At some point, high-end sports car design made the leap from fun to luxury.
Apparently I wasn’t watching and it happened. Yes, I know they’re
supposed to be both, and they are, but something always has to come out
on top, and that changed at some point.
I saw one of these the other day in an obnoxious blue. There was nothing classy about it, nothing that reeked of wealth. It just looked like hella fun. It said something different about its owner than today’s Carreras, even though it’s still using the same basic design language (and they throw you back in your seat a lot harder now).
I think it’s because most people wanted something different said about them back then.
Driving a modern Porsche implies that you’re at the top of the food chain, and that you intend to stay there. One of these says you may be scrapping your way up, and if you’re not, well, you’re enjoying the view right where you are.
That seems to parallel the changes in Porsche itself, I guess, but I think it also reflects a change in what’s actually considered cool. And this change also parallels a massive change in our society that started in 1980.
1980 was the year that American salaries leveled off, except for the very wealthiest. It was the year that productivity skyrocketed while leaving salaries behind.
The culture shifted with this change. It moved slowly at first, but it did make a real shift. The lime green and tangerine monsters of the late sixties and seventies roads gave way to tasteful machines in red with satin black wheels. We were treated to Gordon Gecko in 1987, right at the time of the spike, crash, and spike again in the chart above. We were watching people around the country get suddenly wealthy, and we all thought we could do it too. Instead, what 99% of us were witnessing was not our future, but a view of the wealthy leaving us behind.
1980 was the year Steve McQueen died, and by the end of the decade it had become cool to be like the slick Gordon Gecko, not the no-glory Bullitt. We were aware of the cultural shift back then, even though we were in the middle of it: clothes changed with it, they got a little shinier, a lot brighter; squeaky clean yuppies disdained the dirty hippies, resulting in not much more resistance than a few "Die Yuppie Scum" t-shirts worn by grunge fans.
By the beginning of the new century we had internalized an entirely new idea of cool.
Just look at our movies. Ocean's Eleven was remade in 2001 with the superstars of its day, just like the original had, but with an important twist. In 2001, they actually pull of the heist. The entire point of the original film was discarded, along with one of the coolest scenes in cinema. It just didn't fit the times anymore; money had become what justifies swagger, not attitude. We all loved it so much we clamored for sequels.
At one time, our characters didn't have to win everything for us to love them. The Italian Job in 2003 ends with our heroes counting their money; in 1969 it ended with our heroes teetering on the edge of a cliff, gold slipping out of their hands. The Thomas Crown Affair of 1999 has the lovers reuniting, while in 1968 their loyalties pull them apart. The list could go on, and it does.
Maybe we all just like happy endings, but the rough edges, the comfort with our own skin no matter the outcome, I wonder if we still have that. Perhaps we never did, and I'm being nostalgic for a period that never existed, like any other wistful thinker looking at another time or place. But I doubt it, and I know we're still shifting into new ideas and attitudes now.
How are we changing now, how have we changed in the past decade? Sometimes I think the 1% has left us so far behind that the vast majority no longer imagines they're among us, that the wage stagnation of the past decade and the lapsing economy of the past few years has made us refocus on other more important things, on our relationships, our attitudes, and our raw sense of fun.
Maybe today we're headed to a new time of swagger, of promise, that came from our personal attitude, not being drenched in money. How we dress, what we watch and what we drive will reflect that. In ten more years, I suppose we'll look back and see what are our attitudes about cool were in 2011, and think we knew that all along.
I saw one of these the other day in an obnoxious blue. There was nothing classy about it, nothing that reeked of wealth. It just looked like hella fun. It said something different about its owner than today’s Carreras, even though it’s still using the same basic design language (and they throw you back in your seat a lot harder now).
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| 1972 Porsche Carrera RS via |
I think it’s because most people wanted something different said about them back then.
Driving a modern Porsche implies that you’re at the top of the food chain, and that you intend to stay there. One of these says you may be scrapping your way up, and if you’re not, well, you’re enjoying the view right where you are.
That seems to parallel the changes in Porsche itself, I guess, but I think it also reflects a change in what’s actually considered cool. And this change also parallels a massive change in our society that started in 1980.
1980 was the year that American salaries leveled off, except for the very wealthiest. It was the year that productivity skyrocketed while leaving salaries behind.
