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It’s all relative. There was conflict. But the Cold War was over and 9/11 hadn’t happened yet.

It was a very optimistic time.

[cmrdporcupine]

Again, for North Americans on the whole. Maybe western Europeans if they didn't look too far over their shoulders.

I remember it as a very mixed time. Culturally optimistic here in North America, certainly. But I could certainly see the stormclouds.

When you say relative, you need to postfix that with "... to me."

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> When you say relative, you need to postfix that with "... to me."

That’s what relative means, right? Adding “to me” doesn’t add much value to the meaning.

I’m not sure your point anyway. As even Western Europe and the entire world no longer feared nuclear Armageddon from the Cold War. There were other problems, of course, but that period for most of the world was more peaceful than the immediately preceding or following period. If you were in North America or Asia or Africa or anywhere.