Posted on 05/14/2025 5:09:00 PM PDT by DallasBiff
This BBC film examines the myth behind the sixties, which was itself created before the decade was even out but has since lingered in all of our minds. What we have lived with however is merely a mirage and this documentary sets about exposing the truth, suggesting that we are living on borrowed time as a result of those who indulged whilst an unchecked Britain experienced an industrial decline. Looking back on old archived footage and the political atmosphere of the time a case is built against the decade we all consider to be filled with dreams
(Excerpt) Read more at documentaryheaven.com ...
I was also VERY politically aware during all of it.
Also,it no doubt matters WHERE one was living, back then.
OTOH.. I have ALWAYS hated the really STUPID trope: if you can remember the '60s, you weren't there", because that's patently ridiculous, since I remember ALL of it in extreme detail and I most assuredly lived through it!
Yes, Wilson WAS worse!
Wanna talk about THE BAY OF PIGS mess? That's ALL on JFK; as was THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS!
Precisely, my FRiend, but also the worst of times.
For me, the 60s was high school and the USAF. But I luckily built my character and values in the 50s, and that helped me make good decisions in the 60s.
In the 60s, the Dems used the Vietnam war to grow a schism in our youth, and foment anti-authority and anti-traditional values.
I was a bit gullible at the time, believing that we could prevail in the war (which yours truly served in). As I recall the war was a Kennedy creation, maintained by Johnson.
There's some discussion in earlier posts about how Johnson was a jerk, however I would say that he's tied for the honor with JFK and Mcnamara.
I liked my youthful experiences in the 60s, even though much of the decade was easily hateful.
There we can agree. I think it was first said by Robin Williams. Unfortunately it may be the case that he didn’t strike the fine balance between sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, and put too much emphasis on the drugs. Cocaine in particular. People who used a lot of that have lost their memories.
I would remind you of the folk scene in Cambridge Ma and the germination of what would become the full fledged folk scene. That was early sixties. Recall also that Ken Kesey (along with Neal Cassidy) considered himself the link between Beatnics and hippies. Point being, the roots of the “sixties” run deeply into the fifties. Kesey’s MKULTRA experience with LSD happened in the fifties.
I grew up in the 70s and I had no problem with it. The clothes we wore is a different story.
Folk music....It was HUGE in the 1930s-'40s and had a BIG following with teen. He collected and sang traditional, very old folk music. And I know all about him and this, because when Folk Music made a BIG comeback in the late '50s, I was a fan and my mother who had been a big fan if R D-B, told me all about him. :-)
There was a BIG Folk scene in Greenwich Village, prior to the likes of THE BROTHERS FOUR, etc. and Joan Bias, who began ONLY singing for real, OLD folk music from the UK.
It was THE BEATS ( also stinking COMMIE leftists and dopers), who began the decade plus later (1968) Hippie/dippy, crapola of late '60s!
So yes, INDEED, you did pinpoint the correct time line and progression...you just didn't add the NYC scene, which was HUGE!
The 60s gave birth to the 70s which weren’t so happy in the US and were miserable in the UK, so whatever one thinks of 60s, what they led to wasn’t so pleasant. Between Vietnam and urban riots, the 60s weren’t so pretty themselves.
Good book on the 60s in Britain: The Neophiliacs” by Christopher Booker. He really didn’t much like the 60s. What he did catch is that people get caught up in political and cultural fantasies, and then have to face unpleasant realities when the fantasy unravels.
Yes, LBJ was worse, but he DID keep ALL of JFK's "team"!
"THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST"...in what universe?
I don’t remember much of the 60’s, being born in the middle of them. Naturally, most of what I do remember centers around TV: THE moon landing; the evening news/Vietnam, Scooby Doo, Star Trek, and The Great Rural Purge.
You’re right about that, you know.
You ONLY mentioned Mass., which is WHY I jumped down your throat. Sorry about that, but I lived through this stuff, was a bit interested in THE BEATS ( not FOR that scene, just found it curious and somewhat off putting ), but hey...I was a teen. ;
Going off a bit, diverging into the music scene in London/the UK, in the late 1950s, ALL groups were heavily influenced by American R&R, as were the Beatles!
This was the age of the "dandy" dressed lower class thugs, wearing velvet jackets, "winkle pickers" ( pointy toed shoes), ruffled shirts, and long hair styles;"THE MODS"!
It all really goes a farther back, into say '58, than the Beatles, re the UK music scene!
Actually, the folk music scene in America, started off with VERY clean cut, NON-LEFTIES, IF one ignores the STINKING COMMIES of THE WEAVERS, who by that time had been around for DECADES.
Also, don't forget about Burl Ives! And he goes back to the early 1950s or earlier. And he was very POP CULTURE and loved by everyone, including little kids.
He lowered tax rates and shut down the commies in Cuba. That is “nothing”?
I remember when comics went up from 10 cents to 12 cents each, meant I had to scrounge up one more empty Coke bottle to buy one.
If it wasn't for the fact that JFK was not very bright ( Bobby was the "smart one" and he and Papa Joe pulled the strings, while JFK was whoring with anything with 2 legs and high as a kite of dope cocktails from DR, FEELGOOD ), which had Krushchev believing that he could get away with anything and everything, who went along with but loused up THE BAY OF PIGS, that led to THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS.
That we managed to beat that one, was NOT JFK's doing; it was our military's!
I well remember 10 cents comics and when MAD went from a DIME, to a quarter, with an enlarged format, I was NOT happy, but paid the price. And THAT was in the mid 1950s. :-)
For what it’s worth, I remember the ‘60s quite well. I turned 19 in 1969.
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