Are we returning to politics of the '60s?

I am way too young to know about what exactly happened during the '60s when it comes to politics. I know it was a time of intense rebellion and political assassinations. Then i compare it to our current climate and I can't help but think they are pretty close or atleast our politics are heading in that direction. So I have to ask, are we turning to the political crisis of the '60s and early '70s? I would like some feedback from people who lived through this time, people who know alot about the politics of that time and anyone who might be of some insight.

What, you started a new post?

Did you give up on railing about the "radical violence mongers" on the right?

Did you decide to find out about your history?

That aside, I don't think we're close yet. During the '60s riots, cities like Detroit had whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground. The National Guard was being called in to control the violence in the streets everywhere during that time, actually provoking and contributing to the violence. And let's not forget the Chicago Riot during the '68 Democratic convention.

[edit on 25-3-2010 by indianajoe77]

Originally posted by indianajoe77
What, you started a new post?

Well your on this thread aren't you?

Did you give up on railing about the "radical violence mongers" on the right?

I figured it's better listen than to tell.

Did you decide to find out about your history?

Yes because i'm so unedumacated.

That aside, I don't think we're close yet. During the '60s riots, cities like Detroit had whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground. The National Guard was being called in to control the violence in the streets everywhere during that time, actually provoking and contributing to the violence. And let's not forget the Chicago Riot during the '68 Democratic convention.

Well that would definitly be alot of chaos. Of course it won't be so bad now because it's not a racial issue.

All of the politics of the '60s wasn't about civil rights, though that's the way they teach it now in school. It was about youth vs. age, complete freedom vs. resonable limits, war or no war, etc.

I think if things blow-up, it will actually be worse. In the 60's, you didn't have organized gangs (except the mob, but they really didn't participate) that are armed just as well as the police like now. You also now have people that have been planning for this kind of thing since the 60's on both sides.

I think we are headed to the type of upheaval like we had in the 60's and 70's but I don't think there will be the violent riots like we had then. First, people are worried about terrorists striking us and of course economic collapse. If I remember right, there wasn't the threat of economic collapse in the 60's and 70's like there is today. Having said that, I think we will have a revolution similar to the 60-70's but a more peaceful one. But it could get ugly if services (government benefits) are stopped and the unprepared get riled up!

Originally posted by indianajoe77
You also now have people that have been planning for this kind of thing since the 60's on both sides.

I agree with this statement. The 60's kids - Hippy Radicals and "Clean-cut Mainstream" just grew up, keeping the same beliefs and ideals they had. Now they're all in a position to actually do something, and they are still butting heads. We're caught in the middle.

Another parallel with the 60's might be instructive.
At the time, they were writing songs like;
"...don't you believe
We're on the eve
of destruction?"
Now that forty years have passed, it becomes evident that we were NOT on the eve of destruction.
Society got over it and calmed down.
Perhaps this is an encouraging sign.

The policy wonks of a certain political party in America has been trying to engineer a 1960's-style revolution in this country since the year 2003 at least, maybe earlier. They were given a very attractive template:

GWB = LBJ/Nixon (Depending on need)
Afghanistan=Korea
Iraq=Vietnam
Gay Marriage (or whatever hot-bottom contrived social issue)=Racial Equality (Or any of the other tired tropes)
MTV Generation = Me Generation

It should come as no surprise. Marxists were behind the political turmoil of the sixties; progressives are behind the currency turmoil.

Marxism requires revolution as a catalyst for progress. In the sixties, the time was not exactly right (or so they rationalize). Now, just like in the sixties, there's a window of opportunity. They are exploiting it, albeit with forty more years of history and experience guiding them at this point.

Now, to what extent the Marxist/progressives have (ironically) displaced and transformed into the Man is a good question. In other words, how much of what we see now is genuine Yes We Can Change Hope revolutionary fervor and how much of it is sheer show-me-the-money political pragmatism? I tend to believe it's more the later than the former.

I guess there's the option, "Politicians are altruistically doing the best they can for their constituents," but I think that's more than a bit naive.

yes, perhaps the Øbama team have notions that they & Øbama are
engaged in pressing for the 'Elixir' - Health-Care Reform
And HCR will be a greater societal imperative than Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society' ever turned out to be.


