Are we seeing a new 1968?

Crap. Too late to edit.
I forgot about the Prague Spring!! (Just like my government did).
Also, the Cultural Revolution in China had started earlier, but was still going on in 1968. It was begun by Mao to indoctrinate and subdue a new cohort of youth who had not lived through the Communist Revolution, but I think it still belongs on the list of generational contestation in this period.

Too young to remember the world events in 1968, but I’m wondering what affect the internet is having on these events? The information is a lot more available than it was in the 60’s.

1968 was much, much worse.
Bobby Kennedy and M.L.King both shot dead.
Viet Nam still growing
The Chicago Democratic Convention Riots.
Nixon elected President.

It’s a nightmare just to think about that shit.

Very interesting question, bookish…

Yeah, I am (unfortunately) old enough to have graduated HS in 1968, and two years later was drafted and sent to Vietnam for a year.

Those days were the first in modern times (at least in the U.S.) that people began to pull their heads out of the sand, question authority (and blind patriotism), and challenge the commonly accepted notion of how undeniably “great” we were as a nation.

To this day, it makes me very proud and happy that there are still people out there who will think for themselves and stand up and shout when they see things as unjust, and in many cases morally corrupt…..or full-blown corrupt.

It is very easy for any of us to just roll our eyes, curse “those bastards” and just go make a sandwich and think about something else. People were standing in the streets in 1968, and many of their children and grandchildren are out there today.

And I am very grateful for that….

I guess my perspective is largely an American one. I lived through the 60s and 70s and although I was aware of what was happening globally, it was Vietnam and the protest movement here that consumed and excited us. I see nothing like that degree of engagement in the States now – even I, a radical in some ways, feel that there is very little that “the people” can do to effect change. Obama increasingly disappoints me.

As for the larger foment in the world, it is harder and harder to figure out the goodies from the baddies. Mass protests in France – yes, but against gay marriage! Who are we really sending arms to in Syria? Will democratic movements lead to fascist governments in Egypt and the Middle East? The issues seemed much clearer to me then.

@Adirondackwannabe : Absolutely, I think the Internet and Facebook/Twitter have played a huge role in people’s ability to organize protests and just be aware of what is going on locally and around the world.

@filmfann : I understand. My mom said it was the worst year of her life. I became interested in history because of hearing her stories growing up. But just think, that stuff was only going on in the U.S.!

@OneBadApple: Thank you for your response. I’m glad you made it back from Vietnam. I feel like part of the legacy of 1968 in the U.S. is the idea that citizens should keep tabs on what their leaders are up to.

@janbb: Thank you. I agree—most people are far too complacent. It’s partly because the system has got us so insecure that we are terrified of losing the pitiful economic footholds we might have. I feel very disappointed with Obama as well, and I regret that I voted for him mostly because he wasn’t Mitt. Despite what folks say, he’s pretty much center-right at this point. It’s just that the American right has gone so far to the right in the past 20 years that people call him a “socialist.” I know what you mean about the goodies and baddies today, but I’m not so sure that the lines were so clear-cut even back in 1968. For example, Ho Chi Minh was no angel. He had all of his political opposition “disappeared” just like a good Communist.

@bookish1 I don’t think it was that we supported (the protesters) Ho Chi Minh over the South Vietnamese – except perhaps people like Jane Fonda. I think for most of us, at least, we felt the domino theory was specious and this was not a war we should be engaged in at all.

@janbb: Oh, I completely understand! I was not laboring under that sort of misapprehension. I realized after I posted my response that it might have come off that way. I just meant to say that back in the bipolar Cold War era, where almost everyone was either aligned with the USSR/China, or the U.S., things might not have been very clear cut either.

@bookish1 True dat but I was 17 so I knew everything back then! :-)

I don’t feel seven years old.. so no.

@OneBadApple Interesting take. The comment on questioning authority and blind patriotism caught my eye.

That is exactly what we are being asked to do today.

Don’t question your own government, we know what is best for you. If you do ask questions and demand answers you are unpatriotic at best and a traitor at worst.

@rojo Yes -and sadly it has been that way for the past two administrations at least.

