60's project: a generational change

I'm doing a project for my english class on the generational change in the 60's. It'd help alot to hear what some of you who experienced this speical time in U.S. history have to say about it.

How did it feel to live in the 60's (in general)?

thanks alot

Wil

 

was born after the 60's, but the general gist is that baby boomers felt their parents were concerned with middle class life, money, and ignored racism, sexism, classism etc... The hippies tapped into this feeling. The feeling was that their parents generation were hypocritical, they parents ignored important issues but felt money was great. They drank alcohol, but condemned pot.

The generational shift also involved older senators sending young men to die in vietnam.

Movies are a good way to learn about all this, easy rider, the graduate, Punishment Park, sometimes a great notion and many other movies deal with young hippies battling against the older generation.

What makes me angry is that the hippie generation, the boomers, almost all sold out, and became everything they once hated.

The boomer generation felt their parents were bought and sold and were totally materialistic. They wanted to take the reins and change the world, and make a better world, with no war, no violence, no racism, no sexism. They tried, but they failed.

An interesting idea to include in your paper, and maybe you have similiar experiences, is if the current generation of youngsters and teens, how they view their parents and their parents generation. I think its similar. You have baby boomers in congress and making the laws, and what are they doing? They are sending young men and women to die in iraq.

I mean, your 16. Do your parents embody the place you want to be when you are their age? Are our parents just as materialistic and possession hungry as the people they once criticized?

I would make the argument our parents let us down.

 

to add on, rent any documentary you can on the 60's. Berkeley in the 60's, War at Home, Hearts and Minds, anything.

Thats how I learned about the 60's. Movies are the best way.

 

There was a docu-drama movie about Kent State made around 1981 that reflected the counter culture and resentment of the Vietnam conflict quite good. It can probably be found in most libraries.

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..........

 

In general, it was groovy with a dose of freaking the fuck out.

imhip

 

I was pretty active in the 60's. It was one of the greatest time to be alive. I believe one could call it the second renaissance. We had a whole new music, an art that is unique to the times, and a new political activism that has changed the way news is reported.

We can thank the Chicago Democratic Convention (the Chicago Seven) and the trial that followed opened the doors to getting our generation's political voices heard. Some great journalism came out of all of this too. Underground newspapers were popping up all around the country. These are the voices that got the message to our "leaders" in Washington to finally realize that LBJ had lied to about things in Viet Nam and that the war was a terrible mistake.

There was a lot of things going on, but in the background, it seems as though the music never stopped. People were enjoying life and experimenting with different lifestyles, e.g. "The Farm" commune that moved in school busses to Tennessee. People tried new spiritual lifestyles too. Exploration had no limits.
During all of this time, it seemed to me that people in "the movement" had a respect for what other people in "the movement" were doing.

 

Well-Iwas born in 49'-in Sacramento-1 hundred years too late to get at all that gold-damit!-O-What were we taking about?-The 60s?-Have you ever seen Fast Times At Ridgemont High?-I was Jeff Gulluli!-in San Francisco-wonderland in the early 60s-then people my age -well we found women-had kids-got a job etc.-but-this does not mean we changed our views on war or bigatry or anything else-basically; eventually' to raise a family you gotta work-Me' I was a trucker-Maybe some people switched gears and became Republicans; but the majority of the anti Vietnam crowd is still voting Demos-What I don't understand is how your generation is allowing Bush to walk all over the freedoms granted us-he is taking all he can-no privacy-tax the poor-help the rich-this crap was tried in the Nixon years and it was stopped and he was booted from office-why do the young people today not take a stand against this? -the war machine -the ripping off of America by big CEOS-Haliburton-Bechtel-all Bush croonies!---they get richer while the body count is rising-demand an exit stradegy-!Your kids will be paying huge sums for many years to cover this massive debt that we are gathering-not fair to you or your kids or their kids-Use whatever peacful means you can to turn this thing around and take back the control from the Republicans-Vote for whoever is running on the Democratic ticket next time-there is still time to bring this countryback from deep debt-when Clinton left office this country had a huge money surplus-it is now in deep trouble-join Greenpeace-they have a ISP-the $$$ goes to save our enviroment-great cause-like trees?-then get off yer ass and save em-Bush wants em!-Like to see Alaska?-Better go soon-it's on the Bush hit list-the whole state will look like Arizona if Bush has his way-cutting and drilling-say?_Didn't we already go through this with the buffalo?--