Posted on 09/29/2005 6:19:24 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
The freedom, incredible expressiveness and creativity, the feeling of optimism was like nothing I've experienced in my life time.
However, it was a naive and delusional approach to life that was shattered by reality.
Some of the mottos.... "if it feels good, do it" were incredibly short sighted and destructive. And a lot of people I knew never made it through those days.
The age that warped a generation.
Ripple, eww. Pretty bad stuff, wasn't it? Way too much on my graduation night. Yuck.
Well, the draft is probably the main reason I have a college degree (sometimes referred to as a "MacNamara degree"). Having a very low lottery number made me very glad I got a student deferment before they were ended.
I worked hard, partied hard and found "free love" to be more elusive than the media gave one reason to believe. My politics then were pretty much as they are now, except perhaps I had less cynicism because of my youth.
However, other than the fact I should have driven less, I never regretted the consumption of cannabis. It was fun, I enjoyed it, and when it was time to move on (as in not do it anymore), I did.
I worked full time, while a full time student to put myself through college. What little free time I had was mine.
I grew up in Fort Wayne Indiana, main street USA!
I think people exaggerate how different the sixties were. In many ways they were a logical continuation of the wildness that has always existed in America. Non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, popular fads - nothing was really new.
People forget that many of the fads of the sixties were embraced and supported by people in their 30s and 40s, people who might have been expected to know better. Middle-aged guys were as eager to buy porn, smoke dope, and run around with young girls as the teenagers, and they had a lot more money to do it with.
Of course, many were liberal and open-minded because they couldn't see where it would lead. With the pillars of traditional society still standing, rebellion and indulgence seemed cool, safe, and fun. People took strange ideas at face value, and only later found out what was really going on and how damaging they were.
Southside Indianapolis here! We wee the only large city that did not have riots after MLK was assasinated.
Incorrect. With that logic we can blame what is happening today on the zuit suit era from the 40s and 50s, the Roaring 20s, Al Capone, Chicago etc.
You've got a good point. If those of us who were in our late teens and early 20's at that time remember, there were a lot of Hollywood movies and music catering to the counter-culture. Those were funded by people who were far older than I was at the time.
Maybe you are fond of the 30s BECAUSE you were 10. I feel the same way about the forties for the same reason.
And the 50s were great too. LOL And it was hot as Hades too where I grew up in central California with no air conditioning and no TV until 1954!
Play outdoors all day riding bikes, seeing friends, and occasionally going to the town pool if we could persuade one of our parents to drive us there and pick us up afterwards! If it was really hot, we'd hang out in the library because they had big old ceiling fans. Saturday morning cartoon shows at the local movie house. We'dwalk there and stay all day. Nobody worried.
I agree 100%.
Being born in 1954 I've seen this occurring. I've actually been amazed at the ability of society to remain so cohesive, and not completely break down due to all these disruptive and corrupting forces.
"I will be carrying my generation's stigma until I pass from this mortal coil."
I probably contributed to the stigma you're talking about.
That's life.
There was a time when I didn't care if the world ended.
It's never too late to take a different path.
*some* of a generation. I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of people at my 30 and 35 reunions, and most of us all came out fine and are and have been responsible productive people. Including most of the [semi] bad boys, like myself.
In truth, I see the warped people to be a minority of my generation. They're simply the most vocal and noticed because the rest of us (in the majority) have lives. And the media whores don't give a crap about the productive people in our society.
Makes you wonder of the value of attending institutions of higher learning... at least those run by teachers brainwashed by 1930's Marxism.
The 60s started strong. Then they suddenly went south. Some say it was this, some say that, but it was Nov 22. Nobody wanted a leader after that.
Reagan is my idol; I'd truly like to see him on Mt. Rushmore.
But other than Reagan, long-term Lebanese kidnappings and the Twins winning the World Series, what did the 80's give us?
Uh...well...um...
Give me a couple days and I'll come up with something (with all due deference to Ike).
No, they're not. I have felt many times that we're in some weird mixture of the '60's and the '30's.
I never thought I'd see the rise of the Nazis again, but after wading into some of the Leftist sewers and seeing with my own eyes the rabid Jew hatred I'd only read about in history books....
Not really. But the 60s counter culture (at least at Berkeley) was driven mostly by people who had moved there from NYC and were waiting a year to earn state's residency in order to enroll in school at our low in-state tuition. They were just bumming around. Many of them were grad student-aged but the high schoolers and other hangers on gravitated to counter culture and anti-establishmentarianism. There may have been a few onlder, lecherous men (after all the Bohemians preceeded the hippies) but most of the rabble rousers were 18-26.
The rest of us just looked on -- appalled. After all, we were dubbed the "silent generation" and we didn't demonstrate or cause trouble. We didn't know how to counter this transplanted trash from NYC.
Yep. And in the 60s you could do that and not get car jacked, raped, or murdered while getting out of your car to use that pay phone.
I didn't view it that way, I was serving my country after which, I made sure I got a job and developed a career. Thank you Mom and Dad for showing the way.
There was a very large generation of under 20 people due to the Baby Boom.
The television media was beginning their ascendancy.
Members of the media were disguised leftists (Walter Cronkite).
Hollywood, which had been absent in the political debate, had become very active in speaking their opinion (Jane Fonda).
The press had an active interest in derailing Johnson and then Nixon, and went at them with no holds barred.
This era shaped the current era far more than earlier eras. Yes, the 40's had some effect on the 50's, etc. But the 60's were a weird time, comparable in influence to the 20's. And the children of the 60's (my son, for example) had their lives shaped by the times their parents lived.
I recommend a book called The Fourth Turning for an interesting discussion on how generations shape history and influence their successors.
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