One of the natural ways this discussion can go is to pick up on whatever the tragedy-of-the-day is, and bemoan the fact that things like this never used to happen. (Our discussion was the night after some students in Arkansas gunned down a number of their classmates.) I discouraged this line of discussion without banning it outright, a strategy I recommend. The reason I dislike this topic is that it draws people away from their personal experiences, and into discussions of what they've seen on TV. You can wind up in a lengthy retelling of a story which is not part of the personal life of anyone in the room. It tends to distance people from each other, rather than bringing them closer.
I also would discourage people from trying to "win" this argument, something that was not a problem in our group. You can't win this argument, because it is so dependent on personal experience. Some people are greatly relieved that they are no longer targeted by Soviet nuclear missiles; others are worried about the ozone layer. To some the past looks like Leave it to Beaver, to others it looks like Les Miserables. Neither is wrong.
A second question to think about: How does your opinion on this question
shape the way you look at new information? Have you sharpened your ears
to hear only the good, or only the bad?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age
of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter
of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct
to Heaven, we were all
going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the
present period, that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for
evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only. --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
In October 1900 the new building was dedicated: Church of Our Father
(Unitarian). Painted on the wall near the pulpit were the five tenets of
Unitarian belief of that time: The Fatherhood of God; The Brotherhood of
Man; The Leadership of Jesus; Salvation by Character; and The Progress
of Mankind, Onward and Upward Forever. --Patricia Jessop On This We
Build: Highlights from the History of the First Unitarian Congregation
of Ottawa