Mark Twain once said: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes."
I'm now getting old enough to recognize certain things in this decade — the 2000s — that "rhyme" with things from another decade, the 1970s. See if you agree.


• Both the 1970s and the 2000s have an unpopular but twice-elected Republican president (Nixon in the 70s; George Bush in the 00s).
• Both decades have an unpopular war (Vietnam in the 70s; Iraq in the 00s).
• Both decades have significant rise in petroleum prices (the 70s had the "oil shocks" of 1973-74 which raised prices from $2.50/barrel to $10/barrel; the 00s have spot oil prices approaching $150/barrel).
• Both decades witnessed a rise in environmental consciousness (the 70s had the birth of the "environmental" movement; the 00s has its own apocalyptic religious vision of "global warming").


• Both decades had the democratic party nominate a previously obscure liberal as its candidate for president (Jimmy Carter in the 70s; Barack H. Obama in the 00s).
• Both decades saw the rise of a transformative media technology (the 70s saw the beginning of cable television which began the fragmentation of media centralization away from the "Big Three" networks; 00s have widespread WIFI that allows bloggers and Twitterers a final assault on our attention span).
• The mid-to-late 1970s saw a significant growth in inflation rates; inflation growth is just beginning at the latter part of the decade.
Of course, we should be grateful we don't have "big hair," "bell bottoms," or "swingers" to the same degree that were present in the 1970s.
Question: What other similarities do see between the current decade and the 1970s?