Did The Great Depression and World War 2 cause society to relapse?

[DavidS]

In 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment and give women the right to vote. Along with the passage of the nineteenth amendment during the roaring twenties, in urban areas, minorities were treated with more equality than they had been accustomed to previously. This was reflected in some of the films of the decade. Redskin (1929) and Son of the Gods (1929), for instance, deal sympathetically with Native Americans and Asian Americans, openly reviling social bias. On the stage and in movies, black and white players appeared together for the first time. It became possible to go to nightclubs and see whites and minorities dancing and eating together. Even popular songs poked fun at the new social acceptance of homosexuality. Homosexuals also received a level of acceptance that was not seen again until the 1960s.

Question: Did the Great Depression and World War 2 set America's value system back 30 years and if we face another great depression, will it happen again? Or was our value system completely out of whack during the 1920s and it took a crisis for us to realize how insane and childish we were being and will another depression finally return us back to our morals?

 

[Old Rocks]

In 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment and give women the right to vote. Along with the passage of the nineteenth amendment during the roaring twenties, in urban areas, minorities were treated with more equality than they had been accustomed to previously. This was reflected in some of the films of the decade. Redskin (1929) and Son of the Gods (1929), for instance, deal sympathetically with Native Americans and Asian Americans, openly reviling social bias. On the stage and in movies, black and white players appeared together for the first time. It became possible to go to nightclubs and see whites and minorities dancing and eating together. Even popular songs poked fun at the new social acceptance of homosexuality. Homosexuals also received a level of acceptance that was not seen again until the 1960s.

Question: Did the Great Depression and World War 2 set America's value system back 30 years and if we face another great depression, will it happen again? Or was our value system completely out of whack during the 1920s and it took a crisis for us to realize how insane and childish we were being and will another depression finally return us back to our morals?

I don't think that it was a relapse so much as there were more immediate issues for most people. During the Depression, that was food for the next day, and survival of free nations during WW2. I believe, because the present challenges are not about justice concerning civil rights, but economic matters such as a real Health Care system in this nation, that the results of the coming Depression will be an intensification of the drive toward economic equalization in some areas. Also, there were things that happened in the Depression that would have been surprising in the '20s. Much of the CCCs were integrated. And the Social Security enacted during the Depression was for all Americans.