# 1990s: cynical or optimistic?



## Blazkovitz (Mar 16, 2014)

How do you view the decade? I have seen it characterised in both ways.

Cynical side:
-popularity of dark subcultures: goths, punks, metalhead
-high crime rates all over the Western world
-sinister movies like the Matrix

Optimistic side:
-the "smiley face" trend
-upbeat pop music like the Spice Girls

It seems the cynicism was more prevalent in the early to mid 90s, and the optimism in late 90s. It might represent a transition from Xer to Xennial culture.


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## 408610 (Oct 3, 2016)

It is most cynical.


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## Schizoid (Jan 31, 2015)

I'm born in the early 90s, and I consider myself both a cynic and an optimist, haha. There is a part of me that notices all the corruption that is going on in this world, yet there is another part of me that remains hopeful that the future generations would be able to help to save the world from landing into complete darkness, and that the number of good people in this world will eventually outweigh the number of bad people in this world.


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## Six (Oct 14, 2019)

I feel like Meet Joe Black is






the most 90s thing there is.


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## bobbyherrington (Dec 3, 2020)

Six said:


> I feel like Meet Joe Black is
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hahaha that is truue


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## Reimemanua (May 11, 2021)

I like to believe that I'm more of a nihilist optimist


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## Boudicca (9 mo ago)

I'm definitely the cynic


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## Hexigoon (Mar 12, 2018)

I always viewed it as a hopeful, happy "peace" time - though depending where you were in the world that definitely wasn't the case, but from my POV the 90s era truly began with the fall of the USSR (and the birth of the world wide web) in 1991, which bred what I think was a misplaced optimism within western capitalist democracies, and there was quite a lot of optimism for the new millennium like a golden age was upon us despite that whole Y2K scare. The 90s mindset definitely came to its end by 9/11 as the cultural zeitgeist shifted from grand optimism to a new age of terror.

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> Cynical side:
> -popularity of dark subcultures: goths, punks, metalhead
> -high crime rates all over the Western world
> -sinister movies like the Matrix


Well, you kinda make it sound like the 90s was like a cesspit of crime and anarchy, and sure maybe in some areas, but I'm pretty sure the general crime rate had begun a decline since the early-mid 90s in the west.
Rates for violent and property crimes had rose in all wealthy Western countries since the late 50s until this decline in the early 90s and declined even further since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_drop

Sure there was dark-subcultures like in any era - and it depends on how cynically you view them - it's not like punks and metal heads were some 90s invention though. Heavy metal was considered pretty mainstream by the 80s.


I was a bit too young to watch The Matrix when that first came out but that was viewed as one of many points of groundbreaking technical feats within the 90's culture along with other movies like Toy Story and Titanic - despite the Matrix's dystopic themes I don't think it was largely viewed in a cynical light. It was recieved very positively. I didn't leave the movie feeling cynical when I first watched it, I was quite awe-inspired by it.


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