What Baby Boomers Feel About The 1960s. Show 6.
摘要
TLDRThe documentary 'Making Sense of the 60s' delves into the pivotal decade of the 1960s, exploring its significant, lasting impacts on American society. It discusses how the era heralded shifts in family structures, such as rising divorce rates and altered gender roles, leading to a societal landscape vastly different from the 1950s nuclear family model. The cultural revolution of this time saw an unprecedented change in sexual norms and attitudes, broadening the societal acceptance of diverse lifestyles and sexual preferences. In education, the 60s brought about reforms that introduced new curricula, including ethnic and women's studies, which remain influential. The counterculture movement and anti-establishment sentiments of the time contributed to a legacy of skepticism towards authority, especially seen in the response to the Vietnam War and the subsequent Watergate scandal. Politically, the era's civil rights movements challenged deeply ingrained systemic racism, leading to vital legislative changes despite persistent social challenges. The long-term political impact included a shift in party dominance, with Republicans gaining strength post-60s due to changing demographics and disillusionment with the liberal agenda.
心得
- 📅 The 1960s marked significant societal upheavals and transformations.
- 👨👩👧👦 Family structures changed, with divorce becoming more common.
- 🚨 The era fueled skepticism of authority due to events like the Vietnam War.
- 🎓 Educational reforms saw the introduction of ethnic and women's studies.
- 🇺🇸 Civil rights movements made legislative gains but faced ongoing challenges.
- 🎸 Counterculture movements fostered new forms of personal expression.
- 💼 Work attitudes shifted towards self-fulfillment rather than just earning.
- ♂️♀️ The sexual revolution altered societal norms around relationships.
- 🎤 Political landscapes shifted, influencing decades of party dynamics.
- 🔍 The decade continues to fuel debates on its long-term impacts.
- 📖 Many who lived through it feel it was a deeply educational period.
- 🔄 The cultural shifts of the 60s are still felt in today's society.
时间轴
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
"Making Sense of the 60s" reflects on how the decade remains a significant part of the lives of those who experienced it, having shaped identities and personal insights. Some people see it as a time of self-discovery that still influences their lives today.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The close of the 1960s is seen as a pivotal moment; for some, it was a chance to find a spiritual or philosophical high, imagining communities like the Kingdom of God. Others saw it as liberation from an era where societal norms seemed restrictive.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Personal narratives reveal the 60s as a time of radical change—choices made, often out of necessity, led to new careers and personal paths. While some embraced counterculture, others eventually found solace in traditional roles, re-evaluating past ideals of success and societal norms.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Differences in life choices reflect the diversity of the 60s experience. Those involved in counterculture have stories of ideological and geographic shifts. Despite initial rebellious fervor, many later sought change from within established systems, questioning the permanence of 60s ideals.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The focus shifts to family dynamics, highlighting transformative changes in societal norms since the 60s. The era witnessed a dramatic shift in traditional views on marriage and family, with divorce rates doubling and evolving attitudes towards cohabitation before marriage.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The sexual revolution of the 60s created lasting changes in societal norms. Conversations around premarital sex and gender equality expanded, challenging traditional views and breaking long-standing taboos, reflecting broader social tolerance for diverse lifestyles.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
The counterculture movement is critiqued for its anti-establishment ethos and naivety, especially in alienating potential allies like the working class. However, critiques highlight its impact on academic and cultural reforms which persisted and evolved into mainstream societal norms.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
The legacy of the 60s is explored through feminism's impact on women's roles, career attitudes that prioritize fulfillment over finance, and persisting questions about the true meaning of success. The era challenged conventional metrics of achievement.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
The 60s altered American societal fabric profoundly, yet integration and civil rights reforms left unresolved socio-economic disparities, leading to ongoing challenges in achieving racial equality. The era's ambitions clashed with realities of institutional inertia.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:00
Reflections on governmental and political paradigms shifted after Vietnam, leading to skepticism in political leadership and ethical governance. The era's veterans remain cautious of repeating past mistakes, sustaining a wariness towards authority and interventionist policies.
- 00:50:00 - 00:59:18
The continuing influence of the 60s asks enduring questions about societal values and personal legacies. As the nation grapples with these reflections, individuals must negotiate how to convey their past experiences to younger generations, capturing the era's complexities.
思维导图
视频问答
How did the 1960s impact American families?
The 1960s saw a shift from the traditional family model as divorce rates doubled and the concept of marriage changed, leading to only 15% fitting the traditional description by the end of the decade.
What were some societal norms that changed during the 1960s?
The 1960s brought changes in sexual mores, resulting in more women having premarital sex, changing views on living together before marriage, and general liberalization of sexual behavior.
How did the 1960s influence political structures?
The political landscape shifted as the civil rights movement and social upheavals led to a fragmentation of the Democratic coalition, aiding in Republican dominance in subsequent decades.
What lasting cultural impacts did the 1960s have?
The 1960s challenged conformity, fostered diversity, and encouraged personal expression, resulting in lasting changes in American culture and identity.
In what ways did the Vietnam War affect American society?
The Vietnam War left a legacy of skepticism toward government and warlike moves, influencing American foreign policy and public trust in political leaders.
How did the 1960s economic ideals evolve over time?
The decade encouraged seeing work as self-expression and fulfillment, impacting career goals and standards for personal success.
What was the role of women during and after the 1960s?
Women's liberation gained traction, though women continued to face dual burdens of work and home responsibilities, leading to ongoing stress in balancing roles.
Did the 1960s contribute to changes in education?
Yes, the era brought about reforms like ethnic and women's studies courses and increased curricular diversity that persist today.
What was the impact of civil rights movements during the 1960s?
While the civil rights movements made legislative gains, the deep-rooted challenges of racism and inequality remained, with ongoing work necessary to achieve true equality.
How is the 60s generation perceived today?
The 60s generation is viewed as having unique cultural experiences that continue to shape current societal values and dynamics.
