Posted on 04/20/2008 9:37:10 PM PDT by jazusamo
Even though I’m embarrassed to have been a Democrat for so many years, I’m proud that even in my 20’s, I thought the 60’s was the worst decade in America’s history.
Because I was born in 1940, I was at UCLA for some of those years and had a bird’s eye view of my fellow college students. It was not a pretty sight.
What makes that time the source of so much nostalgia for so many people of my age -- the incessant folk songs, the tie-dyed shirts and blouses, the granny glasses, the bongs, the infantile anti-establishment content that permeated so much popular culture -- made me yawn even then.
The young folks in those days were on the right side of the civil rights movement, but that was the extent of their good works. The anti-war campaign was a charade, having far less to do with pacifism than with lack of courage and discipline. The draft was still going strong and it was fear, not moral principles, which led young men to flee to Canada or to burn their draft cards.
The baby-boomers born in the years after World War II were members of the most coddled generation America had ever seen. From birth, they had been treated like royalty, privileged and spoiled not for any special qualities or accomplishments, but simply because they existed and were their parents’ little darlings.
Nobody should have been too surprised that as they came of age, they were a religion onto themselves. Their not so holy trinity consisted of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. I never really got a handle on how that made them so special. But gods do not have to explain themselves.
Their favorite line, the one about not trusting anybody over the age of 30, wasn’t just an inane catchphrase. It became the order of the day, not just for those under 30, but those well past it. It wasn’t just wars they got to judge, either, but movies, music, TV shows, books and politicians. It fell on children to bestow the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
The fact that they weren’t particularly knowledgeable or even open-minded, except, of course, when it came to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, only added to their mystique. Unlike adults, the thinking went, they hadn’t sold out. What made their bullshit so totally odious was the fact that their elders, for the most part, bought into it. In addition, because they were so lacking in humor, their solemnity was taken for sincerity.
Even back then, I found it disturbing that for the first time in human history, youngsters didn’t want to be adults. Worse yet, neither did adults. As a result, one could almost have sympathized with the contempt the kids felt for grown-ups if it hadn’t inevitably led to contempt for America. It also led to a soft spot in their hearts for any and all of our nation’s enemies, which, at the time, included such arch villains as the Viet Cong, Mao, Che Guevara, Chou En-lai and Fidel Castro.
The prevailing lies were so self-evident that I couldn’t imagine how it was that so many people could be so self-deluded. For instance, there was a great deal of self-serving blather about individualism. But most of those doing the blathering wore identical clothes, listened to the same music, went to all the same movies and mouthed the very same clichés. There was more individualism to be found in a flock of sheep.
Perhaps the biggest lie fomented back then was something called the Free Speech Movement. It was like something taken straight out of George Orwell’s “1984.” The title, alone, would have made Big Brother smirk. The movement, which stretched across America’s college campuses from UC Berkeley to Columbia, consisted of student radicals commandeering offices and classrooms, doing their level best to silence professors and administrators who didn’t buy into their fascistic dogma. Funny how little some things have changed over the years.
Today, the children and the grandchildren of those flower children are also in favor of free speech, but only so long as those speaking share their politics and their prejudices.
Because those radical idiots lacked both reading skills and any semblance of self-awareness, they didn’t realize that they were very much like the totalitarians that Orwell had in mind. When in “Animal Farm,” Orwell’s villainous pig dictator, Napoleon, standing in for Stalin, altered the original battle cry of the barnyard revolution from “all animals are equal,” to “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” he had the Soviet oligarchy in mind, but, unfortunately, it very neatly summed up the thoughts and actions of America’s own youthful swine of the sixties.
Ever watch the campy 'They Live' from the 80s? Similar idea- mass mind control by an invisible enemy that only the heroes can see.
I’ve done my best to destroy all the pictures of me in those damn silly clothes.
The mid 1960's is where it began, not where it ended. It's only gotten far worse.
University of Maine Desecrates American Flag
That theme you espouse that pushing people’s buttons to combat indifference is not only appropriate but desirable is no different than the idiotic liberals who feel that dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Dissent purely for the sake of conforming to ideological guidelines (which is what liberals have been doing since GWB took over seven years ago) is as misguided, stupid and wrong as what these immature, ignorant “students” have been doing in their gleeful participation in this asinine “assignment” intended solely to piss people off.
And you say that is good? And right? So, you probably think that the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church are entirely appropriate and within their First Amendment rights as American citizens?
With freedom of speech comes responsibility. Engaging in activity, sponsored by a supposed institution of higher learning that is intended SOLELY to inflame people is an ABDICATION of that responsibility, both on the part of the “institution of higher learning” and the individuals who thought this was the way to make a point.
There is one thing more pathetic than immature college age people who conclude that they know everything they need to learn in life to be able to pass authoritative judgement on something, and that would be the adults who impart them with undeserved moral authority to give weight to their one dimensional shallow conclusions, their parents, school authorities and pandering politicians who pretend to hang on their every word.
