The Sixties

I wasnt alive in the 60's, but I don't think any era in history is something that cant or wont be repeated, but only if necessary. I believe the counterculture part of the 60's was just a reaction of the violence. I guess it can be summed up with the yin yang theory. Wheres there's light there's dark, vice versa.

Can the "60's" happen again? Yes, when the dark grows so strong as to call for the light to shine through, or vice versa. Maybe during the next "cold war", great president assassination, war similar to nam, civil rights movement, another counter culture will emerge.

Also im young but, I consider my generation to be pretty sweet, we have similar darkness of the 60's, war over nothing but politics, most civil rights issues are gay marriage etc. Who knows about the president it seems hes always hated these days, but maybe a change is coming, the light will always shine through.

Only time will tell.

 

The world changed after the 60s, but it needed to, right or wrong!

 

for me there are two salient points about the 1960s in the u.s. where i lived at the time and still do.

first off is that america was waking up to realize it had been conned by mccarthyism.

the second is the unusual demographic of the mostly young people who were waking up to this realization, dispite what they were being taught to the contrary in school.

from this emerged a generation of artistic inspiration and scientific achievement.
also large powerful and successful movements against glaring inequities that had previously been accepted or at least swept under the rug.

it was to discredit the moral high ground of these movements, that corporate media coined the term that is the name of this place on the internet we now call home.

 

A bunch of white trash suburban kids got high, fucked and spread stds and a few armchair intellectuals ruffled some feathers in the name of social distaste, and left no real lasting effects. What's to discuss.

The music was artists trying to appeal to the angsty youth while others were lashing out in a way they thought was cool gaining the appraisal of kids in the process. Kids will latch onto anything that meets their requirements of 'does it piss off mom and dad, or at least many, and can I get high to it'.

They cut their hair, quit being deadbeats (also know as Beatnicks), quit using drugs, continued being sexually dangerous, and gaveup their Mickey Mouse ideals for wealth, employment, and that dangling democratic carrot.

Snooze.. Can we quit idolizing the Flintstones now?

Or maybe we can talk about the Republican mushroom cloud of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s that followed the 1960s as the new generations reject the rejects before them and wanted better than pseudo intellectual ideals from doped up teenagers and wannabe figure heads.

 

Haha love it, Lunar

But... there are no lasting effects made in the name of social distaste?

 

Sure, there's lasting effects. People still think acid is groovy and that Jefferson Airplane was talented.

 

I also regard many phenomenons in fashion and entertainment as a direct effect of the 60's social/cultural revolution. As well as now overall condoned behaviour that would be frowned upon before the 60's

By the way, JA WERE talented for awhile

 

Without the activism of the sixties, the decade would have most likely been a continuation of the fifties, when conservatism held the country in a vise grip. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and military activism were completely accepted, and there was zero tolerance for drug use and premarital sex. America had one semi-official religion, and all were expected to believe and conform, with great enthusiasm.

I didn't see much of a conservative backlash against the sixties until the eighties.

...all of which could be easily cured, at that time.

 

I doubt many people on here would like it if they had to adopt the dress codes of 1960. I recall my battles with my parents as a child in the 60's to be allowed to grow my hair out of the 'short back and sides' that was ubiquitous at the time.

My self I think two little pills played a very big role - the contraceptive pill and the LSD tablet. The first transformed attitudes towards sex, the second had a massive input into the move from monochrome to full color.

I liked JA and the Beatles etc, my folks were still tuning into the Black and White minstrel show. At least we don't have that kind of socially accepted racism in the media now.

That said, I think it's pointless for young people now to hanker to go back. The world has changed very much since 1970, and we have to deal with a whole different set of issues today. It's true that many of these issues, such as ecological concerns etc had their roots in the 60's.

I think we're still struggling now with the effects of the conservative backlash.

 

Not that I'm an expert ,but I was always aware,even as a teenager, how the times I was growing up in was changing the country. I battled with my folks on everything from sex to politics.. From hair, to music,poverty,war, marijuana ,and racism - -----...
I come from a family that believed in serving your country when called...so against my beliefs,when I was classified A1 ,I did what I was asked to do- - It was a different time,,I was young...If I was a young man,hit with that decision today..well ,it would be a totally different story


Not every reform or vision advanced during the 1960s survived .. American capitalism did not collapse under the pressure of student revolutionaries. Consumerism remained an essential element of American society. And many of the conventional institutions and practices of both Wall Street and Main Street persisted.

But>> student protestors did contribute to the end of the war in Vietnam, & we did advance civil rights, and we did transform the culture of American colleges. Many of the values of the counterculture did work their way into the mainstream.
America’s workplace is now more diverse and flexible, our sexual ethics have changed, and environmentalism has become a widely embraced set of values. Many of the programs created under Kennedy and Johnson -(maybe not Nixon,s) are now accepted fixtures within the nation’s web of social services. Poverty has been reduced, America’s elderly are better cared for, (more or less)and educational opportunities are far greater.

