Feelings

First there was the Epoch of Sincerity. Then the Snark Ages. Now we are on the verge of a whole new period in American popular culture.
We'll name it in a moment.
For the longest time, we were a nation of nurture. We sipped cider through a straw, choosily chose Jif, trusted our cars to men wearing stars. Hollywood played along, reminding us that "It's a Wonderful Life" and that the hills were alive with "The Sound of Music." It was a time of innocence, simplicity, respect -- in pop culture, if not always in real life.
Sentimentality reigned, frequently expressed through "the happy ending." We laughed together, wept together, said "awww" together when Andy Griffith or June Cleaver gave us a parental talking-to.
In the last decades of the 20th century, however, the American mood shifted, our mores morphed. The planet may have warmed, but the culture cooled. Sarcasm overswept the zeitgeist like a glacier. Our worldview became less trusting, more cantankerous. And we buried sentimentality in cement.
Its demise began in the 1960s and '70s with the rash of political assassinations and Watergate and, arching over all those events, the rise of the counterculture. For our society, "that was the beginning of loss of faith and trust," former poet laureate Billy Collins says in an interview. In order to be earnest, "you have to expose yourself to emotions. We have become a lot more guarded."
And a lot more cynical.

From the WPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032800930.html?wpisrc=newsletter