Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything [Hardcover]

David Sirota (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 15, 2011

Wall Street scandals. Fights over taxes. Racial resentments. A Lakers-Celtics championship. The Karate Kid topping the box-office charts. Bon Jovi touring the country. These words could describe our current moment—or the vaunted iconography of three decades past.

In this wide-ranging and wickedly entertaining book, New York Times bestselling journalist David Sirota takes readers on a rollicking DeLorean ride back in time to reveal how so many of our present-day conflicts are rooted in the larger-than-life pop culture of the 1980s—from the “Greed is good” ethos of Gordon Gekko (and Bernie Madoff) to the “Make my day” foreign policy of Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush) to the “transcendence” of Cliff Huxtable (and Barack Obama).

Today’s mindless militarism and hypernarcissism, Sirota argues, first became the norm when an ’80s generation weaned on Rambo one-liners and “Just Do It” exhortations embraced a new religion—with comic books, cartoons, sneaker commercials, videogames, and even children’s toys serving as the key instruments of cultural indoctrination. Meanwhile, in productions such as Back to the Future, Family Ties, and The Big Chill, a campaign was launched to reimagine the 1950s as America’s lost golden age and vilify the 1960s as the source of all our troubles. That 1980s revisionism, Sirota shows, still rages today, with Barack Obama cast as the 60s hippie being assailed by Alex P. Keaton–esque Republicans who long for a return to Eisenhower-era conservatism.

“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner wrote. “It’s not even past.” The 1980s—even more so. With the native dexterity only a child of the Atari Age could possess, David Sirota twists and turns this multicolored Rubik’s Cube of a decade, exposing it as a warning for our own troubled present—and possible future.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Essay from Author David Sirota

Five ’80s Flicks That Explain How the ’80s Still Define Our World
Back To Our Future posits that the 1980s--and specifically 1980s pop culture--frames the way we think about major issues today. The decade is the lens through which we see our world. To understand what that means, here are five classic flicks that show how the 1980s still shapes our thinking on government, the “rogue,” militarism, race, and even our not-so-distant past.

1. Ghostbusters (1984): Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddmore seem like happy-go-lucky guys, but these are cold, hard military contractors. Between evading the Environmental Protection Agency, charging exorbitant rates for apparition captures, and summoning a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the merry band shows a Zoul-haunted New York that their for-profit services are far more reliable than those of the Big Apple’s wholly inept government. At the same time, the Ghostbusters were providing 1980s audiences with a cinematic version of what would later become the very real Blackwater--and what would be the anti-government, privatize-everything narrative of the twenty-first century.

2. Die Hard (1988): Though the 1980s was setting the stage for the rise of anti-government politics today, it was also creating the Palin-esque “rogue” to conveniently explain the good things government undeniably accomplishes. Hitting the silver screen just a few years after Ollie North’s rogue triumphalism, John McClane became the ’80s most famous of this “rogue” archetype--a government employee who becomes a hero specifically by defying his police superiors and rescuing hostages from the twin threat of terrorism and his boss’s bureaucratic clumsiness. This message is so clear in Die Hard, that in one memorable scene, McClane is yelling at one police lieutenant that the government has become “part of the problem.” Die Hard, like almost every national politician today, says government can only work if it gets out of the way of the rogues, mavericks, and rule-breakers within its own midst.

3. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985): “Sir, do we get to win this time?” So begins the second--and most culturally important--installment of the Rambo series. The question was a direct rip-off of Ronald Reagan’s insistence that when it came to the loss in Vietnam, America had been too “afraid to let them win”--them, of course, being the troops. The theory embedded in this refrain is simple: If only meddling politicians and a weak-kneed public had deferred to the Pentagon, then we would have won the conflict in Southeast Asia. Repeated ad nauseum since the 1980s, the “let them win” idea now defines our modern discussion of war. If only we let the Pentagon’s Rambos do whatever they want with no question or oversight whatsoever, then we can decisively conclude the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…and we can win the neverending “War on Terror.”

4. Rocky III (1982): Before the 2008 presidential campaign devolved into cartoonish media portrayals of the palatable “post-racial” Barack Obama and his allegedly unpalatable “overly racial” pastor Jeremiah Wright, there was Rocky III more explicitly outlining this binary and bigoted portrayal of African Americans. Here was Rocky Balboa as the determined but slightly ignorant stand-in for White Middle America. Surveying the diverse landscape, the Italian Stallion could see only two kinds of black people—on one side the suave, smooth, post-racial Apollo Creed, and on the other side the enraged, animalistic Clubber Lang. Rocky thus gravitated to the former, and reflexively feared the latter, essentially summarizing twenty-first-century White America’s often over-simplistic and bigoted attitudes toward the black community today.

