It often seems to me that there was a madness that swept the West that year. The media fomented it, by magnifying the nobility of the protestors while denigrating anyone in positions of responsibility...military, the government, tenured professors, and the church. Everything was suspect if it wasn't part of the new thinking that was sweeping the country.
When I returned and resumed by university career in 1971, the campus was completely altered. When I had married in 1967, there were still curfews in women's dorms, dress codes in classes, and professors wore coats and ties. By 1971 in Indiana (earlier I am sure on the coasts) all of those things had disappeared. Protests were common, beards and long hair were everywhere, women's studies were beginning, and the education department was conducting classes in which there were no grades per se; everyone was given an A or a B because the instructor didn't believe in grades.
When I look back on those years it seems that I was either angry or afraid. I had a small son and was worried all the time about the drugs so many of my friends used.
I still think that those years were demonic. The Church got caught in those times as much as the universities. The spirit of rebellion infected the Church. I can remember that spirit of rebellion washing over me, making me a really hateful and obnoxious young woman.
I am grateful that I survived, and that God preserved me from the disasters that befell so many of my friends. I knew former high school classmates who were arrested by Interpol for drug smuggling, who died of drug overdoses, who spent time in jail because of protests, who rioted and were injured in the streets of Chicago.
What for? Why the anger and hate? All I can think of was that my generation was coddled and told they were the purpose of our parents lives, and that we were the best and biggest generation ever. And then, when we were asked to do something for the country (Vietnam) so many of us were too selfish to serve. Many of us were cowards, and used our supposed "higher morality" to excuse it.
But what evil imp whispered in so many ears the words of selfishness, hatred, and violence? What horrible spirit moved people to hate their country, their churches, their parents? I can offer no other suggestion than Satan, who was ever a liar and certainly must have laughed at all that happened in 1968.
And many of those most instrumental in that tragic year's events are now in power, ready to release the hatred all over again.
Fascinating post, thanks. Was not yet Catholic or even a Christian in 1968, but boy, did my world spin that year.