Ponder: youth outreach (2)

In my previous post I mentioned I think about how this younger (under 40) generation has been incredibly cheated and shortchanged, and how I often think of it when I drive my car. Here's the story behind the connection to cars and some perspective you might draw from it.

When I was growing up in the 1950's and 1960's, the overwhelming favorite color of both men and women was blue. Americans loved blue. It had nothing to do with politics or, as you will see, marketing. It was the natural expression of people's favorite color. Study after study showed that blue was favored by both men and women, both for its beauty (evoking sky and water) and also that it was soothing. So when the automobile industry matured and came out of it's Model A black car phase, and utilitarian black, to offer color selections, the overwhelming majority of cars on the road were blue. Not the metallic or bright blue that you see sometimes today, when you see a blue car at all, but a "steady Eddie" kind of blue. Here is a link to a color paint chip sheet for 1960 Chevrolet cars:

http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1960-chevrolet-pg01.jpg

So you have to kind of use your imagination, but think of what it looked like when a good half or more of the cars on the road were colored blue or green shades, such as in the first column. Even when a white car was selected, it was viewed as being very individualistic to that person, and a cream tone. Reds were also rare, not because they were unavailable, as you can see on the sheet, but people just did not select red, white or gray cars. They loved blue.

You have to take my word for it, but driving was more serene in those days. It's not just the courtesy and careful driving that was predominant back then, but it also simply looked more serene with all of that blue! To this day it hurts my eyes to look at the color of cars today, because I remember when it was better. I can testify that it is different today, looking at cars that are either neutral, soul-less, or jangling in color than when people drove cars colored in their favorite colors, serene blues and greens.

So what happened? How did it change so radically? Well, it was a joining together of two forces. One was the "revolution" against the "establishment" by hipsters and discontent generation of your parents who wanted to do something "different from their parents." So called "women's liberationists," don't laugh, I wish it wasn't true, declared war against blue as being "discrimination" because baby boys wore blue and baby girls wore pink. I'm not kidding. I remember well women slavering like maniacs that "blue is the color of oppression." Girls and women who LOVED blue gave it up, because they were brainwashed by the libbers that liking blue was "giving in to the man" and "allowing yourself to be oppressed." So women cut off their own noses to spite their own faces, giving up their own love of blue so that they could shove it in the face of their parents and "the male establishment." Denim became the only acceptable blue, except for the period of blue eyeshadow in make up. Girls and women rejected the very color that they loved in order to "stick it to the man." Yes, young people, your parents were that stupid.

The second force drew its energy from the "social revolution," which was to deliberately change people's tastes so that they would spend more money. It was the shift from painting cars in the colors that most people loved to painting cars in different colors, and then convincing people that new colors were their "new image." So the marketers started peddling colors that convinced people that they were "luxury," or "racers," and "the new neutral metallics" (silver). As people increasingly bought off the lot, rather than ordered the car with the paint you wanted, you had to choose what the marketers supplied. This is why I'm driving a maroon car and hate the color, and why all you see is white, silver and red. It's not like it used to be where people would order their car and wait for it in more leisurely times. Since the 1970's you basically have gone to the lot and selected among what is there. And every car ad is pushing an image, rather than selling cars that are painted in the predominant favorite colors, as it used to be.

So it's not like people changed their minds about blue. It was social and marketing brainwashing.

I mention this story because I think when I share something like this, it opens your eyes a bit and you can relate. Unless you have someone like me who can break the story down and tell you what really went on, you'd have no way of having this social, cultural and historical fact based history to understand what is going on. Young people today are brainwashed by their parents generation to think that "you are in charge" and "the individual rules." Well, think about it. If I can witness the entire country's taste in car color deliberately manipulated to flip flop in a total change, you can imagine what I've seen about other important social and cultural factors that have been totally manipulated. So this is an example where you can learn that you are not so much in charge as you think you are, and it's your own parents who, for the most part, sold the American spirit down the river.