5. The Big Chill (1983): This college reunion flick from Lawrence Kasdan is hilarious, morose, and seemingly nostalgic for the halcyon days of the past; but powerfully propagandistic in its negative framing of the 1960s. Over the course of the film’s weekend, character after character berates the 1960s as an overly decadent age that may have been rooted in idealism, but was fundamentally destined to fail. Sound familiar? Of course it does. The 1980s-created narrative of the Bad Sixties can still be found in everything from national Tea Party protests to never-ending culture-war battles on local school boards. The message is always the same: If only America can emulate the Big Chillers and get past its Sixties immaturity and liberalism, everything will be A-okay.

From Publishers Weekly

Sirota (The Uprising) ushers readers back to the era of big money and bigger hair, the yuppie and the Gipper to show how the 1980s transformed—and continues to influence—America's culture and politics. As Carter's presidency began to crumble in 1978, a revival of back-to-the-'50s theater, television, and film productions (Grease, Happy Days, La Bamba) overtook grittier 1960s imagery of "urbanity, ethnicity and strife" and came to define the Reagan era in a country eager to forget—or unwilling to learn from—the failure of Vietnam. Sirota argues that the combination of Reagan, the "candidate of nostalgia"; hypermilitarist movies that re-demonized communism; and sophisticated marketing campaigns glorifying the cult of the individual led to our current culture's narcissism and obsessive pursuit of wealth and celebrity. In his effort to fit current trends to his overriding thesis, Sirota occasionally makes some sweeping statements, such as claiming the military's public relations campaign was so successful that Americans "never dare question" the military, ignoring the numerous anti–Iraq War protests and the outrage over the Abu Ghraib photographs. But the many of his arguments are well informed and sparkle with wit and irreverence. (Mar.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345518780
• ISBN-13: 978-0345518781
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Sirota is a journalist, TV commentator and nationally syndicated weekly newspaper columnist. His weekly column is based at the San Francisco Chronicle, Portland Oregonian and The Seattle Times and now appears in newspapers with a combined daily circulation of more than 1.6 million readers. He has written three books, the latter of which became the basis for the National Geographic Channel's major miniseries on the 1980s. He has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Harper's and The Nation. He appears regularly as a guest on MSNBC and Current TV and has been featured on The Colbert Report and NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. Sirota received a degree in journalism and political science from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He lives in Denver with his wife, Emily; his son Isaac; and his dog, Monty. Find his website at www.davidsirota.com.

You can schedule Sirota to appear at your book club, civic organization or local bookstore at his website at www.davidsirota.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 88 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How this country got stuck in the Reagan rut March 18, 2011

By 1.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

According to David Sirota, the United States has been unable to solve its current problems due to narcissism, nostalgia for the fifties, militarism, paranoia about the government, and racial divisions which were created or became exacerbated in the eighties. Sirota believes that the eighties created an era of narcissism in which the individual counted more than the team or the nation. An example of this eighties style narcissism, that Sirota mentions, is Michael Jordan, who played for himself and not the team, and this autistic view of teamwork, was replicated in the film "Hoosiers," in which the hero of the movie goes against his coach and the team. So much attention to the self, Sirota contends, led to the cult of personality in the eighties in which people looked to celebrities or politicians on an individual basis to look for answers, and Americans gave up on the idea of collective effort in solving the problems of the nation. Due to this deification of the individual, Americans thought they could be just like the fictional Gordon Gekko or the real Micheal Milken by making millions of dollars by taking advantage of their fellow citizens. The only impediment to this Randian version of the hero from achieving his or her potential was the government in which pop culture took a dim view of in the eighties. Sirota describes how the movie "E.T." depicted government agents as being thugs out to terrorize suburbia. Sirota states that the government was seen as the problem and not the solution in television shows like the "A-Team," "Knight Rider," and movies such as "Die Hard," "Rambo," and "Lethal Weapon," in which it was okay to go rogue against the laws of the United States.... While the "Ghostbusters," movies advocated the idea that private contractors and not the government could best handle the job of protecting the American people.
Sirota theorizes that the eighties were odd because although the government was distrusted the fifties and the military were worshipped. Americans wanted to go back to the fifties in movies like "Back to the Future," and ridicule and condemn the sixties and hippies in television shows such as "Family Ties," "thirtysomething," and in the movie "The Big Chill." The hippies were also blamed for the infamous "stabbed in the back," myth in which the military could have won the Vietnam War if it wasn't for the peace protesters. Based on his own childhood experience, Sirota tells how American children were militarized through video games and Pentagon approved movies like "Top Gun." The final section of the book is about how "The Cosby Show," distorted race relations in America by making whites believe that all blacks had to act like the Huxtables by transcending race and pulling themselves by their own bootstraps. I would highly recommend this book for understanding how the cultural climate of the eighties has paralyzed the American political system. Read more ›

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ronald Reagon?.......the actor! March 20, 2011

By D. Pulsfort

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm about half way through the Kindle Edition, and I must say, this book really picks away at your brain by quickly driving home its message. And I'll have to confess, I'm now a believer. Of course, it wasn't very difficult as I grew up in the '80s.

