They are still having a "war on the sixties"

[SHRED]

I have witnessed this since about when Reagan took office and amplified by the likes of OxyBoy and his ilk.
The mainstream corporate messaging, especially to the Generation X'ers was/is to blame the "hippies" of that era and somehow link them with "libruls" as being dirty words.

The sixties obviously were a very turbulent time with many nuances and beliefs however it gets boiled down to blaming the "hippies".

With just a tiny bit of study it becomes clear that there is world of difference between the
Stephen Gaskins of the world and the Jerry Rubins

Although they had long hair and dressed similar, there was a world of difference between the Yippies and the Hippies.
But who cares right? This is akin to calling African Americans "niggers"...who cares? They certainly don't!
As long as they can essentially use broad sweeping language, like they do with race, then they can whip up more hate and divisional distraction to take the focus off them, the true wealthy elitists who are running and ruining our country.

[DistressedAmerican]

1. Blame The Hippies!

Blame them for ending a bullshit and tragic war.

Blame them for their part in gaining expanded civil rights for minorities.

Blame them for embracing peace and rejecting pointless death.



Oh, did I say "blame". I meant "credit".

[tularetom]

2. The culture wars of the 60's are over and

the hippies won! Look at any aspect of popular culture today and you'll see the influence of '60's counterculture. There were however some nerds who couldn't get laid during the sixties and they have resented it ever since. I think anal cyst boy is probably one of them.

[rman]

6. If the hippies would have won, we'd now have real democracy

instead of this plutocracy, economic exploitation of developing nations, and ongoing war.

on edit:
The situation now would probably be worse still if there had not been the hippie movement.

[Joanne98]

10. Focusing everything on the draft, was a big mistake.

Next time we diversify.

[rman]

12. I'm not so sure it was focused exclusively on the draft

for all i know it was more about ending injustice, unjust war in particular. The draft was a part of that.

Besides, the fact that there was a draft did contribute to cutting short the vietnam war, because the army was made up from people of all walks of life. It that would not have been the case there would not have been the GI revolt - the peace movement within the armed forces, as documented in "Sir, No Sir!" www.sirnosir.com.

Anyhow, the good part is that this time around we *are* diversified. Just look at all the grassroots movements on any topic from elections and the environment to peace.
I seriously think that "next time" is now, it just takes some time to get up to speed.

[Mist]

11. Yes, many of the values of the '60's and 70's have been normalized

and internalized by the culture. And I've always said the drips who were out of it in the 60's are the ones "waging war" on the 60's now. How demented is it to "wage war" on an era?

[lisby]

3. In my book...

to be called a hippie is the greatest compliment. We changed the world and we did it, mostly, with love.

Maybe I'll have it noted on my tombstone.

:hippie:

Lisby

[rman]

4. Chomsky: "Elites were terrified by the 60's"

"The population has been very carefully excluded from the political arena and the general dominant culture. That's not by accident, a lot of work went into this. Elites were terrified by the 60's; this outburst of popular participation and democracy and so on. And there was this huge counter-campaign to drive it back."
- Noam Chomsky, Democracy Now

The Life and Times of Noam Chomsky: A Brief History of America's Leading Dissident
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/26/1936241&mode=thread&tid=25(video, audio, transcript)

www.chomsky.info

[SHRED]

5. thanks for that!

[China_cat]

7. What they seem to forget about the 60's

is that these 'dirty hippies' were protesting LBJ, the Democratic party and their actions in what was considered an illegal war...before Nixon ever even got the Repub nod.

Look up the 68 Democratic convention in Chicago, for instance. That was when a lot of it came to a head.

[SHRED]

16. excellent points

[KurtNYC]

8. The 60s was in a sense a war on the 1950s

And the "Sixties" never really ended. I think the term implies that certain ideas had a popular moment and are now passe. Culturally the 60s are embraced now, but politically there is resistance, including them owning much of the language.

[Joanne98]

9. And there is no generation-gap between the Baby-boomers and

their children. The RW hates that. If we had a sixties part two, we would bury them for good.

[xchrom]

13. what they are having a war on is history.

they want to control history -- it's story how it is told in the books.

there is only one part of the 60s that bothers conservatives -- both christian secular -- and that is the free speech movement.

it's that movement that questions the rational for uber-nationalism, the war in viet nam, the necessity for social justice.

it's that movement that is reponsible for lots of professors moving into academia and telling the truth regarding the history of first nations people and the u.s. government.


our history -- prior to the 60s was subject to the ''washington chopped down the cherry tree and couldn't lie about it'' syndrome.

it's not hippies they're fighting -- lol -- it's the result of their own GI bill of rights that educated people in universities and exposed them to a glimpse of the truth and shook their conservative trees right down to the roots.

[JHB]

14. Of course!

"The Sixties" is the only thing that out-Clenises the Clenis to these guys.

[RedStateShame]

15. And why, when they cover the music of that era....

is the band that is possibly the most relevant of the political situation the MC5, not mentioned???

[porphyrian]

17. I blame the hippies?!

Gen-Xers are all republicans?! What the fuck are you talking about? I was ready to agree with you until you decided to blame my generation, who really isn't in agreement on enough things to lump us all together, thus the vexation of the advertising industry for so long in trying to target us.

If my generation, which I really can't speak for, has any bad feelings toward the Boomers, it has more to do with Boomer self-obsession and refusal to admit their age and fucking retire so that we can get the jobs we would've gotten a decade before with any other generation, it also doesn't help that there are so fucking many Boomers with regards to conflating the issue, but those are more irritating qualities than hated ones.

The argument could be made that this post is itself proof of Boomer self-obsession, trying to define a problem, not in terms of finding a solution, but in talking about how badly it affects the poor Boomers. See how someone in line behind you can get irritated at that? Again, I don't speak for my generation and it personally doesn't bother me enough to do much more than roll my eyes (a lot), but I don't think you do either.

[SHRED]

18. I did not "blame" anyone but...

...the corporate messaging.

I did notice a rise in angst by the children of the sixties, towards their parents.
This is normal I believe.
However, movements like the punk scene were/are openly hostile in twisted ways. I went to a show where they were screaming "cut your hair!".

I repeat, I am not blanket blaming anyone or generation.
I am placing the blame squarely on those who control the message and the TV view of history.

[porphyrian]

19. OK, thanks for clarifying.

The proper response at the punk scene, by the way, would've been "fuck you!"

[AnnInLa]

20. Speaking for the '60s:

We don't surrender.

[dusmcj]

21. Dumb animals will continue until they succeed in getting even for Tricky

"those who can, do. Those who can't, harass". This is about people with the mentality of the eternally inadequate younger sibling who wants to get even for all those years of being bested by their older sibling. They are so fully aware of their own incompetence, of their backwardness, of being hidebound, of the limitations of thumping on tradition when confronted by complexity or the unknown. The sheep cows and pigs lowing in the stall, comforted by the warm stench and snuffling of their fellows, and lowing in unison as defence against the unknowns in the dark night outside. Of course, they need the farmer to come in the morning and relieve them of their milk, let them out, feed them, in other words they are not free. When they see creatures who are, their own iniquity slaps them in the face and they are driven to rage at the existence of others more capable than themselves. The Nixon disposal and the symbolic disposal of the culture of contrived reticence layered over self-indulgent corruption which it represented were an outrage of this kind which they will never get over.

Of course, for us this is good, since stupid people contorted in rage are not effective opponents. Wind em up tighter.