I’m livin’ in the 70’s

Spiral Historiography. “I’m living in the Seventies”. Skyhooks. The political topics and rhetoric has spiral back to the 1970s pattern.

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
Eatin’ fake food under plastic trees
My face gets dirty just a-walkin’ around
I need another pill to calm me down

The 1970s, and the political topics and rhetoric was:

• Tough on Crime;
• Abortion and Pro-Life;
• Cost of Living with Fuel Prices and Energy Costs;
• Pollution and Over-Population, with references to cracks in the ‘weather’ systems;
• Global War in the Middle-East;
• Energy Crisis;
• Rightwing Dictators in the the wings; and
• The Call for Intellectual Dialogue ignored by populist politics.

Yes, these have been continual themes over the decades but it is a clear spiral back to the issues, It goes to the importance of Michelle Arrow’s The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern Australia:

The Seventies was the decade that shaped modern Australia. It was the decade of ‘It’s Time’, stagflation and the Dismissal, a tumultuous period of economic and political upheaval. But the Seventies was also the era when the personal became political, when we had a Royal Commission into Human Relationships and when social movements tore down the boundary between public and private life. Women wanted childcare, equal pay, protection from violence and agency to shape their own lives. In the process, the reforms they sought — and achieved, at least in part — reshaped Australia’s culture and rewrote our expectations of government.

The political topics and rhetoric has spiral back to the 1970s pattern, as these issues were there but very quiet until recently:

• Tough on Crime;
• Abortion and Pro-Life;
• Cost of Living with Fuel Prices and Energy Costs;
• Pollution and Over-Population, with references to cracks in the ‘weather’ systems;
• Global War in the Middle-East;
• Energy Crisis;
• Rightwing Dictators in the the wings; and
• The Call for Intellectual Dialogue ignored by populist politics.

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I feel like I lost my keys
I’ve got the right day
Got the wrong week
And I get paid for just bein’ a freak

The political topics and rhetoric has spiral back to the 1970s pattern.

I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’ve just caught another disease
I’m livin’ in the 70’s
I’m livin’ in the 70’s

As with the 1970s, it will be a rough ride…

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Neville Buch

Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.

Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.

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