The 1960s will always remain a controversial decade. Critics will argue that the era created the welfare state, bred a culture of immorality and self-indulgence, and bequeathed to America’s taxpayers an enormous burden.
Its defenders, on the other hand, argue that the decade left America’s political and social institutions more just, and its culture more healthy.

The 1960s did create a new America. The question is, was “new” better?- -Debatable ,but I think "yes"

 

I'd agree with much of that, and also overall the 60's changed things for the better IMO.

Here in the UK things also changed quite a lot, mirroring some of the changes in America. Of course, our welfare state goes back to 1945 and the so called 'post war settlement'.

One other point I'd make though is that thanks to the conservative backlash of the 80's, spearheaded by Reagan and Thatcher, wall street, city of london, and financial institutions in general now have immeasurably more power and wealth than in the 60's. And that's one big problem the youth of today should be concerned over.

 

I'm very familiar with the first one. I guess I got some second-hand benefits from the second, through experiences with some very enlightened teachers, musicians, and media producers.

I'm not sure all the young people know how bad it used to be. I remember knowing people who thought sexual attraction to someone of a different race was a form of mental and emotional illness.

I do think it's good that the old music is widely available to younger generations. Thanks to digital technology, nothing ever has to completely go away anymore.

Where I am, it's worse than I once thought possible.

 

Yeah...good point.. So many in the states like to put Regan up on Mt Rushmore,(Not sure how Thacher is viewed?) not fully understanding just how much more powerful and wealthy finical institutions really got during the 80,s- yes,it is concerning.

 

I think a lot of 60's fashion, especially what was coming out of Carnaby Street in London was very LSD influenced too. The colors, the new and for the older generation shocking things like mini-skirts for women. I think fashion was one area where the hippies definitely won.

That's one thing very different over here. It wasn't really an issue in any big way as we didn't have that many non whites living here back then.
But the Brits were racist in another way, deriving from the Imperial past.
Still,my Mum did like Sidney Poitiers and Nat King Cole, whilst my dad had a stack of black jazz records. Nonetheless they were inherently programmed with British Empire racism. My Mum still is to some degree, but will always back down when challenged on it. Even today I visited her and she used the N word until I told her off:bobby:

Although I rarely listen to much from the 60's nowadays, I agree it's good that it's still out there.

It's pretty bad over here too with right wing demagogues, a corrupt and dishonest political elite and the City of London really calling all the shots exclusively for their own benefit.
Socio-political regress.

We could do with some of the spirit of rebellion from the old days back.

 

Thatcher still divides this country. As with Reagan in the US, some would almost declare her a saint - 'our best ever prime minister'. Others held parties to celebrate when she died, and the song 'Ding dong the wicked witch is dead' from the Wizard of Oz had a brief comeback.
I myself shed no tears, but unfortunately her heirs just carry on with the same flawed model she helped create.

You might well think that after the credit crunch and the ensuing financial meltdown, people would be questioning it all a lot more. But seems were' just back to business as usual so far as the banks go.

 

I love the way satellite radio (Sirius/XM) has their pop oldies divided by decade! Whenever a song comes on that I don't like, I just surf through the decade channels until something catches my ear. I end up stopping on the 70's and 80's most often, but I eventually get around to them all. Not having any personal memories of 60's pop, I still have a few things to learn about some of the more obscure minor hits. And of course, the satellite jazz and blues channels play their own classics from every decade. Some of the best Louis Armstrong recordings were made in the 60's.

Unfortunately, studio recording quality didn't seem to reach perfection until around 1970.

 

A lot of those old 60's hits were mixed in the studio so they'd sound good on a single speaker transistor radio, or the old mono record players of the time.
That's how we used to listen to music when I was a kid.

As the time went on, everyone got stereo sound systems, studio technology improved, and records were mixed to take full advantage. From the late 60's on recording techniques became increasingly more sophisticated.

By the early 70's there were masterpieces of production, eg Pink Floyd's 'Dark side of the moon'.

One thing I'm not sure about is some of the digitally re-mastered albums from the 60's and 70's which are out there in increasing numbers. I heard a remastered version of some of the old Beatles hits, and I just though that if the originals had sounded like that, they would never have got anywhere at all

 

this is exactly the kind of bullshit corporate funded "historians" would want people to believe.

 

we've actually got all of those things. the one thing that's different that we don't have, was that particular age demographic. will that doom the progressive light to failure? the greedy and the uninformed are counting on it to do so. they seem to have forgotten the mrs millers.