Cycles, cycles, everywhere

There are several factors where the 60s parallel today, but there are also large divergences.

Just as there is today, the subterfuge in the political arena was immense, perhaps even more so then: the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK were conducted under extremely suspicious circumstances, FBI COINTELPRO was at an all time high under the increasingly paranoid J. Edgar Hoover, the Mafia was at it's most powerful in America and the Military-Industrial-Complex was gearing into overdrive with it's overt war against Communism and the covert war against leftist though on all fronts.

Today, we have subterfuge with the bail-outs, crony capitalism, a government that indulges in Orwellian tactics for the "good of the populace" and an out of control military-industrial-complex banking on a war generated on flimsy grounds. Not to mention the Prison-Industrial-Complex, the Pharmaceutical-Industrial Complex, and organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the Federal Reserve, the BIS and G30 operating more out in the open than ever.

The big difference is that in the 1960s there was a viable counter culture and even radical militant resistance to what was perceived as the Man, now referred to as the "Powers That Be". Through the Hippie movement the youth became revolutionary agents, spreading a counter-culture message that has forever altered American society. Meanwhile, there were the Yippies, the more politically radical ready to take charge, as well as disparate groups such as the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers who would resort to more urban warfare tactics against capitalism and the state.

Today, there is no longer the "Us against Them" mentality, it's an "Us against Us" mentality pushed on us by Them. People talk the talk, but by and large don't walk the walk. Of course, the counter culture of the 60s didn't achieve much other than eventually becoming who they claimed they wouldn't be (i.e., the current Democratic Party).

Someone336,

Would you agree with the idea that linking the world today with the world of the sixties is an intentionally-instigated rhetorical tool exploiting these similarities at least? I mean, I'm not even going to get into the co-opting of the Truth movement (which, for eight years, allowed many of its members to be shills in the confidence game which is the Democrat party), but there's something to be said for COINTELPRO on both sides (witness the current co-opting of the "tea party movement" by the Republicans).

reply to post by Professor Tomorrow


I would agree with you. People have a romanticized vision of the 1960s - forgetting that while there was much Utopian Dreaming in the Summer of Love in 1967, it was followed by the near collapse of America in 1968 due to internal strife, and followed again in 1969 with violent incidences such as the stabbing at Altamont and even more extreme, the Manson murders. Then we had the decade of the 1970s, which languished through a seemingly unending war and a drug epidemic. That is, until Punk Rock came along and a possible revolution seemed to be on the horizon. But that fizzled out too.

All similarities between today and the Sixties really are superficial at best: the War on Terror, despite also being a senseless war much like the Vietnam War, is a beast of a different color. One was about curbing the influence of an ideology, the other about geo-political supremacy. Civil Rights has crumbled in Political Correctness, and while the youngsters of today want to emulate the free-wheelin' do-it-yourself individualism of the 60s counter-culture, they're really just shills for the Democratic Party and a corporatized world. Complain about the rights of factory workers in the Philippines while wearing Nike shoes and blogging away on a Mac. Bashing NAFTA while waxing poetically about the glory days of the Clinton administration. Counter-cultural ideals is just another brand to bought and sold in our homogenized culture, something to wear along with your Aéropostale polo and North Face jacket. Unless you're an elite anti-elitist, then you'd be wearing it with your hemp bracelet (made in the Philippines!) tie die shirts (made in Haiti!) and Jesus Sandals (made by children God-knows-where!).

Sorry for the rant!

reply to post by Misoir



My friend, not trying to do any tit for tat but the hard lefties in those days were very violent. They were even planting bombs at colleges and just a whole lot of things. Even the old school dems were worried and eventualy run out by the "progressives" that took over that party. And dont be fooled, I went to college with these guys. Oh the stories that could be told.

I sat in a large tax payer supported universite and listened many times to professors harp about "direct action". Oh yes send little Johnny off to state u and he comes home a radical progressive. These folks are in power now. Oh and certainly with their public game face on, clean and polished working for the "poor" like Judas Iscariot.