye-roll of Al Davis as Commissioner Rozelle recounts the success of the Redskins portends what is to come. The 1983 period commercials are funny to watch including the Exxon gasoline and Buick advertisements.
I enjoyed the video because it again reminded me of the life of John Madden (1936-2021) who recently passed away. John Madden lived enough for three lives as a trailblazer of change. In his early life, the youngest coach ever to win a Superbowl. In the middle of his life, he became the most beloved color commentator who innovated sports broadcasting. In his later life the inventor of one of the greatest innovations in entertainment and the 10B$ franchise called Madden NFL.
For the patient, you must still be wondering what about today’s title. I believe that the unrest in the 1960s and 1970s was partly due to the large changes in the status quo. Change is very hard for many. I believe that the period saw the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the Information Age. The disruption was palpable, especially in a city like Buffalo, NY. By the 1980s for the next thirty years, the demands of the youth in the 1960s became part of everyday life. Continuing improvements in the lives of minorities, women, and individual rights flourished during this period.
What made this period so interesting is how short it was. The Industrial Age spanned about 200 years. The Information Age has spanned about 75 years. While we still enjoy the benefits of the Information Age as it takes over more and more industries as a dominant force, what has emerged after the human genome project in the early 2000s is the beginning of a new age. I don’t think we recognize its arrival yet but it will swamp life as we know it as every transformation before. This new age will be characterized by harnessing genetics and nanotechnology. While the Raiders gave us “Just Win Baby”, I think the next age will be “Just Carbon Baby”. As I have said repeatedly in my posts, each period gets shorter and crams more stuff into the period. With good health, I will live through multiple ages. No human generation has EVER BEEN ABLE to say that.
I already gave away tonight’s song. Still a classic. I typically only post Tue/Thu/Sat but since this is a two-part post, I will post the conclusion (Just Carbon Baby) tomorrow (Sunday) night.
No hints yet on "What is it?"