I too have been thinking about that review and found myself very critical of premise that many crossed over to become both left and right behind a facade of libertarianism. There were certainly many contradictions as we tried to plow our own row and I think Sandra gets closer to the real questions. The original post was filled with political meanings, which I feel was a set up to salve the consciousness of those who want to support someone like Pat Buchannan. I'm appalled at the very suggestion that someone who wants to put me in jail somehow becomes an ally. There was never a connection between the button down boys at the YAF and SDS that I knew about. Sure the book under review could find 35 people who crossed between the two, but then given America, you could probably find many such combinations; it doesn't represent a movement. (Listen to the right wing talk shows and you'll find they want to make alliances with the WTO protesters for their own ends.) I think we did what we could at the time and many of us took jobs and raised families ... let's face it, Reagan and his ilk mounted a huge reaction and the revolution that we envisioned was stopped in its tracks ... not without a lot of bloodshed and jail time, let's not forget. We went up against the most powerful nation in the world and it was either bend or begin to blow things up ... which didn't make sense to many of us because we knew people have to agree and we needed to convince others of our position, not begin a terrorist campaign. In the meantime, history moves along and we've grudgingly lived off capitalist system, making the most of our circumstances (speaking for myself). I've railed and ranted, written things, given money to organizations, etc. never feeling like I was doing enough, but there you have it. Now at this age what's next? I've never been ready to denounce my past and yet we grow older, mature, learn. Just now, I only want to look to the past as a look at where we came from and where we could possibly go. Nostalgia doesn't do much for anyone ... yet we had a vision. How do we revitalize that vision, and now that our kids are raised and some of us are comfortable, what can we do to support the young people who are out there? best, Don Monkerud >Friends: > >I read with great interest Jesse Walker's review, posted by radman, of >Klatch's A Generation Divided. As one of those (many?) people who has >struggled through the writing of a '60s novel, I find myself wondering just >how our generation feels about itself now vis-a-vis in "the good old days." >Walker's review makes me think I'm probably not the only person with this >question. > >Oh, don't get me wrong: My love for the '60s is undying, obsessive, you >might even say. But my feeling are not without ambivalence. In fact, my >novel, though hardly autobiographical, is subtitled "The autobiography of a >woman who comes of age in the sixties and falls apart in the nineties." It's >not sixties-bashing that I'm trying to express through this subtitle; rather >the subtitle and my protagonist are vehicles for exploring my thesis that >many of us (among whom I include myself) are part of not only a _generation_ >divided but also of _individuals_ divided as a consequence of what we >experienced as young adults. > >I want to make clear that this next comment isn't directed at anyone in >particular, because I can't even put names to all the posts that came across >the list in its original days, let alone remember them verbatim. The point, >though, is that sometimes when I've read sixties-l posts, I've gotten the >impression that we should feel -- what? -- unfaithful? -- if we, like Le >Carre's spy, "came in from the cold" as we grew older (with allowances for >the limitations of the analogy). In other words, by having entered and >maintained positions in "the establishment" (by, in effect, _becoming_ the >establishment), have we also become traitors to our youthful vision? In the >case of the review of Klatch's book, for example, I don't know how to >understand Walker's assessment of the book's biographical capsules in the >context of the following quotation: > >> Klatch's book was inspired by Karl Mannheim's essay "The Problem of >> Generations," which, she writes, "argues that people in the same age group >> share a historical location in the same way that people of the same class >> share a social location." Within these generations, she continues, "there >> exist separate and even antagonistic generation-units," which "form a >> dynamic relationship of tension. At the same time that they are in >> conflict, they are also oriented toward one another; their antagonisms are >> part of an ongoing conversation." > >That quotation resonates deeply with me because juxtaposed with the life >stories of Klatch's subjects, it echoes what I meant about my feelings for >the '60s not being without ambivalence. I often feel in conflict with who I >am vis-a-vis who I once thought I would become. Do Klatch's subjects--do you >all?--feel the conflict and tension that Mannheim speaks of? If so, does >that conflict ever lead to a sense of alienation and internal divisiveness? > >I also felt a sense of alienation as I read Walker's review. As an African >American, I I kept wondering, "Well, where are all the black people? Aren't >we part of this generation? Didn't we have a 'sixties experience'?" As all >of you are probably tired of being reminded, it's not just the >stratification of social classes and generations that we exist within, but >also that of ethnicity. I share and yet I don't share a historical location >with most of you who are reading this, with most of those who have written >about the sixties. So often do I find myself "outside the boundaries" of >somebody's study of the sixties that I do appreciate Walker's >acknowledgement that the organizations around which Klatch's book revolve >"do not represent a whole generation." That's why I had to write my own >accounts (the novel and other works). > >I respect the parameters Klatch set for herself and I realize that in >calling attention to them, I'm probably dragging a red herring across the >path that led me to write this post in the first place. What I really hope >to accomplish by this message is to generate a list discussion among peers >about how we're viewing ourselves in our middle age. Anyone want to comment? > >Sandra Flowers > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > Sandra Hollin Flowers, Ph.D. > Associate Professor of English > Mercer University > Macon, GA 31207 > (912) 301-2813 Fax: (912) 301-2457 ><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<