查看更多视频摘要
- 00:00:02we now return to making sense of the 60s
- 00:00:09major funding for making sense of the
- 00:00:1260s was provided by the corporation for
- 00:00:15public broadcasting
- 00:00:17and by viewers like you
- 00:00:22additional funding was provided by sims
- 00:00:24clothing stores where since 1960 an
- 00:00:26educated consumer has been our best
- 00:00:29customer
- 00:00:31and by toms of maine a pioneer in
- 00:00:33natural personal care toms of maine and
- 00:00:36nature a friendship of 20 years
- 00:00:42is the 60s part of your life today
- 00:00:45is it still in there
- 00:00:47god that's hard
- 00:00:53i think all of us went through it myself
- 00:00:58a lot of it's still in here
- 00:01:01you live through that time
- 00:01:03it's like you live through all times you
- 00:01:04learn you learn a lot what i learned was
- 00:01:07is invaluable to me today
- 00:01:12is your life better for having lived
- 00:01:13through the 60s
- 00:01:18yeah
- 00:01:20i had a really chance to examine myself
- 00:01:22and find out who i am what i'm about
- 00:01:25uh that was the reason i left home to
- 00:01:27start with
- 00:01:30who i was
- 00:01:34yeah and it's yeah sure it's
- 00:01:37yeah it's part of me
- 00:01:41[Music]
- 00:02:04[Music]
- 00:02:06um
- 00:02:11[Music]
- 00:02:20[Music]
- 00:02:34[Laughter]
- 00:02:36[Music]
- 00:02:37[Laughter]
- 00:02:40[Music]
- 00:02:50the 60s ended more than 21 years ago
- 00:02:53in the minds of some americans it
- 00:02:55couldn't have happened soon enough
- 00:02:57for others the 60s are still hanging on
- 00:03:01but for everyone who lived through those
- 00:03:03times the end of the 60s is more than
- 00:03:06just a date on the calendar it's a
- 00:03:09milestone a point of departure
- 00:03:11[Music]
- 00:03:14i finally left the communes and moved
- 00:03:16back to the forbidden city
- 00:03:19[Music]
- 00:03:22and from there i still live in a city
- 00:03:25today
- 00:03:26but i found the commune i was always
- 00:03:28dreaming of
- 00:03:30it's called the kingdom of god
- 00:03:32and now i've got an everlasting high
- 00:03:37and i know i came a different way than
- 00:03:39many do
- 00:03:41but i've got the 60s to thank in a way
- 00:03:44and i've got
- 00:03:45that whole crazy time to thank because
- 00:03:48in a way
- 00:03:49it's what jolted me into a place
- 00:03:52where i could finally behold the lord
- 00:03:56i felt i might be morally bankrupt if i
- 00:03:59had ambition
- 00:04:01or if i
- 00:04:03god forbid
- 00:04:04work towards making one of my boyfriends
- 00:04:06want to marry me all of that seemed
- 00:04:08wrong
- 00:04:10i felt i was endlessly resilient
- 00:04:13and life was longer than it would be
- 00:04:16that i had
- 00:04:17the rest of my life to make up my minds
- 00:04:19about a lot of things i'm single i've
- 00:04:21never married
- 00:04:23so uh
- 00:04:24and i've you know i'm
- 00:04:27past i think child bearing years except
- 00:04:30with great
- 00:04:32megillah to get you know
- 00:04:34which i'm not willing to do
- 00:04:37i think when i was doing the things that
- 00:04:39i did in the 60s
- 00:04:41i felt like i had no other choice
- 00:04:43i was
- 00:04:44so relieved when it was over
- 00:04:47and i could get out of it and i was
- 00:04:50deliriously happy to be able to come
- 00:04:53back and join the system and work from
- 00:04:55within it to make a difference as
- 00:04:57opposed to being outside
- 00:05:00i think i've changed i mean my life has
- 00:05:02taken directions that i never would have
- 00:05:04imagined were possible
- 00:05:06especially when i became a conscientious
- 00:05:08objector and a potential war resistor
- 00:05:11then i thought that a career for me in
- 00:05:13the in the sort of in mainstream
- 00:05:15institutions was
- 00:05:16was impossible well then it turned out i
- 00:05:18ended up being the chief speechwriter of
- 00:05:20the president of the united states and
- 00:05:21now i'm editor of a
- 00:05:23fairly well known
- 00:05:24national magazine
- 00:05:27i have never made more than
- 00:05:30fifteen thousand dollars a year as a
- 00:05:32teacher
- 00:05:33most of the time it's been considerably
- 00:05:36less than that
- 00:05:37i write i have never made more than
- 00:05:40thirteen thousand dollars a year as a
- 00:05:42writer
- 00:05:43and i didn't make that 13 in that 15 in
- 00:05:45the same year so
- 00:05:47my my combined income has never exceeded
- 00:05:50more than twenty thousand dollars
- 00:05:53[Music]
- 00:05:54i've spent
- 00:05:56i've walked away from
- 00:05:58a lot of opportunities that
- 00:06:01might have made my life a whole lot more
- 00:06:03secure because i felt that
- 00:06:06they were simply not
- 00:06:09well one hates to use this word but
- 00:06:13because i felt as though to taking those
- 00:06:15opportunities would have been to sell
- 00:06:16out to the values that i acquired
- 00:06:21i didn't know what to think anymore i
- 00:06:23didn't know what to believe i didn't
- 00:06:25know what to espouse
- 00:06:27i didn't know what to wear
- 00:06:28i was really just kind of lost
- 00:06:32and i was also by at that point
- 00:06:34getting divorced
- 00:06:37and
- 00:06:39so i did go back and live with my
- 00:06:40parents for a while
- 00:06:42and
- 00:06:44i did try on
- 00:06:46literally tried on some polyester
- 00:06:48pantsuits and i kind of tried that out
- 00:06:50to see well do i just kind of go back
- 00:06:52all the way or and it really wasn't me
- 00:06:55anymore i really had gone
- 00:06:57i had just gone too far the other
- 00:07:00the other way
- 00:07:03i moved to a small rural town for many
- 00:07:05years and tried to grow a big garden did
- 00:07:07some hunting and fishing
- 00:07:10and uh i considered myself conservative
- 00:07:12at the time even reactionary
- 00:07:14uh and
- 00:07:17but at the same time most people
- 00:07:18describing my life would have said it
- 00:07:20he's one of those 60s dropouts doing the
- 00:07:23during the rural thing although i myself
- 00:07:26was sitting around reading southern
- 00:07:27agrarians
- 00:07:29who saw the automobile as a symbol of
- 00:07:31the country going to hell and of course
- 00:07:33they were right
- 00:07:35so uh
- 00:07:36so i i i guess it's not that big elite
- 00:07:40uh going from being radical to
- 00:07:42reactionary
- 00:07:45you know but that's that's what happened
- 00:07:46to me
- 00:07:49[Music]
- 00:07:52the people you've just heard from are a
- 00:07:54few of the members of the age group that
- 00:07:56the press and the pollsters call the
- 00:07:58sixties generation
- 00:08:00since the sixties ended tens of millions
- 00:08:02of these people have been searching for
- 00:08:04balance second guessing their past
- 00:08:07piecing together their dreams
- 00:08:09and finding the strength and wisdom to
- 00:08:11get on with their lives
- 00:08:13[Music]
- 00:08:16but what's so unique about that
- 00:08:18they've grown older just like everyone
- 00:08:20else
- 00:08:22yet something about this generation is
- 00:08:24different even as they enter middle age
- 00:08:27they continue to be set apart by a past
- 00:08:30they seem unable to leave behind
- 00:08:33a past that continues to raise
- 00:08:34disturbing questions for all americans
- 00:08:38why hasn't america gotten over the 1960s
- 00:08:45could it be that in the 60s not only a
- 00:08:47generation but a nation came of age
- 00:08:51that a nation's illusions were shattered
- 00:08:54that since the 1960s ended a nation has
- 00:08:57been trying to find the strength and
- 00:08:59wisdom to get on with the way of life
- 00:09:01that is very different from what came
- 00:09:04before
