I was 16 in 1968. I remember it only too well. At age 15, I was on the grounds of the Pentagon in 1967 with the Fugs, watching other kids stick flowers in the rifle barrels of the National Guard. My dad was a friend of Bobby Kennedy. He thought the world had come to an end when Bobby was shot. In a way, THAT world DID come to an end. The last idealist with a chance at a two-term presidency for a quarter century was gone, not that idealists who get to be president remain idealists for long. Just ask Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.
We won't be doing ANYTHING about Russia internally. A Democratic administration wouldn't even consider the possibility, and Republicans only attack people who they think won't shoot back (Iraq was a gross miscalculation). The most effective attack Republicans could mount against Putin would be to keep the oil price artificially low. To do this, to get at enough domestic oil, they will have to poison tens of millions of Americans by fracking, but "collateral damage" was never a concept that worried them.
As with Vietnam (what was that you said about things repeating themselves?), younger people can be convinced that wars are noble, but after we saw enough of our friends come back in wheelchairs, missing limbs, or in caskets, we figured it out soon enough--faster than Nixon, for sure.
As you probably saw in the endless samples where someone with a camera and a microphone (from Jay Leno on down) went out into the streets of America, the typical American knows NOTHING about today's world. They get their info from MTV or Fox Noise, but they are frightfully uninformed about the world outside.
Yes, the stock market is playing with 18000, and I admit to being one who profited from it. Fifteen years ago or so, a wise friend pleaded with me to put my life savings into Berkshire Hathaway at $33,000 a share, which amounted to enough for six shares. He was wealthy enough to guarantee me he'd make it good if I lost all I had, so I did. Good move. I still have them.
But you're right. What goes up does eventually come down. I just can't see selling it off. After the taxes, what would I do with the rest, buy gold bricks?
The most scary scenario is a return to the 1950s. Ted Cruz is the perfect sort to be a reincarnation of Joe McCarthy. With today's lightning dissemination of information, a McCarthy clone wouldn't have it quite so easy, though. Back then, our only enemy was "kommanism." Call someone a "kommanist," and that was enough to damage them for a decade. Today, the radical right tries that with "libbrul," but it confounds them when over a third of Americans stand up and proudly wear the label.
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