The 1990s were a time when my teenage brain—and possibly the broader American culture—was certain the future would play out something like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Various political leaders would hold polite meetings in luxe conference rooms, realize “we’re all human, man,” eradicate hunger, bigotry, money, and national identities, and go off and explore the cosmos together, just cuz, “that’d be cool!” We just had to wait patiently for this inevitable tomorrow. You can perhaps excuse some naiveté based on being, well, a kid—but I think there was a broader cultural sense back then that the long arc of history would eventually bend towards warp drives and spandex. I mean, even Axl Rose was wearing bike shorts.
But the reality of that era—and the future that was to follow—was hardly anything so utopian. Economic inequality was spiraling, mass incarceration ran rampant, sexual freedoms and reproductive; only the privileged would survive, while third class passengers wouldn’t be helped.