- 00:09:09this is a program about reappraisal a
- 00:09:12program that looks around to see how
- 00:09:14what happened in the 60s is affecting
- 00:09:16america today
- 00:09:18it is not a final assessment just a
- 00:09:20point on the chart because it appears
- 00:09:23the nineteen sixties will continue to
- 00:09:26affect our society for a long long time
- 00:09:29to come
- 00:09:30[Music]
- 00:09:33of course as every girl i have
- 00:09:34aspirations to sunday be married and
- 00:09:36raise a family and to someday be in love
- 00:09:40with someone very very much so that even
- 00:09:42after i'm past 30
- 00:09:46even after i'm past 30 there's something
- 00:09:48to live for because you have someone to
- 00:09:50give your life to someone to do things
- 00:09:52for
- 00:09:53back in 1960 most young people had a
- 00:09:56clear vision of what their future
- 00:09:57families would be like
- 00:09:59at that time 70 percent of american
- 00:10:02families had a breadwinning dad a
- 00:10:04housekeeping mom and one or more kids
- 00:10:08but today only 15 percent of american
- 00:10:10families fit that description
- 00:10:14the dream i had from childhood
- 00:10:18was to have a loving family unit
- 00:10:21that lived together forever
- 00:10:24i mean that's i wanted to do i wanted to
- 00:10:26to do all those
- 00:10:28all-american kind of things with my kids
- 00:10:30the boys work on the truck with the dad
- 00:10:33and the kids are
- 00:10:34you know out there gardening with the
- 00:10:36mom and
- 00:10:37you know to do those things together as
- 00:10:40a family unit
- 00:10:42and the thing that i have to face that
- 00:10:44hurts the most is the fact that i
- 00:10:46couldn't
- 00:10:48go on with that family unit
- 00:10:50that hurts
- 00:10:57since the late 1960s divorce rates in
- 00:11:00america have doubled to the point where
- 00:11:02today
- 00:11:03one of every two marriages will break up
- 00:11:06of all the revolutions that occurred in
- 00:11:08the 1960s the most lasting
- 00:11:11the one with the greatest impact were
- 00:11:13the changes that it brought about in
- 00:11:15private life
- 00:11:17the protests against the vietnam war
- 00:11:19rose and then fell
- 00:11:22public concern about civil rights
- 00:11:25rose and then sadly ebbed
- 00:11:28but the changes that occurred in
- 00:11:30american private life lasted
- 00:11:33in fact they became even more intense in
- 00:11:35the early 1970s and they persist even
- 00:11:38till today
- 00:11:40so american families are fundamentally
- 00:11:42different than they were a decade and a
- 00:11:44half ago
- 00:11:45divorce is much more common
- 00:11:48many people lament that but there's
- 00:11:50clearly a good side about that that is
- 00:11:52people do not have to remain in loveless
- 00:11:55marriages
- 00:11:56that people felt compelled to remain in
- 00:11:58in the 1950s
- 00:12:02attitudes toward marriage and divorce
- 00:12:04are not the only social norms to be
- 00:12:06shattered by the experiences of the
- 00:12:08sixties
- 00:12:09back in 1959 90 percent of american
- 00:12:13adults agreed that the only proper time
- 00:12:15to discover intimate details about a
- 00:12:17partner was after the matrimonial knot
- 00:12:20had been tied
- 00:12:21today one of every two americans
- 00:12:23acknowledges that living together before
- 00:12:26marriage is a good idea
- 00:12:29i haven't changed politically one little
- 00:12:30bit not but one bit since i was in world
- 00:12:33war ii
- 00:12:35i still feel very strongly about a
- 00:12:36strong defense and you know i'm not
- 00:12:38going to review all that but
- 00:12:40but
- 00:12:41sexually uh
- 00:12:43now if i had a little girl
- 00:12:45i might have felt differently you know
- 00:12:48and we filled up the house with boys
- 00:12:49trying to get a little girl
- 00:12:51but uh boys uh
- 00:12:54i think that
- 00:12:56it
- 00:12:58i am i've changed
- 00:13:01i wouldn't hesitate to say go ahead if
- 00:13:02you want to live with it go ahead if
- 00:13:03it's all right with her
- 00:13:05and see how it works out
- 00:13:07and if it's right you get married and if
- 00:13:09you don't you'll know
- 00:13:11so there was no real hand done just a
- 00:13:12little time wasted
- 00:13:15physical desire is very normal and it
- 00:13:18happens and sometimes everything just
- 00:13:20comes down to a very basic level and
- 00:13:22there's nothing wrong with it
- 00:13:23i think that sex is just much groupier
- 00:13:26when there's love you know there's a lot
- 00:13:28more happening but there's nothing wrong
- 00:13:30with just sex for sex
- 00:13:33sexual revolution
- 00:13:35one thing this open and permissive
- 00:13:37experiment with sex dramatically changed
- 00:13:40was the great american double standard
- 00:13:43the percentage of men who say they had
- 00:13:45sex before marriage has increased
- 00:13:47slightly over the years
- 00:13:49but since the sixties the percentage of
- 00:13:51women who say they've had sex before
- 00:13:53marriage has nearly doubled
- 00:13:56but clearly that's not all the sexual
- 00:13:58revolution of the sixties changed
- 00:14:01well actually the sexual revolution was
- 00:14:03the most widespread and most
- 00:14:05long-lasting of all the legacies of the
- 00:14:07sixties i mean the polls in 1970 showed
- 00:14:10radical changes and sexual behavior and
- 00:14:12mores not just among hippies and college
- 00:14:14students on the two coast
- 00:14:16but blue collar workers in texarkana and
- 00:14:18des moines it was very widespread it
- 00:14:21permeated entire culture
- 00:14:23you know i've written a book that was
- 00:14:24originally titled the end of sex an
- 00:14:26all-time worst title for a book
- 00:14:28but it was really about uh the end of
- 00:14:31the
- 00:14:32obligatory sexuality and i have
- 00:14:34criticized the sexual revolution so i'm
- 00:14:36on that side too and yet i can say very
- 00:14:39clearly that it was it was one of those
- 00:14:41long overdue revolutions that people had
- 00:14:44certain types of sexual desire that they
- 00:14:46felt they could never speak to another
- 00:14:48human being it could always had to be
- 00:14:49locked within within themselves
- 00:14:51they held these seemingly guilty secrets
- 00:14:55and you know all of life was sort of
- 00:14:56constrained by the fact that they had
- 00:14:58this secret and there was no one to talk
- 00:15:00to no way to express it i am amazed when
- 00:15:03i look around me now at how freely uh we
- 00:15:06can in the media
- 00:15:08in the society generally in
- 00:15:11in polite society around a dinner table
- 00:15:14or at lunch and in my classrooms we can
- 00:15:16talk about matters of sexuality that
- 00:15:19could never be talked about openly uh
- 00:15:21through the 40s 50s and even up into the
- 00:15:23early 60s
- 00:15:25our willingness to
- 00:15:27accept many different
- 00:15:30sexual preferences lifestyles in our
- 00:15:32society is much greater the range of
- 00:15:35social tolerance is much greater than it
- 00:15:37was before
- 00:15:38most of my college life sex was terrible
- 00:15:42um i found myself um
- 00:15:45always in that awful situation that
- 00:15:47women found themselves before the
- 00:15:48women's movement of basically having to
- 00:15:50sort of say no and being sort of called
- 00:15:53on it and everything was sort of tense
- 00:15:55and and and difficult and so you tried
- 00:15:57to have intellectual relations with
- 00:15:59someone with people that weren't sexual
- 00:16:00and and then there were other people had
- 00:16:02a lot more sex and probably a lot more
- 00:16:03fun but for me sex was a terrible trauma
