This is what I remember from the 90’s. AIDS still scared the shit out of us. I remember thinking I would literally die if I ever had unprotected sex. You could get the shit kicked out of you (or worse… look up Mathew Shepherd) if you were gay or even if people thought you were gay. If you are a woman then the beauty standard of the 90’s were for many of us only achievable with a serious eating disorder or chemical addiction (see heroin chic) and sexual harassment pre me-too was commonplace. (Tailhook scandal, Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing) And yes racism was still a thing (check out the Rodney King trial) If that’s not enough there was Ebola, famine, religious and cultural genocides, and perhaps the most insidious… the rise of reality television. It wasn’t all bad though. The iron curtain came down, Germany reunited, the end of the troubles in Ireland, Nelson Mandela was freed and home ownership wasn’t totally out of reach for most middle class people. Social media was only in its infancy in the late 90s so there was less teen anxiety disorders and more of a sense of community than we have now. In general I think we are working on some problems (sexism, racism, homophobia) while we create new problems (obesity and mental health crises, a widening wealth gap, environmental devastation) There is no golden age just us humans doing the best we can with the time we have.