(The title above is the one given in the local paper’s posting of this article on the op-ed page this morning–KSH).
Many a gentleman and scholar failed to credit his eyes in the ’60s as placid campuses erupted with hatred, malice and unreason. I wouldn’t presume to guess how many believed intuitively in Original Sin ”” the inborn pride and madness of the human race. I can’t imagine that even the most irreligious came away from the ’60s without some intuition of human defectiveness.
Woodstock, my eye! Peace and love ”” mere dumb show; dish towel disguises for the awful passions hiding below, starting with the passion to have it ”” whatever “it” might be ”” all one’s way, without reference to norms, traditions, dignity, tolerance, free speech, the received wisdom of the species.
“However irrational political processes may be,” writes Lyman, “they are not made any more rational by ‘violent’ behavior. Rationality itself was widely scored in the 1960s and suffered setbacks. It has never entirely regained its place in its supposed Temple, the University.” No, and probably won’t in our lifetimes.
“Students of the rise of fascism in Europe may be forgiven for finding this worrisome.”
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Those were my thoughts while teaching at Brown University from Aug 66 to Jun 68.
A relatively small group of faculty and students took control of events at Brown and transformed that school from an acadermic institution into an island of political radicalism on and in which no dissent from the radical party line was permitted.
My discernment at the time was, “This is what it must have felt like to be teaching at a German university in 1936.”
I lived these years as a student, fortunately in a small college where the symptoms were not severe. But they were strange times, and I agree with the author that they changed the nation, and not, on balance, for the better.
A useful reference is Allen J. Matusow’s [b]The Unraveling of America[/b], particularly Chapters 10 (The Rise and Fall of a Counterculture) and 11 (The Rise and Fall of the New Left). If nothing else, it will show that even when one is attacking ‘Woodstock Nation’ one can overestimate the importance of Woodstock itself.
[blockquote]”Happy 40th anniversary, folks.”[/blockquote]
Indeed.
P. S. If there’s anything at all to the myth of the ‘Woodstock Nation’, why is it that voters over 50 broke for John McCain in the last presidential election, while the iPod generation voted for The One.
Living through the 60s and 70s in Madison Wisconsin, I often pondered and questioned many a time on what the meaning of it all was; the “non-conformists seemed lemming-like in their dress, hates, drugs, philosophy, and much more. Nothing made sense to me. Then I ask, Where did the 60’s come from? Surely they didn’t arise out of the ether, did they? That’s when it got really interesting and I started finding answers.
I’m disappointed the other didn’t get to that question.
Don
Regarding where the 1960’s rebellion came from, Justice Robert Bork offers an explanation in “Slouching Toward Gomorrah.” As I recall, he traces it back to the late 1800s and suggests the 1960’s rebellion might have occurred much earlier but for delays caused by two world wars and the Great Depression. I would think that the extreme opposition to the Vietnam war by white college students was the fuel needed to turn the underlying 1960’s world view into something so violent.
Justice Bork’s analysis made me wonder if it somehow went back to War Between The States issues, because universities in Texas and the Deep South on the whole didn’t suffer the violence that the rest of the country did. Did it have something to do with differences in the faculty?
Mark Brown
San Angelo, Texas
August 19, 2009
Very good, Mark Brown!
I won’t discuss the +s and -s of your theory but suggest that you spend some time studying the 1920’s and the assasination of President McKinley. You will find ample evidence to confirm Judge Bork’s theory. (Even though I see a different “growth proccess” than Mr. Bork sees. I think that it NEEDED 3 generations to mature in the 1960s)
Don
Over at Preludium, Mark Harris is pondering the virtues of the late Bishop Pike. It seems as though the value of Pike’s life was placed on his personal rebellions and his journey to ??? . That’s the legacy of the 60s: to be on an endless self-appreciation jaunt to the loss of anything else. That Bishop Pike was abusive, an alcoholic, an adulterer, probably a heretic, and just lost to himself did not phase the commenters at Preludium. He was valued for his questioning rather than the mounds of human and spiritual debris that he left in his wake. Mark Harris ended up by almost reveling in the fact that Pike died … still a bishop. Yep….the 60s….
New Pilgrim:[blockquote]P. S. If there’s anything at all to the myth of the ‘Woodstock Nation’, why is it that voters over 50 broke for John McCain in the last presidential election, while the iPod generation voted for The One. [/blockquote]Because a lot of us grew up.
“Bishop Pike was abusive, an alcoholic, an adulterer, probably a heretic, and just lost to himself”
Pike’s son died of recreational drug use shortly before Pike’s own death. Pike then began a phase of public seances and reported frequent poltergist phenomenon.
It is amazing how much harm Pike did in barely 10 years as a bishop. He wandering in the Israeli desert. Almost a metaphor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pike
That should be he _died_ wandering in the Israeli desert.
Katherine,
[blockquote]New Pilgrim:
P. S. If there’s anything at all to the myth of the ‘Woodstock Nation’, why is it that voters over 50 broke for John McCain in the last presidential election, while the iPod generation voted for The One?
Because a lot of us grew up.”[/blockquote]
Thanks. Some of us grew up 30-40 years ago. I’ve since found it very tiresome being judged negatively by the actions of about 5% of my generation.
A ridiculous article. We were in the midst of a war based on outright lies.
Without the 60’s, women would be in the kitchen and jim crow would still be the law of the land.
I was in High School for the last of the 60s. The peace and love thing were mostly cowards who did not want to do their duty to fight the USSR proxy. There was a draft at the time, but there were many ways to delay getting called, one of which was college. If you delayed long enough you most likely would not get called.
It was viewed by many that the only sure out from the draft was to go to a seminary. Many of these draft dodgers are now becoming senior clergy or bishops. Why do you wonder where a bad theology comes from?
I would like to point out that forty years after Woodstock, is not a reflection on the civil rights movement. It is in many ways not even a reflection on the music. It is a reflection on sex, drugs, and rock_and_roll. I am sorry, John Wilkins, but reflection upon Woodstock is not a reflection on virtue but upon self indulgence.
Scott+
I’m not much of a hippie sympathizer, myself. But the Vietnam war was based on a lie, and resulted in the slaughter of millions of South east asians. The bombing of Cambodia precipitated the rule of Pol Pot.
If we had trusted capitalism, perhaps it would have been different.
Scott- you might be right about sex, drugs and Rock and Roll. Good luck at putting those back in the box.