- 00:16:07i think we didn't have the tools
- 00:16:10to really use it well
- 00:16:12and i think the real problem with the
- 00:16:1360s counterculture
- 00:16:17was that most of us who experienced it
- 00:16:20were still adolescents
- 00:16:21and so therefore we didn't have the
- 00:16:24stuff to really
- 00:16:26get off with it
- 00:16:27[Music]
- 00:16:29the counterculture
- 00:16:31many of those millions who were part of
- 00:16:33the youth rebellion of the 1960s feel a
- 00:16:36sense of regret even embarrassment
- 00:16:39when they look back on how they behaved
- 00:16:42when so much of the nation's attention
- 00:16:44was focused on them
- 00:16:46you go back and you watch a videotape or
- 00:16:49from the 60s it looks gross it looks
- 00:16:52dirty everybody looks dirty and sloppy
- 00:16:54and messy and foul-mouthed and you know
- 00:16:57you sort of want to scratch yourself
- 00:16:58when you see it
- 00:16:59you know and was that was it so
- 00:17:01important to us not to take a bath you
- 00:17:04know
- 00:17:05how important was that that was childish
- 00:17:07of course we were children so
- 00:17:09i suppose we had an excuse
- 00:17:15the biggest regret is foolishly
- 00:17:17alienating the working class
- 00:17:19that's the number one regret
- 00:17:22because we had at that time no concept
- 00:17:25of divide and conquer
- 00:17:27no concept that those people might be
- 00:17:29important allies and that it was not
- 00:17:31worth alienating them for really
- 00:17:33childish issues like the right to use
- 00:17:35four-letter words
- 00:17:37you know
- 00:17:38or the right to flaunt your sexuality
- 00:17:41um i mean i will i will censor this
- 00:17:44quote a little bit
- 00:17:45but
- 00:17:46the leader of the farm stephen gaskin
- 00:17:48said
- 00:17:50that the reagan era was paying us back
- 00:17:52for doing it in the streets and next
- 00:17:54time we'll try to make our revolution a
- 00:17:56little bit more
- 00:17:57serious and substantial and deal with
- 00:17:59social issues
- 00:18:02[Applause]
- 00:18:05we'll do something which hasn't occurred
- 00:18:07at this university in a good long time
- 00:18:10we're going to have real classes up
- 00:18:12there but
- 00:18:14they're going to be freedom schools
- 00:18:15conducted up there we're going to have
- 00:18:16classes on 1st and 14th amendments
- 00:18:18one place where the young people of the
- 00:18:201960s did make serious and substantial
- 00:18:23changes was on the college campus
- 00:18:27it's a curious irony that some of those
- 00:18:29who once actively protested against
- 00:18:31administration policies have themselves
- 00:18:34become professors and university
- 00:18:36administrators
- 00:18:38dr arthur levine we did a study a few
- 00:18:40years ago to look at what happened to
- 00:18:41all the reforms of the 60s
- 00:18:43and they included things like new and
- 00:18:45relevant courses
- 00:18:48those new and relevant courses still
- 00:18:49there
- 00:18:50looked at areas that had come into the
- 00:18:52curriculum
- 00:18:53like ethnic studies like women's studies
- 00:18:56those things are still there we created
- 00:18:59things like interdisciplinary majors
- 00:19:01which brought a variety of fields
- 00:19:02together those are still there in equal
- 00:19:04numbers we created things like
- 00:19:06independent study which led a student
- 00:19:07study with a faculty member alone on an
- 00:19:09issue of interest to the student those
- 00:19:11are still there in the same proportion
- 00:19:13we created new kinds of grading systems
- 00:19:15pass fail grading for some courses
- 00:19:18that's still there in the same
- 00:19:20proportion or higher so all the reforms
- 00:19:22of the 60s have just been layered upon
- 00:19:26but haven't disappeared so in a lot of
- 00:19:28ways the 60s formed at least an
- 00:19:30important part of what the curriculum is
- 00:19:32today
- 00:19:34the
- 00:19:35things that heard about the
- 00:19:3660s are that
- 00:19:38there really was
- 00:19:41an anti-intellectualism
- 00:19:42in which we said all people and all
- 00:19:44ideas are equal they're not that was a
- 00:19:47hurtful kind of response in a lot of
- 00:19:49ways it's reminiscent
- 00:19:51of the red garden china in the 60s and
- 00:19:5370s
- 00:19:54in which
- 00:19:56they threw out the important ideas
- 00:19:59and
- 00:20:00turned their universities into places
- 00:20:01that no longer discovered truth
- 00:20:04no longer disseminated truth
- 00:20:08but just think of setting them down in
- 00:20:10front of bill and saying
- 00:20:12bill look i made these myself
- 00:20:15i know what do you think he'd say
- 00:20:19bill bill porter
- 00:20:22i'll tell you what he'd say
- 00:20:24he'd say i knew my wife was beautiful
- 00:20:27i knew she had brains
- 00:20:29but i never realized she had such talent
- 00:20:33say
- 00:20:34that looks good
- 00:20:36when do we eat it's absolutely better i
- 00:20:39i'm unequivocal about that it is better
- 00:20:41to be a woman today
- 00:20:43to say that it's easy
- 00:20:45i wouldn't say that it's easy to say
- 00:20:46that the feminist revolution is complete
- 00:20:48i wouldn't say that for a minute
- 00:20:50on the other hand i know my my own life
- 00:20:53would be different had i been born at a
- 00:20:54different time my life would resemble my
- 00:20:56mother's and
- 00:20:58i wouldn't want that for myself
- 00:21:01on the other hand i claim to be one of
- 00:21:02those women who want it all and who
- 00:21:04refuses to give up any piece of it
- 00:21:07and just con continues to batter away
- 00:21:10at the
- 00:21:12restrictions that are still out there
- 00:21:15and and i'm determined to hang on one
- 00:21:18way or another
- 00:21:21although 54 of women in america feel
- 00:21:24their lives are better than 20 years ago
- 00:21:2675 percent think it's harder for
- 00:21:29marriages to succeed
- 00:21:30and 80 percent say it's harder to raise
- 00:21:33children
- 00:21:34we have come a long ways and yet we
- 00:21:36really haven't
- 00:21:38we don't have utopia and not there ever
- 00:21:40will be
- 00:21:41i think today that a woman
- 00:21:43is
- 00:21:45very productive
- 00:21:46on the job
- 00:21:48very responsible on the job
- 00:21:51and she gets home and she is still
- 00:21:54wife
- 00:21:55and mother
- 00:21:57i think she's still going home and
- 00:21:58making sure that she has done the
- 00:22:00grocery shopping she's making sure that
- 00:22:02there is food on the table and she's
- 00:22:04making sure that the house is clean
- 00:22:07the reality and uh gloria steinem has
- 00:22:10said it the reality is that what women's
- 00:22:12liberation means by 1990 is that women
- 00:22:15wind up doing more
- 00:22:16because men haven't moved into blurred
- 00:22:18sex roles and this isn't just a woman
- 00:22:20sitting here complaining
- 00:22:22survey after survey among men
- 00:22:25men acknowledging that they haven't
- 00:22:27picked up the slack on home and child
- 00:22:30rearing so we have women baby boom women
- 00:22:33going into the 1990s
- 00:22:35with a new economic prospect of outlook
- 00:22:38that says they have to be working to
- 00:22:40earn some money but that also says
- 00:22:42family is now more important to me
- 00:22:45i want to have children or i have
- 00:22:47children i want to spend more time with
- 00:22:48them there are things that have to get
- 00:22:50done in the household that don't get
- 00:22:52done
- 00:22:53he's not going to do it we now have many
- 00:22:55single women who are parents so there
- 00:22:58isn't even the question of a man picking
- 00:23:00up the slack and women are under a
