I don’t know what alternate universe 80s era Ryan came from, but we didn’t “pave over the trauma.” We embraced the trauma and made it part of our culture. We 99 Luftballoned it. Bowie and Freddie - God rest their souls - turned the pressure of day-to-day life into an absolute banger. When we worried about foreign invaders, we had Patrick Swayze pull together a ragtag group of high schoolers to stand their ground. Or we had Louis Gossett, Jr. help some kid steal an Iron Eagle and rescue the kid’s dad from behind enemy lines. Or we sent Rocky to kick Ivan Drago’s ass on his home turf. Frankie Goes to Hollywood made Regan and Gorbachev duke it out on MTV. It was awesome. And then we had Gremlins and Ghostbusters and Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Starfighger and Labyrinth and a million other escapist flicks come out to help us have some fun. Not because we were “paving over trauma,” but because Hollywood knew it was okay to still have a little fun every now and again. It ain’t that deep.