In a nutshell, the Author believes that all of our current political worldviews about war and economics-and that of our politician's-were influenced by many of the TV shows, commercials and pop culture references that we grew up watching as kids during the 1980's......WOW.....I know, what a stretch, right! But it's so TRUE.

For example, thanks to the A-TEAM, Americans simultaneously LOVE the military and military types like Sarah-the Commie-Watcher-Palin and John-the Maverick-McCain, but HATE the government-even though they're the exact same thing!

It's why we believe that if we "JUST DO IT" we will become rich and famous like Micheal Jordan.

And it's why we still believe that "greed is good". In fact, it's doing better than ever. All because of our affinity for the GO GO '80s.

According to some Americans, a group of pansy-assed hippie, spitter-on'ers are to blame for losing the War in Vietnam, and by the early '80s they could not accept it any longer. So, we as a nation, had had enough, and through TV, we revised our past. That's why one man-RAMBO!-went back to Vietnam: to finally do the "right" thing and win the war; something that our inept, lefty government could never do.

Of course it all started with one of the decade's biggest icons: the ACTOR!-turned-President Ronald Reagan-the "right" man for the "right" job.

I could go on and on but I don't want to give away too much. You get the idea. It's all very, very interesting....

Anyone who grew up in the '80s should get a kick out of reading this book. Snort a line and ENJOY! Read more ›

59 of 73 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Some good points, but hard to take seriously April 25, 2011

By Dienne TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

How is it that we went from the Civil Rights 60s to the anti-war, "Free to be You and Me" 70s to the "War Games" 80s? And how has that transition impacted our current culture and political landscape? These are among the questions David Sirota sets out to explore and answer in this book.

Sirota opens by describing his own experience of the 80s - how the decade had its own feel and style and even language, which language he still finds himself thinking in. He grew up believing that the movies, television and other cultural accoutrements which formed the basis of his formative years were just good, clean, exuberant fun. Yet as the 80s shows, images and themes have resurfaced in the last few years, Sirota has come to believe that there was something much more powerful - subversive even - about the 80s. He argues that there was a deliberate, conscious, propagandistic re-working of previous generations to create a new 80s' mass mindset of materialism and martial/military dominance.

Sirota argues that 80s propaganda deliberately re-worked previous generations to create the twin myths of "The 50s" and "The 60s". The 60s were portrayed as a period of radical upheaval and violent instability - a "bad" time in our history (the gains of the Civil Rights Movement thereby getting swept under the rug). The 50s, meanwhile, were portrayed as the antidote - a stable, peaceful time when children were respectful, father knew best and America had "values". If we want to "return" society to its pre-1960 "good", we need to throw out the hippies and return to the clean-cut, all-American 50s.

Sirota next explores the 80s generation's heroification of certain individuals (mainly sports and movie stars, personified by Michael Jordan) and the companion message, "Just Do It...." It was, Sirota argues, the ultimate in "rugged individualism", the height of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism". You can be a star or an idol. You can be all you can be. You are the most important person. Sirota explores how this has led to the phenomenon of "reality TV" and being famous for being famous.

Sirota then explores the generation's impact on America's opinion of the military. Public opinion of and faith in the military bottomed out in the 70s with the failure of Vietnam. Sirota argues that 80s propaganda - namely Hollywood movies produced in conjunction with the Pentagon - reversed that trend. The myth of the "Spat Upon Veteran" was spawned and the failure of Vietnam was explained as a failure of will - the American people gave up when the going got tough and the military wasn't "allowed" to win. In order to achieve military dominance and unwavering American support for the American military, Hollywood (and the Pentagon) cranked out heroic movies like "Top Gun" and "Red Dawn".