- 00:23:02significant amount of stress
- 00:23:05women's liberation has obviously worked
- 00:23:07in the sense that more women really have
- 00:23:10good job opportunities that women's
- 00:23:12incomes in many many spheres are better
- 00:23:15it's worked in a lot of ways but it
- 00:23:17hasn't been perfect and the legacy is
- 00:23:19stress and women in the 90s are going to
- 00:23:22be about resolving that stress by making
- 00:23:25some choices about what roles they're
- 00:23:26going to play
- 00:23:29the 1950s concept of work had changed by
- 00:23:32the end of the 1960s not only in terms
- 00:23:35of stress
- 00:23:36but because of a 60 sensibility that
- 00:23:38work should be a means of
- 00:23:40self-expression and fulfillment that a
- 00:23:42person should get more from a job than
- 00:23:44simply a paycheck
- 00:23:46i think this is one of the best things
- 00:23:48the best holdovers personally for me
- 00:23:50is i've followed
- 00:23:52my heart's desires
- 00:23:54i haven't fallen into the trap of you
- 00:23:57have to make money doing this and that
- 00:23:58and money's a god
- 00:24:00it's not the
- 00:24:03being self-satisfied in the sense that
- 00:24:05what you're doing in life is
- 00:24:07important and going to pass something on
- 00:24:09to another generation is much more
- 00:24:10important to me and i believe that i
- 00:24:12learned all that in the 60s especially
- 00:24:14the sense that i want some part of me to
- 00:24:17affect somebody else in life later on
- 00:24:20i've noticed this people who went to
- 00:24:21school during that era like 68 through
- 00:24:2473 share a set of values and a set of
- 00:24:27understandings that people on either
- 00:24:29side younger and older just don't get
- 00:24:32and so when you're in the workplace
- 00:24:35and uh you're talking about uh
- 00:24:38idealism that people of that generation
- 00:24:42have a certain sense of idealism that
- 00:24:44things can and should be better right
- 00:24:46down to the details of how people treat
- 00:24:48each other day to day and that that
- 00:24:51there's a political component to
- 00:24:53day-to-day interaction and experience
- 00:24:54it's just it's a perspective that we
- 00:24:56have and when you go into the workplace
- 00:24:59with other people
- 00:25:00uh who may be just a few years older a
- 00:25:02few years younger and talk that way they
- 00:25:04look at you like you're a martian
- 00:25:07pay our act as five dollars a
- 00:25:08performance you can live on 25 a week
- 00:25:10let's assume you're doing something
- 00:25:11you're interested in and something
- 00:25:13that's valuable
- 00:25:14if you're not doing anything that's
- 00:25:15interesting then you gotta get a lot of
- 00:25:17money mac you gotta make a fortune to
- 00:25:20keep a boring job
- 00:25:22that 60's attitude led many working
- 00:25:24americans to feel that money was not the
- 00:25:26only important career goal
- 00:25:29that each individual should set his or
- 00:25:31her own standards for determining what
- 00:25:34success means
- 00:25:37but although many today strive for a
- 00:25:39more fulfilling work life
- 00:25:41the way the 60s generation measures
- 00:25:43success has stayed essentially the same
- 00:25:47a recent rolling stone magazine survey
- 00:25:49revealed that most members of the 60s
- 00:25:51generation were surprised by how
- 00:25:53career-oriented they had become and
- 00:25:56perplexed by how much the system they
- 00:25:58tried to change
- 00:25:59changed them
- 00:26:01only the promise of a material affluence
- 00:26:04only the promise of of two cars only the
- 00:26:07promise of a split level divided again
- 00:26:09and again and again in suburbia after
- 00:26:11suburbia after suburbia that's the only
- 00:26:13thing that this that this culture can
- 00:26:15offer people now bread alone
- 00:26:18now
- 00:26:19the question is whether or not you're
- 00:26:21going to accept that i shared a blazing
- 00:26:24contempt for everything that america
- 00:26:26seemed to pride itself in that is to say
- 00:26:28straight middle america
- 00:26:31uh
- 00:26:33since then
- 00:26:34i think i've learned to appreciate
- 00:26:37better the
- 00:26:38the terrific labor
- 00:26:40the
- 00:26:41industry
- 00:26:43and good luck
- 00:26:45that are required
- 00:26:47for the
- 00:26:49the purger of that dream
- 00:26:52it looks shakier these days
- 00:26:55and the culture that could achieve some
- 00:26:59confidence in its ability to provide
- 00:27:02the nice house on the nice street the
- 00:27:04nice school the nice college education
- 00:27:06the nice job the confidence of such a
- 00:27:08culture seems
- 00:27:11more of a more of an achievement than it
- 00:27:13did it seemed to come without effort but
- 00:27:16now i understand there was a lot of
- 00:27:18effort and a lot of chanciness to it
- 00:27:21the american middle class
- 00:27:23with respect to its
- 00:27:25orientation toward money success uh
- 00:27:28family life and so on
- 00:27:30has certainly proved to be far more
- 00:27:31tenacious than anybody would have
- 00:27:33predicted uh
- 00:27:35in the middle of the the
- 00:27:36counter-cultural rebellion of the 60s i
- 00:27:38mean if you go back and look at some of
- 00:27:39the underground newspapers at that
- 00:27:41period
- 00:27:42um they are filled with a sense that
- 00:27:44everything can be changed overnight in
- 00:27:47in america and you know the walls are
- 00:27:49going to come tumbling down we're going
- 00:27:50to transform the society
- 00:27:52totally into the you know another this i
- 00:27:55felt this was far-fetched at the time
- 00:27:57but even i would not have
- 00:27:59predicted how how tenacious
- 00:28:02the uh the american corporation is the
- 00:28:04american middle class way of life is
- 00:28:07um you don't overturn something like
- 00:28:10that you can you change it around the
- 00:28:11edges and perhaps you infuse it with
- 00:28:13some more value some new values but you
- 00:28:15don't um simply get rid of it scrap it
- 00:28:18within a single generation
- 00:28:20now i've got a two-story house
- 00:28:22got a family got two cars
- 00:28:25i'm comfortable
- 00:28:27it's hard to draw about poverty it's
- 00:28:30hard to draw about the difficulties of
- 00:28:33making it
- 00:28:34it's hard even to draw about the things
- 00:28:36i really care deeply about
- 00:28:39because they don't really affect my life
- 00:28:41as viscerally as they used to
- 00:28:44and that has an effect it has a real
- 00:28:47effect on you you begin
- 00:28:48asking the old questions
- 00:28:51from the 60s
- 00:28:52you begin saying to yourself again
- 00:28:54what's this all about
- 00:28:55do you really need the house do you
- 00:28:56really need the cars do you really need
- 00:28:58the money
- 00:28:59are you better off living closer to the
- 00:29:01edge
- 00:29:02do you really live life any other way
- 00:29:04but there
- 00:29:05and i don't have the answer to it
- 00:29:07there's no way to go back
- 00:29:09there's no way to there's no way to do
- 00:29:11it again i don't know if i have the
- 00:29:12energy to do it again
- 00:29:15but that
- 00:29:17those
- 00:29:18those 60s questions will nag me for the
- 00:29:20rest of my life
- 00:29:24i am happy to join with you today
- 00:29:30in what will go down in history
- 00:29:35as the greatest demonstration for
- 00:29:38freedom in the history
- 00:29:40of our nation
- 00:29:41[Music]
- 00:29:42this speech offered to america a renewed
- 00:29:45vision of a society with freedom justice
- 00:29:48and opportunity for all my four little
- 00:29:52children
- 00:29:54one day live in a nation where they will
