Ryan Reynolds has issues. Deadpool gave a deadpan opinion, whining about his childhood.
Every human being has issues they should be facing in their time. One would think that the last issue on his mind would be his thoughts on the 1980s.
“The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a fucking mess, and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Socio-political tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban Missile Crisis, which was only 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now, and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. ‘Top Gun.’ Cocaine!’ Like, ‘No!’ It was really scary.”
I don’t know what planet he’s from. The 1980s rocked!--historic, epic, unprecedented, world-changing, even time-changing.
Forgive me a little bit of vanity, but the 1980s were great because I was born one week before the electors cast their ballots for Ronald Reagan. Good times were on their way!
The Great Communicator helped launch a conservative, free-enterprise-minded, right-wing restoration that swept the globe. Along with the UK’s Margaret “The Iron Lady” Thatcher and Canada’s Brian Mulroney, and even the first non-Italian pope in centuries, Pope John Paul II, a Zeitgeist of conservatism restored and reinvigorated a world stuck in stagflation, discouraged by dictators in Africa and South America, and, worst of all, menaced by the rogue Soviet Union, a lingering communist dystopia that instigated wars, undermined free countries, and pushed a megalomaniacal ideology responsible for the international slaughtering hundreds of millions.
Communism was the #1 bad guy, the Mr. Hand/Joker/Terminator/Predator/Hans Gruber of the 1980s. Despite communism’s ongoing economic and cultural collapse, academics were sadly, cynically convinced that there was no hope of ending communistic encroachment around the world. Even professors as sober and respectable as Arnold Toynbee, who wrote one of the most comprehensive reviews of history, resigned themselves to the idea that the Soviet Union would survive, and that free societies would decline and fail.
At the end of the decade, on a beautiful November evening, the world witnessed the collapse of the most insidious symbol of the Soviet Union and its vile economic and cultural tyranny: the Berlin Wall, signaling the demise of global communism. The West won. We won! At eight years old, I knew exactly what it meant. To see young men and women celebrating, dancing on that evil partition, breaking off pieces of that concrete monstrosity, popping off champagne, and reuniting with family members they had not seen for decades, I knew that this was an earth-shattering time, and a time of nothing but good.
Of course, I would be remiss to ignore the Pan-European Picnic that emerged in Eastern Europe, including Hungary, where men and women yearning for freedom began crossing into Austria, violating Soviet strictures. The breakdown of those border fences was the beginning of Soviet Communism’s timely end.
How about the stirring demise of Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania? The people started fighting back, first by defending a church whose pastor had been speaking out against that evil dictator. And from that rebellion, the whole nation arose against an evil dictator, who was summarily tried, convicted, and executed on Christmas Day!
The 1980s were awesome, a tumultuous but terrific time when human beings would rise against tyranny and stand for truth and liberty once again.
Politics aside, the 1980s gave us some great culture.
The Goonies: Never say die! Ragtag boys saved their family home with an immense treasure. Men today celebrate that story, including the upset victory of Ke Huy Quan at the 2023 Academy Awards, which would never have happened without his Goonies breakout role.
Indiana Jones! The Last Crusade was not the last, but it was the best. What a great way to end the decade.
Star Wars Trilogy. Hello! The world learned in shock and wonder how the evil tyrant and fascist of the universe was actually the father of the freedom fighter. You can’t make this stuff up! It’s just so good. Star Wars set the stage for the political imagination of Western freedom overturning Communist tyranny, too!
Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles: movies told us about the Gen-Xers becoming aware of themselves in a very turbulent, moving, powerful time. The 1980s were a very self-conscious era, but deservedly so. People were building, planning, and witnessing unprecedented cultural, political, and technological change. From Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People to Pee-Wee Herman to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (and Michael Keaton’s Batman), the 1980s witnessed the troubled, the geeks, the slackers overcome loss, pass the test, right the wrongs, win the day (and even win the girl), but still make it to the mall on time.
Speaking of the mall … Mall culture exploded in the 80s, a symbol of American fun, ease, and success even with excess. Lucky me in Torrance, CA, where I could eat and play at the largest shopping mall in the United States! From Aladdin’s Castle to McDonald’s indoors (which had all the cool statues and the bright colors), the 80s were a fun time!
How about the technology? We think that the Information Revolution exploded in 2007 with the iPhone and Twitter. Roll it back to the 80s, my dude. Just watching Wall Street showed everybody could start having TVs in your hand and record things with the press of a button. The technology was too expensive for everyday people, but the ideas were becoming reality. That’s the beauty of the free market! Great ideas start as luxuries for the rich, then become necessities for the rest of us, in part because innovation (i.e. greed) makes them affordable.
How about video games? From the Video Game Crash of 1983 emerged savvy licensing from Nintendo, then Sega, and eventually Atari got back in the game. We all know Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool (and don’t forget Link from the Legend of Zelda series!), and we still watch movies about them today.
The 1980s gave us blow-up images, big hairstyles, the bright (maybe tacky!) clothes, the chic that shook the world. And the ‘80s retro-futuristic art! We are seeing a revival of that neon futuristic style, complete with crisp colors and black backgrounds, with digitized flora and fauna. You don’t revive a style that reminds you of a bad time. George Clinton fused funk, rock, and art altogether! Do fries go with that shake? You bet!
And speaking of the music …
Let’s talk about my favorite, ELO, which was breaking out from its 70s send-off. How about Twisted Sister? Rod Stewart, the B-52s, the Cars; Madonna, plus Bonnie Tyler and her total eclipse over our hearts? From the hair bands to the Bangles, everyone was rocking (or walking like Egyptians). Who was one essential artist of the 80s? Weird Al Yankovic! He parodied the 1980s and made us love it all the more. Future generations are still rocking out to the 1980s and ripping off their rhythm and style, like The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.
Ryan Reynolds is wrong. He may have struggled through a troubled childhood, but the 80s were an awesome decade, a seminal period of time that defined possibility, opportunity, and celebration for our time and all time.
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