Baton Rouge, Texas, France, everywhere. For those few of you as old as me to remember, actually have experienced '68, we wonder. Is this like those times?
No, it's not. There are probably, if we exclude what the Soviets did in Hungary and a few other countries, more deaths now than back then. Especially if we include the atrocities of the ISIS and other jihad groups, which we didn't have then. But that isn't the main thing that's different, that to my mind makes this time more dangerous, more disturbing than those times. Here in the Us we had Kent State, Jackson State, and a few others. 6 or so deaths, shootings. Look at the last month here in the US.
Remember the hope back then, you geezers of my age? Remember the hope, the feeling of Spring in the air? What Reagan later co-opted as "Morning in America"? When that was the actual feeling?
For you born after maybe '58 or so, it's hard to explain or ask you to imagine, but it was a time of real promise, when we thought we were winning. We, the people.
Silly, I know. But, there was a time when we thought it was actually going to happen. Silly us.
Nixon, then Reagan, didn't totally strip us of hope, but Bush, the rise of the GOP and Gengrich and his like, then the failure of President Obama to carry through with the promise of a new time that finally left me devoid of hope.
So is it the time of 1968 again, as some are suggesting? Emphatic no. Not at all. Back then we had hope, we had a new government coming in in the US, hopefully RFK, in France, even in some of the Soviet states. It was actually a time of hope, and some optimism.
What have we now? We have the proliferation of assault weapons in the US (which were illegal then), we have the rise of nativism and nationalism here, via Trump and the tea party, and in Europe the continuing blossoming of right wing nationalist parties, similar to the post WW1 era, like Madame La Pen in France.
So no, it's not 1968. It's somewhat Orwellian, 1984, but he missed it be several decades.
If one studies history, the average 'life' of a country, a nation, is around 200 to 300 years. We're just about approaching that time. Will 'American Exceptionalism' prevail above all, make us as different from the rest as we'd like to believe? You tell me.
Cheers,
Mike
I was there too. Not the same at all.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember fame and fortune? Nowadays fame (or infamy) is easy to achieve but fortune is restricted.
Correct,alas. I doubt my children can expect the same 'quality' of life that their mom and I had. The middle class has all but disappeared, and no sign of reappearing in the near future.
Delete"Will 'American Exceptionalism' prevail above all, make us as different from the rest as we'd like to believe?"
ReplyDeleteNot as long as the idea of "American Exceptionalism" underwrites our national laws and international policies. And not as long as we keep electing buffoons and deeply-entrenched-old-guards who fear any change to the current order means the collapse of the privileged (obscenely wealthy) oligarchia now in place. It is this oligarchy that makes and manipulates the laws, bleeds the nation of money and citizens to equip its war machine (domestic and international), stirs discontent, fuels our rabid zenophobia, all the while watching the demise of what was the American dream we used to hold onto as if it were the newest ‘reality’ television show.
Which nations have the best relations between their police and the public they are sworn to protect and serve? Could we get past our national arrogance, our machismo postering, and take a page or two from their policy manuals to make things better here? Can we demilitarize our police-troops and our nation to a level where they don't need all the armored vehicles and war-zone weaponry? Can we take things down a notch or two so that rational voices can be heard?
You tell me.
There is a lot more at stake and at fault with what’s going on in the US – hell, in the world at large – than my simplistic rantings suggest, I realize, but that’s my take on the situation today. Maybe tomorrow will be different.
P.S.: I was there...front row seat for some of it, in the next room for more, but deeply affected by it all. Most of it changed my life forever.
DeleteThanks Martha. You are all too correct in your analysis.
DeleteI think we are on our way out as a great nation. Hopefully, I'll be gone before the shit hits the fan, but some days I don't think it will be far from now.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the 'shit' will actually hit the fan....I think it'll be more the 'whimper' end, vs the 'bang'.
DeleteI think we're becoming more racially diverse. I don't believe American Exceptionalism ever existed in fact, only in fanciful thinking. I think a lot of monists need to pass out of existence before any generation can have a world with, at minimum, less strife, and at most, the hope of harmony we looked for.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to thing that's true, Joanne. But I see no sign that the younger generation(s) are going to do any better than we boomers that fucked it up.
DeleteI was a street reporter in 1968 covering the anti war movement and the urban explosions after MLK's death. I was covering Bobby Kennedy the day King was killed. My late brother was in Chicago where he was further radicalized by the police riot of the Chicago PD. I stayed in journalism while John went more deeply into SDS strategy and beyond. They were heady days, violent and divisive but a profound difference was the cause.
ReplyDeletePrimarily and end to the US War in Vietnam with trailing movements of finishing racial reconciliation. The cause was just and history validates it was right. There were excesses,however. The treatment of returning troops was wrong. The self absorption in personal freedom was a bit indulgent. The friction between the police ("pigs") and hippies("heads"), blacks ("brothers")and radicals ("freaks")was awful.
The issues in 2016 are different. Race is still unresolved but now it is the vestige of racism and ancient animosities. The largest difference however is the influence of a solo or isolated actor-with a gun, truck or homemade bomb. The US culture has less "center" than it did in 1968. We are more tribal, less committed to shared values. It is a new brand of dysfunction and frightfully dystopian.
The tribalism, nativism you mention are almost a throwback to the 1830-1870 period, with the difference that it can spread, via communication and the internet so quickly.
DeleteGood comment, Tom. Appreciate your insight.
Don't you dare lose hope now, Mike. It's only been half a century. We must give peace a chance --a really long chance.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see, Geo. For the moment, the 70+er is hunkering down in a small Montana town (soon as I get out of this damn OC heat) and keeping his passport current. Not sure Trump et al is what Lennon had in mind back then when he wrote that song (not one of my favorites, btw).
DeleteAs much as I despair now, I do know some young activists full of fire and hope. So possibly now looks different to the current young adult generation than it does to the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteCould be, hope you're right. I do remember from my firebrand days some geezers who still had the passion I find myself lacking today.
Deletecheers, best to hubby also,
Mike