- 00:29:56not be judged by the color of their skin
- 00:29:59but by the content of their character i
- 00:30:01have a dream today
- 00:30:03but nearly 30 years later many who once
- 00:30:06supported the civil rights struggle
- 00:30:08shake their heads and wonder why such a
- 00:30:10desirable and worthy dream remains
- 00:30:14essentially unrealized
- 00:30:16i think people
- 00:30:18have become just a little um
- 00:30:21disabused with the notion that uh
- 00:30:23integration was going to solve the
- 00:30:25problems that voting was going to solve
- 00:30:27the problems that voting rights said is
- 00:30:30that uh
- 00:30:31being able to sit down and drug store
- 00:30:32next to a white person drink a cup of
- 00:30:34coffee
- 00:30:35had any real meaning
- 00:30:37it
- 00:30:38things had changed but these only
- 00:30:40surface changes
- 00:30:41the
- 00:30:42i think the they were far
- 00:30:45they were deep
- 00:30:46things that remained unchanged and uh
- 00:30:50it didn't even have to be particularly
- 00:30:52bright
- 00:30:54to see how many corporations didn't have
- 00:30:56any black representation
- 00:30:58or how few airlines had a black pilot
- 00:31:01flying or or even railroads have any
- 00:31:04black engineers on the rear with even
- 00:31:06today
- 00:31:07um
- 00:31:09so i think maybe people began to see
- 00:31:10that
- 00:31:11and they began to question
- 00:31:13was it worth it was it really worth it
- 00:31:18what we witnessed in the 60s
- 00:31:22was a wholesale abandonment of the black
- 00:31:25community by the black community
- 00:31:28in other words we bought into
- 00:31:29integration as opposed to desegregation
- 00:31:33and so we integrated ourselves out of
- 00:31:35our own colleges out of our own medical
- 00:31:37schools out of our own businesses out of
- 00:31:39our own baseball teams
- 00:31:41there was a wholesale abandonment of our
- 00:31:43own institutions that sustained us
- 00:31:45through slavery through segregation
- 00:31:47through discrimination through bigotry
- 00:31:49the all those institutions within our
- 00:31:51community that sustained us
- 00:31:53uh that that provided the moral glue
- 00:31:56that kept us going
- 00:31:58that this was just torn asunder
- 00:32:00in the name of integration and i think
- 00:32:04the black community today
- 00:32:06continues to pay a heavy price
- 00:32:08for what we gained in the civil rights
- 00:32:11movement
- 00:32:13if you had told me in watts in 65 when i
- 00:32:16was there with
- 00:32:17every government there was the city
- 00:32:20government and the county government and
- 00:32:22the state government and the u.s
- 00:32:24government all saying we're going to fix
- 00:32:26watts
- 00:32:27nobody could have told me that either
- 00:32:28going back there in the 88 campaign with
- 00:32:30jackson and watts would be worse
- 00:32:33that all that stuff that people said
- 00:32:35they were going to put in isn't there
- 00:32:37you mean worse worse worse worse that
- 00:32:40drugs that have their hands so deep in
- 00:32:43that community
- 00:32:44and people said don't they said jesse
- 00:32:46don't come in and just say it's too
- 00:32:48dangerous for you to come in but jesse
- 00:32:49went in and so and he then he had a
- 00:32:51meeting with the kids gangs and watched
- 00:32:56and their kids there were just strung
- 00:32:57out on drugs there were kids there who
- 00:33:00who had
- 00:33:02gold ropes on their necks and beepers
- 00:33:05that
- 00:33:06all of them victims of the drug business
- 00:33:07in one way or another and there was
- 00:33:10saying it to jesse as they would have
- 00:33:12said to no other human being on this
- 00:33:14earth
- 00:33:16things that were in their heart my mind
- 00:33:18i know it's wrong reverend i know it's
- 00:33:20wrong
- 00:33:21but i i just had nothing else to do
- 00:33:23reverend i another guy said i know
- 00:33:25what's wrong either people shouldn't be
- 00:33:26using these things but reverend i got to
- 00:33:27sell them because
- 00:33:29i pay my rent for my mother and i pay my
- 00:33:31rent for my hand well you know now that
- 00:33:33partly that is that is rationalization
- 00:33:35you know that but you also know it's
- 00:33:37true that that they are engaging in the
- 00:33:39only economic opportunity and uh
- 00:33:42others say oh i'm i'm i'm all right
- 00:33:44reverend i'm getting together tomorrow
- 00:33:46and you know i mean these kids are just
- 00:33:48done the hideous thing about it the
- 00:33:50hideous thing for me that was ripping my
- 00:33:52heart was that all these people were
- 00:33:53born after 1965 they were all born after
- 00:33:57i was there after we were going to do
- 00:33:58all that stuff
- 00:34:01that i would never have expected to see
- 00:34:03and that's heartbreaking it's
- 00:34:04heartbreaking
- 00:34:10we neglected the next generation
- 00:34:12and nobody instilled in them values and
- 00:34:15social responsibility that they needed
- 00:34:17to become effective constructive
- 00:34:19participants in today's society
- 00:34:23that is the fault of my generation that
- 00:34:26we didn't leave
- 00:34:28that consciousness and that
- 00:34:30obligation or social responsibility as a
- 00:34:33legacy
- 00:34:34not only to
- 00:34:36the college students of today but to the
- 00:34:39non-college students of the day more so
- 00:34:42you know because they are the ones that
- 00:34:44are the real custodians
- 00:34:47of our society especially the society
- 00:34:51of urban america
- 00:34:53here's where it's important
- 00:34:54to step back and look at what's happened
- 00:34:58this country lived quite comfortably
- 00:35:00except for black people with racism for
- 00:35:02300 years it's going to take more than
- 00:35:0425 or 30 years to root it all out it's
- 00:35:07going to continue to take struggle
- 00:35:10white people have
- 00:35:11changed in some fundamental ways but
- 00:35:13there are still deep pockets of racism
- 00:35:16left
- 00:35:18it would have been extraordinary if
- 00:35:20beginning let's say in 1964 when the
- 00:35:22first
- 00:35:23historic civil rights acts were passed
- 00:35:25if beginning in that period
- 00:35:28with hard work there had been one
- 00:35:30straight continuum and lo and behold a
- 00:35:33quarter century later it was all gone
- 00:35:36you never would know that there had been
- 00:35:37segregation
- 00:35:40no way to do it that fast
- 00:35:42i'm not always sure that the country has
- 00:35:44the kind of energy and commitment to
- 00:35:45keep at it until we in fact eliminate it
- 00:35:48all and the 80s
- 00:35:50uh
- 00:35:51lowered the morale in the black
- 00:35:53community so bad you would have thought
- 00:35:54for some that we had gone back to the
- 00:35:571930s or the 1920s i never thought that
- 00:36:00because i'm not going that way i'm not
- 00:36:02going back psychologically i'm not going
- 00:36:04back actually
- 00:36:06uh
- 00:36:07what i do recognize is that on the road
- 00:36:09to full freedom there will be periods
- 00:36:11like the 80s there will be leaders like
- 00:36:13reagan
- 00:36:14but i'm not going to let him destroy my
- 00:36:16morale and i'm not going to let one
- 00:36:18decade convince me
- 00:36:20that we are in the same position our
- 00:36:22ancestors were
- 00:36:24in reconstruction
- 00:36:26because we're just not going to let it
- 00:36:27happen
- 00:36:29the great society rests on abundance and
- 00:36:32liberty for all
- 00:36:35it demands an end to poverty
- 00:36:38and racial injustice
- 00:36:40to which we're totally committed in our
- 00:36:43time
- 00:36:45[Applause]
- 00:36:47the democratic party of 1964 the party
