Posted on 11/29/2004 5:20:00 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
"In 1950’s and 60’s, Existentialism was in full swing against the evil, corrupt society."
One of my liberal colleagues, in a lecture on Existentialism, said this quote several years ago. I am reworking this lecture for my own class, and, again, I am working out of my speciality. I am doing fine on the Existentialist part, but this one comment caught my eye this time around.
I was a bit young in the late fifties to remember much on my own, and I do remember the rebellion, riots and assasinations of the 1960s. I imagine the threat of nuclear war in the fifties might be part of this.
But I was interested in FReepers reaction to that comment about "the evil, corrupt society" of the fifties and sixties. What is your take on those decades and how the liberals are twisting them in revisionism? Wasn't the fifties the happy decades of "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best?"
I look forward to your comments.
Like you, I'm not old enough to have a mature remembrance of the 1950s. However, I can remember that the events of the late 60s represented a cataclysmic change from previous standards of public behavior, in everything from the kind of language people used to the content of films to the range of subjects that came to be considered "acceptable" for public discourse. Within a very short period of time -- less than ten years -- there were actions as diverse as banning of prayer in public schools, widespread use of profanity in the movies, legalization of abortion and open, casual drug use. While the underpinnings of this were no doubt brewing for many years, it really did just explode on our society and turned it on its head. The kind of crudeness and crassness we see all around us today would have been completely unimaginable before the late 60s. While "Leave It To Beaver" may have been a bit more simplistic than real life, it was a lot closer to it than the garbage that supposedly represents "reality" today. I think back to my own friends from school -- no single-parent families, divorce almost unknown, mostly stay-at-home mothers -- it was a very different world both in style and in substance.
I was born in 1950. My memories are happy innocent children attending Sunday school, a 4 room school house where we actually behaved and were taught well, and a mother who was always home with us. My history teacher repeated, "better dead than red", informing us of the evils of Communism.
The sixties brought the hippies, the British Invasion into rock & roll, war protestors, Vietnam body counts, drugs, mini-skirts/hot pants, "if it feels good do it" mentality, and pray was taken out of schools. I could go on, but it depresses me.
Even at the time there was disagreement about whether we were excellent or decadent. From our current vantage point, we can see things that were bad then. Racial segregation let everybody know what everybody's place was, and even though we were richer than ever before, there was much more severe and widespread poverty than now. Yet, as a child growing up in the 50's, I felt rich and fortunate to be an American. Even though my parents (who had lived through the depression) worried about poverty engulfing them, I didn't. But in the 50's we had the ever present fear of nuclear war as well as fears of overly regimented institutions (The Organization Man). I don't see Existentialism (a french philosophy that emphasised being over essence and the individual hero over the collective, despite Sartre's slide into collectivist Maoism) as having much to do with criticism of American life. The avante-garde critics of 50's life were less Marxists than they were in the 60's and more individualists (hipsters, beats, nonconformists).
Living through them, the 50's seemed a golden age. Looking back, I suppose the time had its flaws; but it was better, for a greater proportion of people, than any preceding time.
History, but not conteporary historians, might well judge the 1950s to be the apogee of the Great American Pageant.
Counterculture was sold to unsuspecting public the same way.
marked for future reading.
Great point. I think Europeans were suffering much more from the end of WWII and the beginnings of the Cold War. If you can elaborate more, I would greatly appreciate it. Sometimes memories and thoughts of FReepers are more alive than dead academic research and statistics.
In 1960, most families lived on Dad's income. Moms stayed home to care for the kids. My family was typical. My Dad had a high school education, did not have what would be considered a great job, Mom didn't work outside the home, and, although things were tight at times, we made it just fine.
In 1960, parents let their children roam freely around town without any serious worries about their kids being murdered, abducted, or otherwise harmed by strangers (at least where I lived, which I think was pretty typical). Parents didn't give a second thought to their kids running around "without supervision".
In 1960, parents could park their kids in front of the TV or radio, tune to any channel, and not worry about what was being broadcast.
In 1960, as far as I can tell, my parents and my public school teachers shared the same values: support of family, love of country, hard work, community.
In 1960, parents simply had to spend a lot less time worrying about the safety and well being of their children. They didn't have to "fight the culture"; the culture stood beside them in raising their kids.
I heard the word "homosexual" for the first time in junior high (mid 60's), and found out what it meant only late in high school. No fringe groups pushed their political agenda via the schools. Every other character on TV wasn't "gay".
In 1960, for better or for worse, most people stayed married.
In 1960, no one worried about being sued for nonsense or nothing. There were no professional "victims".
In 1960, the Boy Scouts and their mission were universally honored, not mercilessly attacked.
In 1960, African Americans were legally discriminated against, but that would change in a few years. The general decency of Americans saw to that.
Except for the discrimination issue, I view the changes in this culture with horror and disgust. Would I go back to 1960, sans the discrimination problem? Oh, how I would love to do that. It was a wonderful time.
It is today's culture that is evil and corrupt, not the culture of 1960. To think otherwise is to be either morally confused, badly misinformed, or deliberately self-deceived.
Adjusted for inflation, average husband's salary in the 1960's was more than COMBINED husband and wife salaries in 2000. Say thanks to the women's lib.
My guess is that in 2040 even children will work and the whole family and their dog's income will be less than your dad alone made in 1960.
I beg to differ with said colleague. Existentialism rejects the concept of masses; the 60s was simply a social order of a different kind, accelerated by a war (or, rather, a draft).
In general, things were good in the 50s, and I believe that spoiled kids, under a too good and easy life, will turn out to be hippies of one sort or another. Plus, of course, commercial television probably played a big part in the whole "spoiled" mess.
Don't get to say this often, but existentialism might be too generalized an explanation for the 50s and 60s.
My older brother remembers everyone dressing in their best for Church on Sunday, or when going out to dinner. He remembers extended family that stretched generations at reunions. Respect for teachers and authority, no profanity in front of the ladies. He remembers it as innocent and patriotic, the pledge and a prayer before classes began.
And the worst crime being committed was on Halloween when some older boys waited outside a teachers house, waiting for the poor victim to make a trip to his "out house", and turning it over, with the door on the ground, so the teacher was trapped inside.
Actually, I think the 60s saw the rise of radicalism. Liberalism was already the dominant political force, and had been since the 1930s. However, it took a few decades for the liberalism of the government and academia to corrode the popular culture and transform itself into a radical attack on the prevailing American morality.
Children today are having their childhoods stolen. I had an idyllic childhood growing up in NYC in the late 1950s to early 1960s. NY was a great place to be until the late 1960s *wrecked* it. Even in NYC we were free to run around after school; take subways and busses, etc. and that was *before* Giuliani and the "yuppiefication" of the city. Kids now are being raised as house pets of the especially overprotected variety. That's the biggest, and most devastating difference I see.
Existentialism and its American cousin, humanistic psychology, replaced Marxism and the Soviet utopia, which even leftist academics couldn't believe in any more. At the risk of being immodest, I suggest you take a look at my book The Road to Malpsychia (Encounter Books), which discusses how this transformation took place.
On a personal note, having started college in 1963, I'd say most of us thought America was a fine place until our professors introduced us to the works of Michael Harrington and C. Wright Mills. Mills, in particular, voices the frustration of academic types that people don't pay them more heed and adopt their clever ideas for reordering society along rational lines.
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