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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 6:28:20 AM | bcsofnc57 ..........."I think our generation (people 41-61) is the one that managed to destroy everything that was once good about life. Meeting, loving, starting a family, having children."
Actually, the cost of housing in relation to income then was much, much better for a buyer than it is now.
I remember being 3-13, too. If you were a young man, you were drafted unless you could afford to be in college and get an S-2 deferment, and you went to Viet Nam, 6,000 miles away, because your government told you to ....... and because something called a "military-industrial complex" associated with your government told them to .... and if you protested risking your young life for them you went to jail or got your head bashed in by a cop.
If you were a woman and married, your husband could beat you and rape you as often as he wished, there were no laws against such domestic disturbances, and a woman wearing sunglasses usually meant she had a shiner. A woman could teach, or be a nurse or be a secretary ....that was about it ... and marrying meant leaving work, sometimes as in the case of female teachers, by law. And in marriage, forbidden by societal norms, you were completely dependant on your husband financially. Completely.
If you were black, you washed dishes, were a janitor, served as a maid, and as I observed when I was a very young boy pretty much all the lowest jobs were the ones for these people that my people referred to as "the s". You did " work" and you lived n impoverished areas, went to lousy schools because you were ...well, you were just a "" and thats the way it was.
Do you miss those days, hon? Did my generation ruin it for ya?
My generation changed all that, in the space of ten years somewhere between 1965-75 we changed America ..........and whether it is good or bad, depending on which ghetto or which house on the white hill you sit in ....it's permanant.
You, though, you have the freedom to do just about anything you want .... | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 7:26:44 AM | OP, I'm not poopin' on the 60's and saying that all I have is bad memories of that time -- my experience is quite the contrary, actually. All I'm saying is that there was 'another side' of those times that I don't think people should forget about. Time has a way of letting us forget about bad times and remember just the good. And what has been written and what has been undertaken by places like Hollywood tends to only look at the more positive side of the era. But for every peaceful protest that changed some aspect of the world, there was another that turned into a bloody rock-throwing brawl because people weren't allowed to congregate over there, but rather just over here. For every young man that was able to do something about America's attitude about fighting a war on the other side of the planet, there was another that was forced to go there, and when he finally arrived back home was pelted by something from his townsfolk as he exited his plane. For everyone who sat in the field in Yasgur's farm on that August weekend, sharing the love, the joints, the music that filled the weekend, there was another that did the brown acid. And for every couple that listened to the Mama's and the Papa's sing of the Mecca on the West Coast of America with the Golden Gate Bridge and made the trip, there was another couple that tried but never made it.
Yes, the 60's were a wonderful time. So many valuable things and lessons came from that era. But let's not forget the other side of it, the prices that many had to pay for the things that many others received. Anything that takes and ruins so many innocent lives can never be looked at as just a good thing.
cdn guy | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:13:36 AM |
I hate to tell you, but you can still be idealistic, activist, creative, different, full of joy, sexually satisfied;
I don't think it's a question of the above, am sure we are all persuing our dreams and living our passions in a variety of different ways. The question was do you miss the 60's and 70's and how things have changed. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:19:03 AM | Biggest change I see is that we are all a lot poorer now than then, even although we have a lot more money. The economy was really good back then, living was easy. Modern youth have no idea what good times are.
Of course, I also miss being young and all the free love stuff. That was fun. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:21:04 AM | cdn*guy .......dude, listen. The point I am trying to make here is that people had the brains and the balls to STAND UP against the federal government, against what was wrong with society, and did something about it. A lot of people. WE TOOK OWNERSHIP OF AMERICA AND WE TOOK AMERICA BACK.
And for some people, doing something about it took the form of not working, going surfing all day and smoking weed all day, or growing their hair long or wearing beads or Imagining there was no heaven, nothing to kill or die for ........whatever forms it took ... people took their freedom.
We live under a VERY REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT now. Those forces that murdered JFK and RFK and MLK and sent 50,000 young men into a meatgrinder to their deaths, despite incredible and extraordinary resistance from the American people.......THEY ARE WINNING. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:42:18 AM | Steven 02151, I definately agree with much of what you said....I surely miss the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements and the positive energy and the opening of narrow minds that they produced.
And although I HATED the clothes from the 70's (platform shoes were almost the death of me), I LOVED the music.....Chicago, Earth Wind Fire; Larry Graham and Graham Central Station; Ohio Players; Brass Construction; ChakaKhanChakaKhanChakaKhan; the late, great Noel Pointer; Brian Auger; Jean Luc-Ponty.....I could just go on and on and on about the music.
I was not one for "drugs"....I just didn't think they were, or would ever be, a GOOD thing....and studying biology the way I did, I didn't think "free sex" was a GOOD thing, either, learning about how viruses and germs mutate......