- 00:36:50of the great society
- 00:36:52built a liberal coalition that struck a
- 00:36:54responsive court with many americans
- 00:36:57especially young americans
- 00:36:59yet an often acknowledged legacy of the
- 00:37:011960s is the fragmentation of that
- 00:37:04national democratic coalition and the
- 00:37:07subsequent control of the white house by
- 00:37:08the republicans
- 00:37:10what happened
- 00:37:12people scratch their heads and try to
- 00:37:13wonder why it is that the republican
- 00:37:15party has dominated presidential
- 00:37:17politics since nineteen sixty eight
- 00:37:19simple answer the civil rights movement
- 00:37:21and the turmoil of the 60s and i'm not
- 00:37:24saying oh yes the political pendulum
- 00:37:26swung the other way in the conservative
- 00:37:28direction no it's more fundamental than
- 00:37:29that what the civil rights movement did
- 00:37:32was dismantle a one-party south the one
- 00:37:36party was the democratic party and that
- 00:37:38allowed viable republican party
- 00:37:40organizations to spring up throughout
- 00:37:42the south and that more than anything
- 00:37:44has been the cornerstone of the
- 00:37:46republican party ascension to political
- 00:37:49to political prominence in the 60s 70s
- 00:37:51and 80s and into the 90s mr chairman
- 00:37:55most delegates to this convention do not
- 00:37:57know that thousands of young people are
- 00:38:00being beaten
- 00:38:01in the streets of chicago
- 00:38:05and for that reason
- 00:38:06and that reason alone i request the
- 00:38:09suspension of the rules for the purpose
- 00:38:11of adjournment for two weeks
- 00:38:15to relocate the convention in another
- 00:38:18city
- 00:38:20if you look back to the late 1960s and
- 00:38:22the early 1970s and if you ask yourself
- 00:38:24what was the legacy
- 00:38:26of
- 00:38:27that time and of the of left-wing
- 00:38:30activity at that time the legacy was the
- 00:38:32election of richard nixon in 1968 the
- 00:38:34emergence of ronald reagan in the
- 00:38:36conservative movement and the election
- 00:38:38of reagan in 1980 to the presidency
- 00:38:40by 1968 in 1969 those of us were active
- 00:38:46in the conservative movement knew for a
- 00:38:48fact that the ultimate
- 00:38:50result of what was going on was going to
- 00:38:51be just that whether it was going to be
- 00:38:53nixon or reagan was a question but we
- 00:38:55knew
- 00:38:56that these people who were out there
- 00:38:58rioting in the streets were handing us
- 00:38:59the country
- 00:39:01and for that we have something to be
- 00:39:02grateful for
- 00:39:03a teenager held up a sign
- 00:39:06bring us together
- 00:39:08and
- 00:39:09that will be the
- 00:39:12great objective of this administration
- 00:39:13at the outset
- 00:39:15to bring the american people together
- 00:39:18[Applause]
- 00:39:21since richard nixon's election the
- 00:39:22republican party has dominated the
- 00:39:24presidency
- 00:39:27but the victories they have enjoyed have
- 00:39:29been and continue to be tainted by
- 00:39:32fundamental changes in the way many
- 00:39:34americans feel about their government
- 00:39:38a recent survey suggests that 79 percent
- 00:39:41feel that politicians have lost touch
- 00:39:43with the people
- 00:39:45i think that
- 00:39:47certain patterns of thought were set
- 00:39:51that are still with us
- 00:39:54for one thing
- 00:39:55i think an extreme skepticism
- 00:39:58of any warlike move
- 00:40:00i think that after vietnam
- 00:40:03it became almost impossible
- 00:40:06to get the american people embroiled in
- 00:40:08any war where there was no
- 00:40:11obvious direct threat
- 00:40:14that's one
- 00:40:15number two
- 00:40:17i think
- 00:40:19that the nation has been left
- 00:40:22with a rather deep feeling of skepticism
- 00:40:26about its political leaders
- 00:40:28uh
- 00:40:29part of that i believe was nixon and the
- 00:40:31watergate
- 00:40:33which of course took place afterward
- 00:40:35uh but i think that a great deal of it
- 00:40:38was due to what happened in vietnam
- 00:40:42vietnam
- 00:40:44a memory that continues to color the
- 00:40:46judgment and the outlook of the people
- 00:40:48who lived through it
- 00:40:54what i learned in vietnam where as a
- 00:40:56result of vietnam
- 00:41:00is the way in which
- 00:41:02our government operates
- 00:41:06is very different from the way that we
- 00:41:07are taught it operates very different
- 00:41:09from what i learned in public school in
- 00:41:11purgate pennsylvania
- 00:41:13and this and and
- 00:41:14the astounding thing and the
- 00:41:16disappointing thing is that almost no
- 00:41:19one
- 00:41:20is willing to believe that
- 00:41:23people listen to
- 00:41:25someone like me talk
- 00:41:27and they go away thinking that guy's
- 00:41:28crazy
- 00:41:32i understand things in a way that i
- 00:41:34couldn't have understood before
- 00:41:36but the
- 00:41:37the problem with that is that it leaves
- 00:41:40me
- 00:41:41forever at odds
- 00:41:44with the culture and the society in
- 00:41:45which i live
- 00:41:47because
- 00:41:53the things which got us into vietnam and
- 00:41:56in fact the things which
- 00:41:58have
- 00:41:59which created the crisis of the civil
- 00:42:01rights movement
- 00:42:04have not been resolved
- 00:42:08i believe that america was right i
- 00:42:10believe that we could have won the war i
- 00:42:13believe the politicians were wrong
- 00:42:15i believe that you know they did the
- 00:42:17whole thing wrong
- 00:42:18don't get in if you're not going to
- 00:42:19fight to win
- 00:42:21if you're going to fight to win
- 00:42:22we could have won we could have went
- 00:42:24right on to moscow as far as i was
- 00:42:26concerned
- 00:42:27don't play games with my life my
- 00:42:30brother's life or the kids from my
- 00:42:32neighborhood
- 00:42:37for what end toward what in to how did
- 00:42:40it gain us why were we there in the
- 00:42:42first place
- 00:42:43what was there to be gained to the
- 00:42:45average citizen
- 00:42:47what would have constituted winning
- 00:42:49can you define that for me it's real
- 00:42:51hard to win if you can't define what
- 00:42:53constitutes
- 00:42:55what constitutes winning
- 00:42:57and that was the that was the damn
- 00:42:59problem
- 00:43:00is that once you decided to go in it was
- 00:43:03in for a dime in for a dollar if you
- 00:43:05don't figure out before people start
- 00:43:07getting blown away
- 00:43:09what is going to constitute winning
- 00:43:11either in political terms or in
- 00:43:12geographic terms you damn sure aren't
- 00:43:15going to figure it out
- 00:43:16when people start coming home in body
- 00:43:18bags
- 00:43:25[Music]
- 00:43:33[Music]
- 00:43:35[Applause]
- 00:43:46there's no question but what the country
- 00:43:50didn't go where some of us would have
- 00:43:51wanted it to go in terms of its
- 00:43:54particularly its sense of social justice
- 00:43:56at home but also its sense of
- 00:43:59of a broad but there is also no question
- 00:44:01but what
- 00:44:02today no one would try to ban the
- 00:44:04communist speaker on a college campus
- 00:44:07today no one would say you can't drink a
- 00:44:10cup of coffee at this lunch counter you
- 00:44:12can't drink out of that drinking
- 00:44:13fountain no one today would try for a
- 00:44:16minute to suggest that we should send a
- 00:44:18half a million troops
- 00:44:20to fight a war in burma thailand
- 00:44:23cambodia
- 00:44:25la any place in latin america i mean
- 00:44:27pick the place that i mean it is out of
- 00:44:30the question that the most conservative
