Uncle Sam needs your help again ...

[welshTerrier2]

ah, the sixties ... we had hippies, we had yippies, we had Abbie and Jerry ... now we have Ben and Jerry ... they're OK but it's just not the same ...

we were unified through our music ... we were unified through our opposition to the draft and the vietnam war ... we were unified through our culture ...

perhaps most importantly, our music, our attire and our politics gave us a generational identity ... and that identity was hugely intertwined with our politics ... maybe i'm out of the loop, but i just don't see that integration of culture and politics happening today ... and it's not that some of today's music, for example rap music, is not filled with powerful anti-establishment imagery ... but the music doesn't seem to play the role it once did ... before and during anti-war demonstrations, the protest music of the day poured into the streets all over the country ... now it pours out of big, honkin' SUV's ...

the point of all this is to highlight that integrating culture with politics is an essential ingredient needed to build a political movement ... music can energize people to action ... it can add a sense of cultural identity to politics ... for many, politics is just too dry ... some are unable to relate intellectualized political discourse to their lives ... while this is an unfortunate truth, it's still a truth ... the music and culture that once screamed "anti-establishment" is now owned and operated by the establishment ...

today's million dollar question: how can we broaden our political message to extend beyond mere discourse and expand into culture in order to attract more people to our cause? this was an idea that the yippies seemed to understand very well ...

and while you're at it, check out this really well written article about the triumphant return of Country Joe and the Fish ... in commenting on Bob Dylan's appearance in a Victoria Secret commercial, the author wrote: "It may seem that the times they are a prostitutin'."

here's the link: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0423-06.htm

[skooooo]

1. Give it time..

...it will all happen out of necessity.

And there ain't nothing wrong with Bob appearing in a V.S. commercial!!!

[DAGDA56]

2. I think alot of it had to do with the draft...

...the guys in 'Nam could have been any one of us...not the anonymous faces in uniform they are today (unless you have a friend or relative over there).

[welshTerrier2]

4. the draft and the music protesting the draft ...

1965 Newport Folk festival ... arlo sings Alice's Restaurant ... the whole song was about the draft ... and Country Joe ... 1,2,3 what are we fighting for, don't ask me i don't give a damn, next stop is vietnam ... and Dylan ... for he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled, the battle outside raging, will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a changin' ...

the point i'm trying to make is that we learned about right and wrong from our music ... we learned the war was wrong ... we learned we were being lied to ... we learned that it is not unpatriotic to protest when your country goes insane ... and we learned much of that through our music ...

without a doubt, the presence of a draft brought millions into the movement ... perhaps the protest music would not have been effective if a volunteer army "honored their contracts" with the military and nobody who didn't sign up had to go fight ...

but as the times unfolded, it was the music that taught us ... it was the music that energized us before big demonstrations ... it was the music that was played at the demonstrations ... the left had a voice through the protest music of the day ... it taught us and it energized us ...

and that's the point ... today's left reaches out only to minds and not as much, or at least not as effectively to hearts and souls ... we need to learn this lesson ... somehow we must find a way to re-integrate culture with politics ...

[DAGDA56]

5. The whole music industry is different today...

...I believe the Beatles just "kicked it over" to borrow an expression from The Clash...at that point, the A&R guys and other suites were looking for anything different...it was wide open. Today, aside from the Corporate Control, the suites are looking for this month's version of last months's hit...replication upon replication...one of the reasons that most states don't let cousins marry.

[cornermouse]

3. They're still playing songs.

Its just that this time around, they're playing pro-war songs on the country stations.