I got my "highs" from helping to affect positive change in my community, and enjoying the music, and meeting people that were different from me, without all the suspicion and xenophobia that goes on today. So, YES, THERE ARE ASPECTS OF THE 60'S AND 70'S THAT I MISS VERY MUCH. AND HELL NO, I HATED, JUST HATED THE 1980'S! | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:47:43 AM | Wow! Conspiracy theories!!!
My general experience with Government is that they are by and large far too incompetent and dull witted to ever manage a good conspiracy. Consider the litany of failures attributed to the CIA, for instance. They bungled Cuba, generally screwed up all the banana republics, totally blew Vietnam, screwed up pre 9/11 intelligence estimates, bungled IRAQ WMD, can't find Osama, and lie about stuff to cover the rear of various government officials.
Everywhere you look, not only in the US, you can easily observe the same kind of insidious bungling incompetence in all kinds of areas. The camel is a horse designed by a government agency. No, they can't manage conspiracies. You have to get the Hollywood people for that kind of thing. Now, if you are proposing that JFK was assassinated by a cabel of network news teams to boost ratings, I can get into that! | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:27:29 AM | rearguard2, I dont have any conspiracy theories.........but at the same time, all is not as it appears, either.
To watch JFK get shot and then RFK and MLK, as we were just getting over one then another beloved man was gunned down ... all just a coincidence? Lone gunmen?
I feel I have to be just a little bit more naive than I already am to believe that someone's hand, someone we don't see, was behind all of them. And I would also add JFK Jr. whose airplane mysteriously nose-dived down on Cape Cod here not too long ago.
And then again, even 9/11 has the stink of something very, very fishy to me, too ...so maybe I am a conspiracy nut.
But Mohammed Atta's passport or license or something with his photo on it, completely unsinged, being picked up in the rubble of the twin towers on 9/12 and turned into the police, only to be shown the next day, the photo we have all come to know and hate ..... I don't know, that;s just asking a little too much of me. I mean, this guy was in the****it of an airplane that flew into the side of a building and exploded in a huge fireball ........and yet his passport somehow flew out of his pocket and floated like a feather down to the streets of Manhattan and among the hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper and the thick dust...........that turned up the next day. Wow.
I mean really............wow. Ya gotta love believing that.
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:31:09 AM | | J. Edgar Hoover hated MLK, and he probably hated the Kennedys, too, so NOTHING IN MY MIND, IS IMPOSSIBLE....I work for the government.....and I'm AFRAID of it, so....... | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:37:29 AM | | Exactly my point. I bet if you check into the news team of the network that first got the story you will find they have a black ops team...:) | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:39:30 AM |
...and I'm AFRAID of it, so.....
Well, CB, you should be. Governments are to only gang that can slaughter people and get away with it. And, they do slaughter people for all kinds of really ridiculous reasons. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:50:02 AM |
My general experience with Government is that they are by and large far too incompetent and dull witted to ever manage a good conspiracy. Consider the litany of failures attributed to the CIA, for instance. They bungled Cuba, generally screwed up all the banana republics, totally blew Vietnam, screwed up pre 9/11 intelligence estimates, bungled IRAQ WMD, can't find Osama, and lie about stuff to cover the rear of various government officials. My sentiments exactly. I don't understand how anyone can believe that the government that couldn't keep the stain on Monica's blue dress a secret could possibly manage to orchestrate all the sinister plots they are given credit for.
Corporations, on the other hand, like Exxon, and Microsoft... | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:55:45 AM | I work in government and no, I'm not afraid of it and agree it is just too big, too dull-witted and too incompetent to pull of so many smooth things..........
It's who runs the government that I fear. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 10:20:08 AM | So then, not a whole lot has changed. Governments still have the power to do what they want, when they want. The great mistake of Vietnam was really a 'zero' learning experience. When it came time to go to Afghanistan, America went ... then to Iraq, twice. And no amount of complaining by the majority of citizens would stop it. The conspiracy theories that abounded in the 60's still remain today, just different stories, different scenarios, different people in government. People are still assassinated, just now it's done 3,000 at a time (eg. 9/11). The only differences I see are that the 60's came up with some pretty good music, and people realized that they could accomplish more things if they banded together in large groups. And what was accomplished could either be good or bad, depending on the people. People can still sit home and smoke pot all day if that is their wish. Other than normal social progress that can be expected with any passage of time, I don't see a whole lot of difference between now and the 60's.
cdn guy | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 1:46:00 PM | cdn*guy, well, you take a dim view.
Viet Nam WAS a terrific learning experience ...........for governments, that is.
Lessons learned: don't show the bodies or any blood and gore ....at all. Think twice about a draft. Invest in crowd control measures. Co-opt the media, in fact, deregulate it and have your friends BUY it, etc.
"""Other than normal social progress that can be expected with any passage of time, I don't see a whole lot of difference between now and the 60's."""
There are a LOT of people even here on these board who firmly believe that the natural order of things is for the black man to serve the white man and that women's place is in the home and we all had it so good, it was so stable and secure and then those hippies messed it all up and made the mess there is today .....what you call "normal social progress" is anathema to some, the ones who would turn the clock back to some imagined 1950's valhalla.