The culture shifted with this change. It moved slowly at first, but it did make a real shift. The lime green and tangerine monsters of the late sixties and seventies roads gave way to tasteful machines in red with satin black wheels. We were treated to Gordon Gecko in 1987, right at the time of the spike, crash, and spike again in the chart above. We were watching people around the country get suddenly wealthy, and we all thought we could do it too. Instead, what 99% of us were witnessing was not our future, but a view of the wealthy leaving us behind.
1980 was the year Steve McQueen died, and by the end of the decade it had become cool to be like the slick Gordon Gecko, not the no-glory Bullitt. We were aware of the cultural shift back then, even though we were in the middle of it: clothes changed with it, they got a little shinier, a lot brighter; squeaky clean yuppies disdained the dirty hippies, resulting in not much more resistance than a few "Die Yuppie Scum" t-shirts worn by grunge fans.
By the beginning of the new century we had internalized an entirely new idea of cool.
Just look at our movies. Ocean's Eleven was remade in 2001 with the superstars of its day, just like the original had, but with an important twist. In 2001, they actually pull of the heist. The entire point of the original film was discarded, along with one of the coolest scenes in cinema. It just didn't fit the times anymore; money had become what justifies swagger, not attitude. We all loved it so much we clamored for sequels.
At one time, our characters didn't have to win everything for us to love them. The Italian Job in 2003 ends with our heroes counting their money; in 1969 it ended with our heroes teetering on the edge of a cliff, gold slipping out of their hands. The Thomas Crown Affair of 1999 has the lovers reuniting, while in 1968 their loyalties pull them apart. The list could go on, and it does.
Maybe we all just like happy endings, but the rough edges, the comfort with our own skin no matter the outcome, I wonder if we still have that. Perhaps we never did, and I'm being nostalgic for a period that never existed, like any other wistful thinker looking at another time or place. But I doubt it, and I know we're still shifting into new ideas and attitudes now.
How are we changing now, how have we changed in the past decade? Sometimes I think the 1% has left us so far behind that the vast majority no longer imagines they're among us, that the wage stagnation of the past decade and the lapsing economy of the past few years has made us refocus on other more important things, on our relationships, our attitudes, and our raw sense of fun.
Maybe today we're headed to a new time of swagger, of promise, that came from our personal attitude, not being drenched in money. How we dress, what we watch and what we drive will reflect that. In ten more years, I suppose we'll look back and see what are our attitudes about cool were in 2011, and think we knew that all along.
To retain some connection to the films and what they tell us of the changes in American values, I think we might be even better served having a look at a film to see the changes in the American reality (really the global reality). Have a look at the mall scenes in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Unless you lived in SoCal of the very early 80's you would not recognize a single shop in the food court. Not a single MacDonalds, Subways, Panda Express, Starbucks or other major corporate food server in the whole film.
ReplyDeleteThe enchanting mantra of greed did not bind us because we really believed it was good like Gecko said, rather it was because we believed there was enough to go around. We believed that those of us who didn't enter the 1% could earn the trickle down of those 1% achievements. In many ways we have. Consider that your pocket now holds a library greater then any pre-War king or pope combined. Even as we argue over how healthcare aught to be paid for, the healthcare that a majority of Americans receive is also greater then that of any pre-War king or pope received. What illnesses most Americans suffer and die from are illnesses of plenty, rather then want. Our current anxiety is that of a prospect of real want, not the general experience of it.
Two issues have been at play since the Fast Times, or rather our current condition can be seen to have begun to bear fruit in that time. One, the post-War recovery in the parts of the world truly effected by it was achieved. Japan and Germany had become major exporters. Most of Europe was about to join the free-market (for want of a better word) and Asia was ready to be our labor. American labor had competition. The second factor is a direct consequence of this. Trickle-Down Economics might actually work just fine. The problem is that with international corporations capable of smartly playing their advantages, globalism became the focus of US policy. In so doing, what trickled down from corporations was doing so to people who were competing with American labor. In other words, while American wages stagnated, wages in places like China and India went up and yet remained far lower then our own. If you invested in those corporations that were going to survive globalism then you might afford a Porche. If you were just some shlub working in a factory, or managing Perry's Pizza Parlor, you'll be happy to lease a Toyota Camry at the price of a Porche Carrera in 1980.