----- Original Message ----- From: "Todd Archer" <todda39 at hotmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 2:37 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] words for the black community
: Doug said:
:
: >If all you wise folks learned so much in the 1960s, what happened? Why
did
: >the movements disintegrate and the lessons dissipate?
:
not being one of the wise folks, doug, i really don't have all the answers. actually, the 1960s ethos played over into the 1970s; and didn't play out until roughly the gerald ford era. i'd like to point out a few things off the top of my head:
1. the 1960s weren't monolithic. to do the period justice would require something like henry adam's history of the united states (minus a volume or two). there was a lot going on then.
2. economics. compare the US economy and economic power at the end of the 1950s with the beginning of the mid 1970s. there was enough money in US society during the 1960s for kids from the middle to drop out, tune in and turn on. and still not have to worry about a place to live, food, and the necessities. kids who dropped out and didn't have the necessities still knew the jobs were there if they decided to drop in. the vietnam war drained the US economy in ways similar to the way the iraq war is draining it today.
3. drugs. during the 1950s, kids were taught drugs were all terminal. i remember sitting in class while the science teacher, a very good teacher in every other respect, told the kids that smoking a joint was a SURE ticket to heroin addiction. one frightened kid raised his hand and asked what to do if someone near you smoked a joint and you smelled the smoke. this was a serious moment: the teach advised it was best to avoid anyone you thought might smoke MJ.
in the 1960s, kids realized smoking a joint wasn't any worse than drinking booze -- thoroughly debunking everything authority figures taught them heretofore. so the kids experimented more and more wildly with drugs which were gleefully imported by the CIA and other US govt agencies, as well as other entrepreneurs. drugs turned the 1960s into a great big drug experimental lab for US govt agencies interested in watching how widespread drug use affected populations.
4. vietnam war. you were either for it or against it. there was a draft. people against the war had something to unite around that affected just about everybody in the USA. as you'll note, in the 1970s when the war went away, the lib/left movements slowly died. the war gradually drained the US economy while taking money from the rest of us and putting it into the hands of the wealthy and the opportunistic.
also, the vietnam war created a substantial group of blacks who knew how to fight, use weapons and explosives and weren't going to go back to jim crow.
5. murders. JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X at the top. and right on down to the black panther leader who was murdered while sleeping in his bed by a cop using a shotgun in the next room and firing through the wall at the panther's back. also, the kent state murders. this scared a lot of people.
you must imagine -- since this quality is so rare today -- kids in the 1960s were sincerely very idealistic. they really believed what they were doing would bring a better world. they weren't just spouting "peace, love," they meant every word.
6. govt's war against its own people. govt spying on any group left of richard nixon. agent provocateurs doing all they could to get peace groups to use violence. people being imprisoned for their politics. this exerted what today's termed "a chilling effect" on political activists.
7. the conservatives. the collapse of responsible conservatism. barry goldwater, as nuts as he often was, was a man of integrity, sincerity and character. there's utterly no comparison between him and the opportunistic, phony ronald raygoon. nixon was impeached.
a responsible conservatism, from the days when "conservative thought" was not an oxymoron, would have given this country balance and kept the US govt from pointlessly spying on its own citizens, kept govt *out* of our lives (as the saying goes), and supported states rights so the often anti states rights "conservative dominated" supreme court would not have interfered with the florida state election, for instance.
when i knew the 1960s spirit was over was when i first hear activists talking seriously about "changing the system from within." changing the system from within is like being eaten by a whale and expecting to be able to change the whale's personality and behavior from inside its stomach.
people were getting tired and lost much of their idealism. they realized there wasn't as much available money in the country as there was 10 years ago; they wanted to raise families; they wanted some peace and quiet. leaders wanted to hand the baton off to the next generation but the next generation wasn't as interested or as willing to take risks. the civil rights bill passed (which LBJ predicted would be the end of the democratic party when he signed it). the draft was close to being abolished -- temporarily it appears. other changes gave the appearance that battles had been won.
let's see, you were about 18 years old in 1970? your first "adult" presidential experience was richard nixon. the 1960s must appear as inscrutable to you as the 1920s and 1930s do to most of the rest of us.
R