Do you think anything like Woodstock or the 1963 march on Washington will ever happen again?

Don’t miss the next big event in history while looking for old ones.

If sufficiently provoked, people will take to the streets, so I believe massive political demonstrations are always possible.

As for another commercial venue matching the turnout and cultural impact of Woodstock, I have my doubts, but, then, I am a ‘60s geezer.

Obama’s inauguration doesn’t count?

Good thought @jonsblond. I think I’m maxed out on you, but GA anyhow.

@pdworkin Thanks ok. I’ve maxed out on you too. :)

But we have Woodstockapalooza every year and lotsnlots of marches on Washington! ;)

Having wannabe events all the time kinda cheapens them, I think.

Just wait until we have our first female President! Now that will be a party.

Oh, I do. I think in the cycle of things the mood and values of those times will surface again. There may not be anything quite like the sixties, when a whole generation felt its muscle at the same time that it gained a sense of freedom, when it had troubadors and leaders to inspire it in a way that fit with its own ideals, and when all those substances were new and pretty innocent, but there will be something else. Young people have it in them to do things no one else can. They just have to find a common purpose about which they can be passionately serious (those weren’t parties, guys, or at least the March on Washington wasn’t). Connecting with one another is easier than ever.

According to the anti-Obamans, they had 2 million people march on Washington just a month ago.

Yes. The cause is unknown, but I suspect the aging population of self-centred boomers and corruption will be at the core.

There was The Million Man March back on October 16, 1995. And at least some folks seem to be proposing some kind of March on Washington for health care reform. Who knows what may happen in the future to get folks all fired up about something?

Unfortunately such liberal demonstrations won’t happen now, as those radicals you mentioned are now in power.

I know this is fruitless, but I am so confused I’m going to try anyway. @Noel_S_Leitmotiv is there any way you could explain that last cryptic statement, please? I am just wholly lost.

WW2: an entire generation is saved from fascism by believing in and applying conservative values.

These patriots celebrate their hard earned freedom by making families.

As is normal these citizens’ spawn rebel against their values.

But for some odd reason they don’t grow out of it.

These children are now the establishment.

You asked.

What Conservative Values preceded and accompanied the War? Hint: they were products of the 4-term FDR administration. I’ll name some for you. Social Security. The New Deal. The Works Projects Administration. The TVA. The FDIC. The Glass-Steagel Act.

You know what Noel? It’s time for you to crack a book or two. Your pronouncements betray a profound ignorance of history. This one, for example, you got exactly backwards. Those days were the absolute heyday of Liberalism.

It was Herbert Hoover who was the exiled, discredited Conservative, and he had no influence before or during WWII.

Being a “Conservative” now is not the same as being a Conservative back before the 70’s-80’s. They took a crazy turn when they met the Religious Right. Republicans from Barry Goldwater’s time look more like what would be called Conservative Democrats today.

Here’s a Forbes article written by one of Reagan’s ex Treasury economists calling the modern “conservatives” out on their crap. I never thought I’d agree with someone from Reagan’s staff about the economy, but it looks like pigs are growing wings and it’s a little chilly in Hell. ;)

Is it simply my imagination or is there an absence of passionate idealism, such as that which existed in the 1960s-70s? maybe I am simply wearing nostalgia-tinted glasses? or perhaps we have become too comfortable in our little lives just a thought

I think it’s at an ebb now, @Adagio. But I think it comes naturally to the young, and that’s why they can do things that older people can’t once they’ve begun to make their compromises. That’s also why I believe such things can and will happen again. It just takes a sufficient cause mating with a mood of the times.

Also, due to the “baby boom” after WWII, we had a big group of kids all coming of age at once. A lot of force (idealism, in this case) coming to bear in a short span of time is a lot more noticeable than when generations are more diffuse, as they are today.