Prosperity and Innovation, Calamity and Want Juxtaposing Two Defining Decades

WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY PATRICK SCHRANCK ART DIRECTOR EMMA JOHNSTON STYLED BY MELANNY ABREGO MODEL TAHOE MACK DESIGNER ELLIE NICOLL

the 20s

During the presidential election of 1920, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding triumphed to victory after conducting a front-porch campaign where he gave most of his speeches to those who visited his rural Ohio home. He campaigned on a “return to normalcy” that appealed to a wearied nation in the wake of World War I and the Spanish Flu. A hundred years later, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden won the presidency after being forced to mostly campaign virtually from his home in Wilmington, Delaware due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He promised to end the public health crisis and its accompanying economic crisis in addition to uniting the country after the divisive and tumultuous administration of Donald J. Trump. The same year that Harding was elected, Eugene V. Debs, an anti-war activist, union organizer, and the standard-bearer of the Socialist Party won over 3% of the presidential popular vote from behind bars as he was imprisoned for his public advocacy against World War I. Recent years have shown a growing interest in the ideas of socialism, communism, and anarchism and an increase in labor organizing in reaction to the presidential campaigns of Senator Bernie Sanders, the Black Lives Matter movement, and worsening economic inequality. In the 1920’s, the world entered into a new era of affluence and relative stability after having endured crises that shook the world before again returning to crisis with the 1929 stock market crash. During the decade, the rising accessibility and advancement of technologies such as film, radio, automobiles, and aviation along with the cultural ascent of jazz music ushered in a sense of modernity. In the 2020’s, so far we’ve seen the whole world rattled by the impacts of the COVID-19 virus’ massive disruptions to the economy, infrastructure, culture, and our psyches as the dire state of the climate crisis worsens and the already stark divide between the working class and the elite deepens. This decade has hitherto been defined by tragedy, loss, frustration, exhaustion, and cynicism. In juxtaposing these two defining decades, we see both striking parallels and contrasts that each can compel us to consider our place in the long narrative of history and how we best can shape it.

In our popular conception of what the 1920’s were like most think of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great American Novel,” The Great Gatsby, which in many ways exemplifies the excesses and shallow opulence of the decade. Decades and centuries from now how will our descendants think of our current decade? Will we be defined by the viral sensations of TikTok, the melodramatic visual splendor that is Euphoria, the utter stupidity and corruption of NFTs and cryptocurrency, the banal oddity of the so-called “metaverse”, or none of these at all? Obviously, we can’t predict the future or how our time will be perceived in it. However, it’s worth considering how we seek to define ourselves. As it seems, many of the people in our generation draw heavy inspiration from the aesthetics, fashion, music, films, and technology of previous decades such as the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s. Behind this fascination with the days of old seems to be, at least in part, an escapist yearning. In an era of such turbulence, there is unquestionably comfort to be found in the positive aspects of comparatively balanced times that preceded us. But, don’t we want to make our own distinctive mark for posterity? Inspiration is certainly important, yet we must always be striving to be reshaping ourselves anew in order to truly prosper and grow not just as individuals, but as a society and a culture as a whole.

In some ways, we have already begun to push in a new direction. A broader range of gender and sexual identities are becoming more widely accepted than ever before, demands for racial justice are becoming more fervent and frequent, workers are demanding better from their employers and are organizing together to do so, and the status quo as a whole is coming under much greater scrutiny as it continues to hold us back from necessary progress. Yet, at the same time, we see misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories abound and the fascist movement both in America and abroad gaining ground. During the epoch of the Lost Generation writers, the artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and a growing queer subculture in places like Weimar-era Berlin, we also saw a rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States and the fascist movement in Europe. There has always been a contrasting push and pull of progress and regression across all time. What matters most is how we can continue to seek out ways to advance ourselves. We can only do so if we are constantly questioning our preconceived notions, seeking out new opportunities and perspectives, and envisioning an extraordinary and better new world for ourselves. Fresh and exciting prospects for unique approaches to art and design, fashion, technology, governance, economics, and social structures await us as long as we’re willing to dream of and fight for them.