Re: [sixties-l] Brewing hatred of the baby boomer generation

From: William Mandel (wmmmandel@earthlink.net)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2000 - 02:12:49 CUT

  • Next message: Jerry West: "Re: [sixties-l] Brewing hatred of the baby boomer generation"

    As a member of your parents' generation, who was adopted into
    yours for the decade of the 60s and retains very close
    connections with it, I would like to express my agreement with
    your list of things it contributed. Regrettably, I have to
    disagree with your "Never again...." assurances. When you get to
    be my age, you learn that "never" is an exceedingly unsafe
    prediction. When the Korean War was brought to an end in 1953,
    the thought that masses of Americans would again be fighting an
    undeclared war in Asia a dozen years later was unthinkable. It
    happened.
        Vietnam did not end that. Desert Storm, also undeclared, was
    a massive undertaking, brief only because the other side chose to
    try to match the U.S. at what it was strongest in: mechanized
    warfare.
        Women? When I wrote my SOVIET WOMEN (1975, Anchor-Doubleday),
    their position in that country's society, science, culture, the
    mass professions (engineering, medicine), administration of
    justice, administration of education, was far in advance of that
    in any other country. The restoration of capitalism brought the
    reappearance of mass unemployment, and with it both
    discrimination against women and the revival of prostitution,
    which had been statistically non-existence. Can you predict the
    future of the American economy?
        Racial minorities? Think of what happened to Germany's Jews
    under Hitler, in a country where they had advanced to an
    unparalleled degree.
        Companies autocratically controlling employees' lives. I'm
    afraid that reflects a very serious lack of knowledge of the
    status of the American working class right now, never mind what
    will happen when a depression reverses the present shortage of
    labor in some fields.
        Dumping of poisons into the environment? Do you know how few
    of the Superfund sites have actually been cleared up?
        My chief point, however, is to take issue not with Lance's
    list but with the idea that history is predictable. It is not.
                                                         William
    Mandel
    BrentLance@aol.com wrote:
    >
    > Dear Fellow Sixties-L List Members:
    >
    You may find of interest website www.BillMandel.net



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