Finally, Sirota explores the impact of 80s culture on race relations and recognition. In the 60s and 70s, blacks were struggling - often violently - for their place in society. As blacks appeared in more media roles, TV shows began exploring racial issues and depicting black struggles in ways which confronted and challenged white viewers with their own racism. But in the 80s, however, racism was declared dead. Bill Cosby's Huxtable family "proved" that, with the "right" attitudes, blacks could be just as economically and socially successful as whites (which, of course, in the reverse means that any failure of blacks to achieve such success must be their own fault). Never mind that the 80s actually saw a widening of the gap between whites and blacks (along with the propagation of the "welfare queen myth). The bargain that blacks had to buy into in exchange for representation in the media was the acceptance of the "post-racial world" myth that never confronts whites with the reality of racism.

Sirota makes a number of good points and its hard to argue with the fact that the 80s marked a radical shift in many ways. However, I think Sirota over-argues his point and greatly over-generalizes. He plays fast and loose with dates and concepts to fit the data into his theory and he ignores data which doesn't fit. For example, "the 80s" seems to encompass everything from Carter through the first Gulf War, which Sirota argues "capped off" the 80s. Except that the Gulf War didn't even start until 1991.

Also, Sirota seems to believe that because he was immersed in 80s culture, that everyone else was too, and that it was the sole, or at least main, defining force in the 80s. However, I'm six years older than Sirota and I never saw half of the movies (let alone the TV shows) that Sirota lists off. Seems to me that someone's parents let him watch a tad too much TV and too many movies. For evidence of just how obsessed Sirota is with 80s culture, read the footnotes on page 90 (which ruminates in obsessive detail about the movie "Ghostbusters II) and page 96 (which challenges readers to match a number of 80s TV/movie "heroes" with their shows). The reality is that the 80s, like every other decade, was much more heterogeneous. There were still plenty of liberals, anti-war types, feminists, civil rights advocates, etc. - not all of us were holing up in our basements playing war games.

Second, Sirota seems to believe that time started and ended in the 80s. Michael Jordan was the first made-to-order "hero". The militarism and materialism of the 80s were unique in history. And, furthermore, the 80s were the beginning of a linear course which has led straight to the economic collapse and three concurrent wars of recent history.

But, of course, Jordan wasn't the first "hero". Arguably, Jesus gets that honor (or perhaps Buddha). But even in more recent decades there was Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali, Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, etc. And, of course, 80s materialism isn't significantly different that what could be found in the "Gay [18]90s" or the "Roaring 20s". And our country has been involved in an endless round-about of wars ever since its founding.

Furthermore, Sirota neglects trends that have arisen since the 80s. The 80s may have been the decade of the Power Rangers, but since that time the two most beloved children's characters ever created - Barney and Elmo - have arisen and both are still going strong, preaching their messages of sharing and caring and getting along with polite manners. In the 90s America enjoyed a relatively peaceful decade with few external military conflicts (that we knew about, anyway), and we seemed to like it that way. When George Bush launched the war on Iraq, tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets for weeks at a time - not the kind of behavior you might expect from pro-military 80s kids.

Finally, there are a number of ways in which Sirota really makes it hard to take him seriously as a writer at all. First, he insists on trash-talking in a way that not even the worst 80s movies ever did. Most of it can't be printed in a review, but for one rather mild example, on page 129, Sirota tells us: "The press release went on to list Bush's most slobbery kisses of the Pentagon [arse]" (except that "arse" isn't quite the word Sirota used). Was such graphic language really necessary? Interestingly enough, on page 137, Sirota writes, "...the White House was "[expletive] with the wrong guy." So a-words and s-bombs are okay, but he draws the line with the f-bomb?

Second, he repeatedly refers to the middle of the country as "flyover country". I certainly have no respect for Sarah Palin, but Sirota plays right into her hands when he dismisses the area where tens of millions of people (including myself) live and work as not worthy of anything other than flying over. Middle America might not be any more "real" than coastal America, but it still is real America.

And finally, Sirota makes some ridiculous comparisons. On page 48, he opines, "Sure, many Americans ended up hating Bush for what he did with his authority, just as many Bulls fans hated Jordan for opting to end his career on the Washington Wizards." Yeah, I hate Michael Jordan the same way I hate George W. Bush, what about you? And on page 79 he writes, "Conservatives cheer when politicians sell off Eisenhower-era public infrastructure (highways, bridges, etc.) to foreign private firms. Liberals demand those same politicians "get the government out of our bedrooms."" Sure, politicians have just as much rights managing our bedrooms as they do managing public infrastructure.

With a whole lot of rigorous application of scholarship and intellectual consistency (and writing like an adult), Sirota could have written a serious book that could make a significant impact on the way we think about the impact of cultural forces over the course of the last several decades. But the reality of this book is just a bit of light food for thought that is a lot like celery: not really digestable and easily eliminated. 2.5 stars Read more ›