The 60s: Activism Then, and Now

One of the things that seems to always arise when looking back at the 60s is the incredible activism that seemed to explode out of nowhere, especially among college age students. It looked like a world-wide phenomenon with students in many European countries protesting as well.

I don't know a great deal about the protests in Europe or other places. They got coverage on the news, but I don't think they were directly connected. In the US the protests seemed to have several different streams that came together to produce the activism of The 60s.

The first was the remnants of the Old Left- the socialist and communist movements of earlier years. These "aging" radicals were looking for ways to rejuvenate and expand their movements. The Soviet Union was now an enemy and had shown a great deal of violent, unsupportable behavior. Some of these Old Leftists were also pacifists which began to play into what was happening in other areas of the country.

Which was the second strand of the activism- the Civil Rights Movement. I think of the idealism and vision of many young whites who traveled to The South to do voter registrations and sit-ins. Young men like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner who with their black companion James Chaney, were brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1964 became icons and role models. As the Civil Rights Movement began to change and splinter in the mid- to later 60s, the activism was already well engrained.

The third element was almost certainly the youthful energy and aliveness that were brought out by the two youthful leaders of the era. President John Kennedy, the youngest elected president at 43 issued a clarion call. Martin Luther King, Jr. was eight years younger, only in his mid-30s in the middle of the decade. Youth felt more empowered than ever before by their numbers and these young powerful leaders. Something could be done.

And then comes Vietnam. As the war continued to increase a focal point for the activism beyond Civil Rights began to gel. The "old" and "New" Leftists began to develop a student awareness which didn't get very far until Vietnam galvanized more and more individuals- sometimes just to be different from parents, sometimes out of conviction, and sometimes because of the final element that brought the activism to the streets- General Hershey and The Draft. (Hershey was a lightning rod due to his public attitudes and statements that only added fuel to the fire.)

It is an impossible question to answer, but would it all have come together so clearly without the draft targeting so many people to go to Vietnam? Would an all-volunteer army have eased the problems and changed the face of the protests? We can only guess, of course, but the current war in Iraq might give us some pause.

Putting all these together with the large number of first-time students, the wealth and ease that so many of us had experienced in the post WW II economy, the feeling of entitlement and you had something that may never have happened before- a young leisure class ready to challenge and move and make a difference.

I don't believe my generation was any more inherently prone to activism than any generation since. Such relatively wide-spread activism was as much a product of TV/Mass Media coverage and pure numbers as anything else.

And then it ended. The end began even before it truly started. The assassination of John Kennedy, the deepening divide between black and white radicals, for example, began while the mid-60s were still young, 1963 - 1966. But there was still hope brewing in 1967 and 1968. And then it began to fall apart, irrevocably.

The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the riots in Chicago, Nixon- all in 1968 sowed the seeds that ended at Altamount and Kent State by the end of the decade. After 1970 the draft slowly decreased. Fewer body bags arrived home. The POWs were released.

And all was well. It was a short-lived revolution, it's populist side co-opted by the inexorable powers of government, media, and money. We moved on. We splintered. We lost the idealism. If we can't change the world, well, then let's see what else there is to do.

That about sums up the then and most of the time until "now." The Baby Boomers who were in the leading edge of that prior activism are now nearing or even past 60. We are no longer young adult let alone college age. We dropped out for a while, perhaps out of frustration. Some have stayed "activist" and others are seeking new ways to change the world in the 21st Century. But even with a new unpopular war activism isn't happening. Next time I will ponder that a little and see if the legacy of The 60s needs to bring about some new push to make a difference.