True, and the sad thing is it really doesn’t matter whether it is the liberal or conservative wing of the Corporate Party that wins; the next administration will continue the policies and issue more and more restrictive (and secretive) laws,

To actually answer your question @bookish1 . I really don’t know. I would like to think so. It is time for another social revolution and it is the young and the workers that bring about change.

There is a different mood this time, the demonstrators are not so idealistic. In 1968 the rioters were affluent and had an even more affluent future ahead of them. This time it isn’t just the youth it is people of all ages protesting about concrete issues such as poverty and corruption and unresponsive governments. 1968 took place close to home these events are being played out in countries far away and they are of an order of magnitude more serious.

Yes I was there. I graduated from high school in 1969. Protests are much different nowadays. Today there are no flower children, weird freaky communes, or psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street where phony hippies meet (thank you Frank Zappa). I never participate in any of the unrest events because I was too busy working my butt off in college while working part time jobs making something of myself.

The very violent protests of today the go on in countries have nothing in common to the peaceful protests the occurred in the U.S.A. in the 1960’s. The new so called occupy movement is a total joke. Those protesters can’t even tell you what they are protesting. Talk about absolute losers. HA!

I find it hard to compare the two. Back in the 60 and 70s the goals were more concrete, easily defined. The war affected everyone not just those that volunteered. The death toll was staggering. If you turned 18 and weren’t in school, you were drafted. Forced to participate willingly or not. Segaration was in full force. It wasn’t some esoteric notion or vague political issue, it was real and in your face.

Today the goals are vague with no clear cut answers. I still wonder what the OWS movement wanted, besides free cell phones. It seems that most of the protesting is to get more free stuff. Hardly idealistic. Personally, I see nothing in common between the 60s and today. In the 60s whether I agreed or not, I knew what they wanted. Today, I have no clue.

For many years I would challenge anyone who thought that all of the lives and limbs and sanity lost during 10 years of the Vietnam war were “for nothing”.

I felt that the sacrifices by our troops at least made the American public wake up, and that they would never again just roll over and accept getting involved in any phony-baloney military conflict. For that reason, I liked to think that the guys we lost saved the lives of military guys after them by preventing wars which never happened.

Until March, 2003 that is….

Many Americans waved the flag and followed the obvious lies all the way into Iraq, which was bad enough. By late 2004, it was clearly proven that the Bush administration blatantly bullshitted us into this “War On Terror”, but a majority of voters re-elected him anyway.

So now I get to be disappointed in my countrymen all over again….

Considering the wars this country has started and the world wide protests, and the dying and wounded soldiers that are sons and daughters of middle and lower class families, it is frighteningly familiar. The good thing is that I am on the right side now. During the 60’s and 70’s I was pretty right wing. Now I am a liberal progressive. Unfortunately our leaders are neither liberal nor progressive. There are one or two independent members of congress that I like, the rest are the same old warmed over verbal vomit that talk a good game but do nothing.

No argument here, Ron, and it saddens me greatly that our once-great country has gone so far down the “verbal vomit” path that turning back is now likely impossible.

I have lived in the ‘liberal / progressive’ end of the spectrum for my entire adult life, but sincerely admire and respect anyone who paid close attention to information received from all angles (and not just…you know…the FauxNews angle) and changed their philosophy based on how they see things (even if their views changed to the polar opposite of mine).

My opinion of our politicians is pretty close to yours, and although I have always followed the issues as closely as possible, I can’t help wondering if I am really just one more “chump citizen” who has been wasting his time having faith in anything….

@bookish1

1968 is a GREAT analogy!

So is 1848!

…....in anything….

I like the analogy!

Well, I graduated from high school in 1964 and I joined in the protesting of the war in Viet Nam & I joined in the protesting of segregation (I was raised to respect people, no matter what their race was). Unfortunately now, you run the very real risk of being arrested for making any protest at all. We have lost some of our essential freedoms in the US, especially since the PATRIOT ACT was passed by Congress & signed into law by Bush & Cheney. I really admire the young people who are still willing to join these protest movements. Whenever people take the time to formulate a protest, it focuses the attention on both the government & the immediate problem at hand. Our world would be a lot better off if more of these protests were acknowledged as being of value.