Moment of 1960s culture shock

[yakalskovich]

So, I have been mainlining 'Mad Men' lately, as I already mentioned before, originally entirely out of the wish to look at Christina Hendricks more.

And of course, I have been expecting the usual sexism, racism, misogyny, chauvinism, blatant consumerism etc. and took notice of it when it cropped up, like an anthropologist taking notice of customs she'd read about in books by anthropologists that visited the same tribe before her. The abominable treatment of Rachel Menken in the first episode -- check. Don Draper checking up on the progress of his wife's psychotherapy by phone, with the doctor matter-of-factly telling the husband the wife's innermost thoughts because he is of course entitled -- check. Savaltore Romano being so deep in the closet he even marries some unsuspecting if charming young woman -- check. The bearded beatnik type's having a black girlfriend being of some kind of shock value, and all other black people just being waiters, liftboys, servants etc. -- check. Big huge gas-guzzling monster cars - check. Drinking and smoking at any time and place, even around kids and during pregnancy -- check.

But today, culture shock got me. Bad. I was all 'OMG FFS they can't possibly do this!!11!!!1!! for the first time since starting to watch the series -- and I am on episode 2-07, 'The Gold Violin'. What happened was this:



Don and Betty Draper took their new Caddy for a spin with the kids, and they had a picnic in this idyllic spot. And when they were done, Don pitched his beer can into the general greenery, and Betty just shook out the blanket they'd all sat on, they packed their cooler and the blanket in the car, kids scrambled in (this thing is the size of the Titanic, more or less) and swanned off.

Leaving all sort of wrappers and plastic and stuff (the white bits in this picture) just lying under that ancient tree in that majorly idyllic spot. That shocked me. It really did. I mean, were these people pigs or what? Didn't they even realise if they ever wanted to have another picnic in the same idyllic spot, they' find their own corroded and disgusting refuse? Let alone anybody else?

I guess that was how people did it in the Sixties. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been an entire British children's TV series a bit later that lived entirely on 'Don't litter!' plus some brilliant musical spoofs.

Especially as essayel and I had talked about the five, seven and nine ways of sorting our rubbish in effect in the different places where we live, the traditional Bavarian beer bottle returning system, and the fact that her county council aims to completely abolish any leftover rubbish by 2015, this stark contrast of that upper middle class family (and I am not blaming America! I am sure people did the same in Gevelsberg, Abergavenny or wherever at that time -- she was around as a toddler, I wasn't yet, but my mum and grandma were and did take drives and have picnics) just dumping their stuff in the very place they'd enjoyed moments before, and driving off, really shocked me badly.

Comments

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction, exactly.

I was actually under the impression that the American concept of littering is very common in the so-called 2nd world even today. My visits to the Czech Republic, living next door to a largely Croatian-inhabited apartment building, and experiences teaching English to Bosnians all colluded in this impression: these people all keep their houses impecably clean, but the common areas were *disgusting*... diapers, trash, dog shit, other animal, possibly even human shit, etc strewn around, with the general assumption that someone else -- the State, I guess -- would clean it up.

I know you've traveled around Europe extensively; what's your impression? Have I just had bad experiences?

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Hmm, another thought on the matter:

Prior to WWII in the US and likely even later in Europe, we did not have such a disposable culture. Litteirng happened but with both a smaller popualtion and less caustic litter, it was a smaller issue. I think.

For instance, as a child growing up with grandparents who were very much of the pre-War mindset, when we went fishing, we took lunch. Lunch was ALWAYS wrapped in cloth, drinks in mason jars, etc., and packed in a reusable tub. There was little to no garbage produced. IF you broke a jar, it might be discarded with no thought of litering, but generally, you took all your packaging home with you. Not because the failure to do so was littering, but because it was wasteful.

Don Draper et al lived in the Brave New Disposable Plastic World of All New, All the Time! But even so, less of that litter was of the utterly non-degradable type than we would see later.

Even though now we're a lot more aware of littering, I suspect we're actually producing more trash per capita, and worse kinds. A glass bottle is annoying but will *eventually* break down to silica although that might take thousands of years; a plastic bottle will do no such thing, ever, and it's just as bad, maybe even worse, once it has broken down. I suspect the 1970s was probably the worst era for this. At least by the 80s, we had started using trash cans properly.

I think my greatest sadness is the individual ketchup packet, although the small, unrecyclable components found inside toys and electronics and blister packages are close behind.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Eeeee! You're watching it!

Consensus among US fans was that this was exaggerated behavior, even for the early 60s. Not to say that it *couldn't* happen, but I thought it was Matt Weinberg being, I dunno, metaphorical or something. It's supposed to be shocking.