More to the point, "normal social progress" does not happen by itself, my friend. A lot of people put themselves on the line for civil rights, anti-war and peace, and before them, in the 1920's and 30's other waves of people put themselves on the line and unionized and fought for the things we enjoy as freedoms today .......like an 8 hour day, a 5 day week, little things like that.
None of those things were given to away, they were fought for .......and not by people who sat around smoking pot all day, either. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 2:22:15 PM | Many think the past was so much better and for some yes. For me things may be more expensive and harder etc but I'd just as soon be and live in the present than rewind and start over.
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 2:27:45 PM | well, scott, not to worry, you wont be rewinding any time soon.
I choose to move forward and go ahead, too, been there and done that and grateful I came of age when I did .............but this is not about me.
This is about the movement and the energy of people in America who took control and made it really about people ........and all the civil rights and explosion of creativity that came with it .......and where did that go? It got shut down, it collapsed ....I dont know. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 3:07:59 PM | REPRESSED???? WHAT DID YOU DO THEN-WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW. PEOPLE POWER? WHAT DID YOU DO THEN. WHAT ARE YOUR DOING NOW. AGE DOESN'T DISCRIMINATE. DID YOU GET LAZY AND FORGET? I THINK YEAH , YOU DID. SO DO SOMETHING. WE DID IT THEN WE CAN DO IT NOW.
MR. HOFFMAN(LIVIN IN THE NEXT GENERATION NOW. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 3:35:07 PM | Steven02151, I think part of the problem is that we who were "pioneers", and out front in the 60's and 70's trying to effect positive change, did not raise our children (if any), to have that "activist" spirit.....in other words, when it was time to pass the torch, there was no one to pass the torch to.....
I am appalled that young people today don't think its "necessary" to join labor unions or pay union dues, yet they cry about good paying American jobs moving overseas, and just don't get the connection......Asa Philip Randolph must be turning over in his grave.....but I digress.....
Young people today seem to be more "vapid...." And, honestly, I think their I.Q.'s aren't as high as ours, in general. Wonder what that comes from???? | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 8:49:12 PM |
I think part of the problem is that we who were "pioneers", and out front in the 60's and 70's trying to effect positive change, did not raise our children (if any), to have that "activist" spirit.....in other words, when it was time to pass the torch, there was no one to pass the torch to.....
Speak for yourself, my son has been QUITE politically active, making several trips to protest the Iraq war in Washington, participating in the ISO and reading original doctrine and later commentary, attending many activist lectures and rallies... I didn't exactly raise him to be activist, but I did raise him to think for himself, to have a sense of social right and wrong, to come into the voting booth with me as a child, to know about Pete Seeger and HUAC and blacklisting, to question authority...
And if you had children and didn't - your activism was misspent. Parenting is one of the most fertile fields for social change that there is.
Young people today seem to be more "vapid...." And, honestly, I think their I.Q.'s aren't as high as ours, in general. Wonder what that comes from????
That comes from inadequate parenting. Both of my kids are extremely bright ... but I read to them a great deal in childhood, and they heard intelligent discourse at the dinner table. I labored long and hard to give them enrichment activities and to talk to them about the world they lived in. I'm sorry your children did not have these advantages. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:13:20 PM | There are some things i do not miss. Among them....
“Spiggy” Agnew
Having to get an adult to buy glue for models
Watching creepy Vice Principals run their hand up girls legs to make sure they were wearing skirts and
not the communist inspired “COOLOTTES”.
That brown acid they warned us about from the main stage
Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming .... yeah it may be a great song, but those four kids are still dead.
Lester Maddox and his ax handles
The Draft
The Dead Kennedy’s ....No, not the band, the men.
Hollywoods Ideal Heterosexual Man .... Rock Hudson
9 out of 10 Doctors recommend Chesterfields !
Illegal Abortion Clinics being the only “Choice”
Chicago 1968
NARCS
Sure, I do miss being that young. But we all lived through those years, so we get to b!tch about how much better things were back then, yes ? Some were not so Lucky. I’ll wager most of them would enjoy how bad things are now. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:24:30 PM | Royalpain, well, good for your son! Congratulations!
my daughter isn't quite so active.........but VERY resolute about being a vegetarian for ethical and health reasons, VERY much a recycler.......I cant slip ANY plastic or paper in the trash without a half hour lecture..... belongs to PETA and similar groups, even donates........all at 19.
I love it. | |
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| Anyone MIss the 60's and 70's?
Posted: 4/28/2008 9:26:54 PM | esad, I dont know anyone.......well, one guy.......who came out of the 60's and 70's badly. I'm not sure where some of this sentiment comes from.
The ones who were hurt are the dead in Viet Nam, but it was the government who sent them there, the rest of us trying to get them out.........like today. | |
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