[lbo-talk] kids today

[Carrol Cox]

I didn't bother to go beyond the first few sentences, and im may
improve. But those sentences in isolation remind me of much discussion
of the '60s, and it is a source of political obscurantism The vast
majority of "kids in the 60s" had very little to do with any of the
activities which now characterize that period. This is obsscurantist
because it contributes to the notion that to effect  change one must
have some huge majority of the population on one's side. This is false.
I'm not sure what the percentage of the population in the '60s were
actively involved, but it must have been closer to 3% than to 12%. Even
among the black population, the percentage would have been low. Even
when opinion polls began to show a majority "against" the war it wasn't
quite true. A majority, looking up from whatever really concerned them,
do you support the war or whatever, would have murmured No and gone back
to more important matters. There was probably overwhelming _passive_
support among black americans for the civil-rights movement, but those
actively involved would have far fewer.

ISU was around 6000 students then. At our biggest rallies we got 50 to
200.

Carrol

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> <http://gawker.com/5165556/college-radicalism-replaced-by-tucker-max>
> 
> KIDS THESE DAYS
> College Radicalism Replaced by Tucker Max
> By Hamilton Nolan, 12:25 PM on Fri Mar 6 2009, 4,421 views
> 
> Back in the sixties, college kids read booksbooks about revolution
> and sex and drugs. Today, college kids read Harry Potter books and
> whine about cops touching their Macbooks. Who's responsible?