It should therefore not come as such a surprise that the
sixties was an age of the 'death of innocence' sandwiched
between the fifties, and the fifties revival which was
the seventies.
For a generation raised on the Idealism of Fifties Black&White
TV images of the success of Suburban living, stumbling into
the realities of Poverty at home, Big City Politics, and the
variety of other Nasty Things that Go Bump in Broad Day Light
must have been absolutely Tragic Beyond any reasonable level of
ability to cope.
It would be ever the Rage to support the Radical Progressivism
that would deride the 'pride of miss jean broadie' without noticing
how much Drek Was being Swallowed in Great Gulps while playing at
being Grand AntiImperialists.
How Ironic, that when Soviet Tanks would Crush the Praha Spring, the graffitti
on the walls called for the USA out of Vietnam, and the Russians out
of Czechoslovakia, leaving americans standing on the side lines unsure
which side they were really suppose to support.
Ah yes, how much simpler it was then to be so progressive, by merely
debunking every shade of AntiCommunistPropoganda, without really coming
any closer to an answer.
LSD was going to expand people's Minds, as long as the PinHead in the
lab had actually learned good lab technique and didn't screw up the process.
No need to waste time meditating, or actually learning in schools, just
suck down that Technological Solution and Presto the River Jordan is Crossed.
Military serivce was Bad, unless you were a Guerrilla.
Party Bosses were Hacks, unless you were a part of the GangOfFour.
Integration was Good, unless you lived in Boston.
Wars of Liberation were Just,
Defending the Hamlet's efforts to get to market was Imperialism.
"partying" was escalated from being merely a means to celebrate the
joi d' vive, to the status of "Life Style" - and that without the
rather unpleasant side effect of noting that only the Really 'Rich
and Famous' would be able to maintain it, while exploiting the working
classes who wound maintain the technology required to keep that Pounding
Rythmn blaring across the dance floor....
No wonder everyone one got Dance Fever and wanted to just
Dance the Night Away.
No wonder 'the brady bunch' would surface to be our Great American Cultural
Icon of, the restoration of Fifties BlackAndWhite TV Iconography....
Mom, Dad, and lawn mowing astroturf, how american.
But I guess I should Look on the Bright Side, in the sixties
folks learned that commercials were a means by which persons
who had products to sell were trying to convince people to buy them.
And everyone raced out to find all the super sekret subliminal messages,
including where One of the Beatle's admitted to First Degree Murder, and
then everyone later found out it was just one more marketing ploy, How
Depressing. I mean if one couldn't trust the band that was more important
to kids today than Jesus Christ, who could one trust?
Now that we have done the Grand Fifties Revivalism, what with
reagan and the return to the True Nick_at_Nite visions, I guess
it is time to Mystify the Glorious of the Sixties.
Oh dear, what were they again?
What ever they were, they were NOT the fifites, except for
the Rock_N_Roll music, and the carry forward of the civil rights
movement, and the Beats Turned Flower Power, and the war in vietnam
that was no longer a french fiasco....
Oh that's Right, The Sixties were the Death of Innocence,
when we learned to Market it All and call it a Movement....
ciao
drieux