THIS is what happened back in the Sixties, when radicals were allowed to take over colleges in this country. The Marxists, Communists and Socialists who were the movers and the shakers back then now hold positions of power in the government and industry. They inhabit universities and the media as well. These are the same people. If you doubt me, William Ayers is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He should be serving a life sentence.
This entire activity is SHAMEFUL and DISGRACEFUL. Every single person involved in this from the Chancellor down to the snot-nosed adolescent standing on the flag owes a personal apology to the courageous veteran who had the guts to point out stupidty, disrespect and boorish behavior to people who want to use the First Amendment as a shield to carry out their hateful behavior.
As Ann Coulter so accurately stated, freedom of speech is a one-way ratchet for liberal traitors.
Good point. I always chalk that up to the legacy of Dr. Spock.
It appears to me that parenting for some has degraded even further. I cringe at what the future will bring.
And I forgot to say: Thank you for posting this, and yes, he DID nail it right on.
That is PERFECT!
Sounds logical, but is not true. I'm in that group and it was not viewed as normal - not even close. There was a huge gap between normal and what very quickly evolved.
Where "might be inclined to accept it as normal" really applies is to the people who attended schools and colleges where they were taught, and continue to be taught, by the draft-dodgers and other lefties of the 1960's. Teachers and professors who had grown up during WWII and before were generally pro-American.
I was one who bought out of it pretty quickly, when I realized that my friends never wanted to grow up. It was one party after another. When I got stuck with paying their part of the rent, buying food for them, etc., I realized that this was going to be a long-term “illness” and decided I wanted no part of it any longer. The 60s mindset permeated the whole culture and changed America forever. I look back with grief at the damage done and the stupidity of those sneering hippies, who thought they were the privileged ones...the enlightened ones. Yeah...real enlightenment, huh? We’ve lost all that was important and good. Most of them never saw the good, and with blinders firmly in place, continue yet to not see any goodness in America. Wish they’d just leave already!
I was one who bought out of it pretty quickly, when I realized that my friends never wanted to grow up. It was one party after another. When I got stuck with paying their part of the rent, buying food for them, etc., I realized that this was going to be a long-term “illness” and decided I wanted no part of it any longer. The 60s mindset permeated the whole culture and changed America forever. I look back with grief at the damage done and the stupidity of those sneering hippies, who thought they were the privileged ones...the enlightened ones. Yeah...real enlightenment, huh? We’ve lost all that was important and good. Most of them never saw the good, and with blinders firmly in place, continue yet to not see any goodness in America. Wish they’d just leave already!
Like Tom Wolfe, I was really bored with the radical 60’s chic. When offered the brown acid, I enlisted.
the hippie generation owes America reparations
Jenny Agutter was the best part of the movie!
Same here. I didn't get into the "free love" or "dope smoking" movements. Too busy helping on the farm. I joined the military to make extra money.
You are righ about the 70s being worse. Just really getting into driving, and gas lines - thanks to jimma cattah and his stupid policies.
THANK YOU for saying what I have been thinking since reading the first paragraph! I am in that group with you, although not nearly as accomplished.
They weren't. They just made the most noise. Capice?
Yes, I do understand and note the same lie is being perpetrated on the American public today. There was a small fraction of our youth who made up the 60's crazies, but they yelled and screamed and did their "civil disobedience" thing and received ALL the press.
The same actions are happening today, albeit in much smaller numbers, but they still get all the press. March 17, 2007 is a prime example. There were 30-40,000 American patriots in DC to support the troops and their mission, while 5-10,000 were across the street protesting America. Not a word about us, but the news was filled with accolades about them.
Thank you for your service to our country. MOST of us supported you and held the commies in the streets in utter disdain.
Nowhere did the 60's do more damage than in our beloved Maine, where until then, the inhabitants tended to be useful citizens possessed of many complex skill sets. And if you had been lucky enough to complete 8 years of public education, you were ready to go forth and become a contributor to society and ready to vote 7 years later, after an arduous apprenticeship in a craft by which you could make your living. "He who hath a trade, hath an estate."
If you finished a Maine public high school, you were ready to clerk in an attorney's office, or go onto higher education, take a responsible role in the military, or got to work in general and raise a family. Once the hippies got here and took over the schools they have turned out several generations of maggot-infested, dope-smoking mall-lizard jerks who stand around our street corners waiting for the wonks in our government, for whom they are allowed to vote, to drop off their checks. My supermarket manager tells me they are useless workers who do not hang around long enough to learn a job.
The good young people, who somehow are still in the majority, leave, leaving behind a higher percentage of jerks than normal.
And just in case we haven't enough jerks, our state government will scour other nations for them, and bring them here, support them, and then bitch to the federal government for the money necessary to do so, because they have taxed out the remaining working people who are not on government payrolls.
I have the negatives, so don't run for office! If you do, suggest national service for EVERY young person for 2 years, so we can try and knock something into them that might later save the country.
Definitely a center for the spread of the 1960's virus. Had more people been aware of this nut hatchery, it probably would have been bombed. It made places like Bard College look normal.
Congratulations on your revovery.
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