The Birth 1981 __hot__

At 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981, a static image of a rocket launching appeared on cable systems across New Jersey. Then, a grainy video of a British band playing a drum machine started playing. The words on screen: "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.

In the United States, March 30, 1981, saw the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. The footage of the shooting, the Secret Service reaction, and the hospital updates ran on a loop. CNN, still finding its footing, stayed on air for 48 hours straight. taught us that tragedy is entertainment, and that the news never has to sleep. The Birth 1981

Politics in 1980 was still about détente and malaise. Politics in 1982 would be about the Cold War freeze. But was the surgical incision. At 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981, a

To look at 1981 is to see the tangled roots of now. It gave us the PC (the tool), MTV (the medium), Solidarity (the spirit of resistance), and AIDS (the crisis of vulnerability). These four births—technological, cultural, political, and biological—did not exist in isolation. The computer allowed us to disconnect from each other; MTV reconnected us through spectacle; Solidarity proved that people could organize without a state; and AIDS proved that viruses do not care about politics. In the United States, March 30, 1981, saw