- 00:44:34legislator could conceivably in their
- 00:44:38wildest imagination
- 00:44:40suggest
- 00:44:41returning to the early 60s out of the
- 00:44:43question we have moved way beyond that
- 00:44:46and won't move back
- 00:44:48[Music]
- 00:44:50americans from the 60s generation are on
- 00:44:52the move
- 00:44:54and select members of this group are
- 00:44:56ascending to positions of political
- 00:44:57leadership
- 00:44:59but to what extent are americans of any
- 00:45:01age willing to entrust those who took
- 00:45:03part in the experiences of the 60s with
- 00:45:06the ultimate responsibility for the
- 00:45:08nation's future
- 00:45:11it remains to be seen whether a vietnam
- 00:45:14era
- 00:45:15person will become president
- 00:45:18if such a person does become president i
- 00:45:20think it's now more likely that that
- 00:45:21person will be
- 00:45:23a vietnam veteran than a veteran of the
- 00:45:25anti-war movement
- 00:45:28most likely really would be a vietnam
- 00:45:30veteran who is sympathetic to the
- 00:45:33anti-war movement
- 00:45:36but um
- 00:45:38but i think we're at the very at this
- 00:45:40moment we're in a period of of cultural
- 00:45:43reaction
- 00:45:44it's not so severe that people that it
- 00:45:47raises the specter of repression
- 00:45:49but uh for example
- 00:45:51uh
- 00:45:53it does mean that people who are
- 00:45:54applying for government jobs when the
- 00:45:56fbi
- 00:45:57asked them have they ever smoked
- 00:46:00marijuana
- 00:46:0110 years ago they would have said yeah
- 00:46:03sure
- 00:46:04now they'll have to say no no not me
- 00:46:08i never did did that
- 00:46:11so
- 00:46:12so uh we are haunted our generation is a
- 00:46:15bit haunted
- 00:46:17by uh by our youthful
- 00:46:19follies which are now
- 00:46:21for some reason
- 00:46:22they're they're harder for for the
- 00:46:25younger generation to understand let
- 00:46:26alone the older generation i think it's
- 00:46:29it's uh it's a kind of
- 00:46:31a poignant irony
- 00:46:34that um
- 00:46:36that we're regarded in some ways by
- 00:46:39those younger
- 00:46:41in
- 00:46:42a bit the same way that we were regarded
- 00:46:44by our parents and those older it's just
- 00:46:46that now we don't have the glamour of
- 00:46:48youth anymore
- 00:46:50[Music]
- 00:46:54along with growing older comes one of
- 00:46:56the toughest challenges for the 60s
- 00:46:58generation
- 00:46:59what to tell the kids
- 00:47:01what to leave out
- 00:47:03some feel it's best not to talk about
- 00:47:05their wilder excursions away from
- 00:47:07mainstream values and behavior
- 00:47:10but this is a generation that preached
- 00:47:12that parents should teach their children
- 00:47:14well
- 00:47:15to be honest about feelings and values
- 00:47:19trying to make sense of the sixties for
- 00:47:20the next generation is a moment of truth
- 00:47:28i have an eight-year-old son and he
- 00:47:31already has had to confront my political
- 00:47:33activity currently
- 00:47:35used when his first grade teacher asked
- 00:47:37him what his father did he said my
- 00:47:39father fights fascism which prompted a
- 00:47:41teacher parent conference
- 00:47:43um
- 00:47:44so and i never told him to say that
- 00:47:46but he is getting to the point now where
- 00:47:48he is asking some questions about that
- 00:47:50and both my wife and i come out of the
- 00:47:52political movement of the 60s and
- 00:47:54both did a lot of organizing and went
- 00:47:57through all those various
- 00:48:00sexual and drug revolutions and it's
- 00:48:02hard it's hard to know what to answer
- 00:48:04because i don't want to lie to him but i
- 00:48:06don't want him to be hurt and i feel
- 00:48:08echoes of my parents when i say this
- 00:48:11because
- 00:48:12i
- 00:48:13don't want my kid to use crack i don't
- 00:48:15want my kid to use
- 00:48:18hard drugs
- 00:48:20i don't know how to balance
- 00:48:22the things in the 60s that happened to
- 00:48:24me drugs were part of it
- 00:48:26um
- 00:48:28to today
- 00:48:29so that part of the 60s i don't know how
- 00:48:31to deal with the rest of it you bet i
- 00:48:33talk to them all the time about it
- 00:48:35and they ask about it because some of
- 00:48:37them are studying in school now
- 00:48:39and it's interesting to look at the
- 00:48:40books and hear what it says about the
- 00:48:4260s
- 00:48:43i mean it's probably very much like my
- 00:48:44parents who looked at books about world
- 00:48:46war ii that i was looking at when i was
- 00:48:48their age
- 00:48:49and i want to tell them what the truth
- 00:48:50was
- 00:48:52or at least as i see it well it's it's
- 00:48:54just doesn't have the emotion
- 00:48:57it doesn't have the feeling it's sort of
- 00:48:59facts and they aren't facts
- 00:49:01much more than that
- 00:49:04i walk my child to the town
- 00:49:07and i take him across the pavement where
- 00:49:10it goes down like this and i explain
- 00:49:11about that and we pass
- 00:49:13you know we pass a sign and it says
- 00:49:16women working
- 00:49:18yeah but he's seen that sign before it
- 00:49:20has no charge for him you can't imagine
- 00:49:22what it was like the first time once all
- 00:49:25sign women
- 00:49:26working you know
- 00:49:28how to tell
- 00:49:29the young people how life is transformed
- 00:49:34i've managed to raise myself from
- 00:49:37poverty into the middle class
- 00:49:40even though i might not want to
- 00:49:43say i am i am
- 00:49:46the fact that i could do that as a black
- 00:49:48woman in this country
- 00:49:50and
- 00:49:51really says to me that
- 00:49:54we can do anything we want to do if we
- 00:49:56can organize and put our minds to it and
- 00:49:59we can say that to the youth today
- 00:50:02that you can do the same thing we did
- 00:50:04back in the 50s and in the 60s and in
- 00:50:07the 70s
- 00:50:09my daughter julie is 18 registered vote
- 00:50:13a student at sarah lawrence college
- 00:50:15i am worried about her because if she
- 00:50:17has six dollars in her pocket and she
- 00:50:20sees a homeless person i know they're
- 00:50:21gonna get five
- 00:50:24and she has been very concerned about
- 00:50:27studying the history and she's writing a
- 00:50:29a a paper on the freedom democratic
- 00:50:32party she's very committed she was a
- 00:50:34volunteer
- 00:50:36at georgetown hospital here she was
- 00:50:38she's very committed to people
- 00:50:41my son is very committed to the stock
- 00:50:43market
- 00:50:44he says that well while he likes
- 00:50:47he myself and his mother and what we do
- 00:50:50he thinks that we're wasting a lot of
- 00:50:51time on homeless people and when they
- 00:50:53were young they should have gotten
- 00:50:54newspaper routes save their money
- 00:50:57and if they have problems finding a job
- 00:50:59he'll be glad to personally teach them
- 00:51:01how to work
- 00:51:02and uh i mean so it's just uh some of my
- 00:51:05friends tell me well that's my that's my
- 00:51:07punishment
- 00:51:09but despite his politics i of course
- 00:51:10love him
- 00:51:15the question the 60s generation keeps
- 00:51:17struggling to answer not only for their
- 00:51:19children but for themselves is what is
- 00:51:22the meaning of it all
- 00:51:24how will history remember the 1960s
- 00:51:28each of the 180 participants witnesses
- 00:51:30and experts who contributed to this
- 00:51:32series was asked this same question
- 00:51:35and while their specific answers varied
- 00:51:37greatly almost everyone either talked
- 00:51:40about the 1960s impact on america
- 00:51:43or talked about the 1960s impact on
- 00:51:45themselves
- 00:51:47the 60s impact on america was stated
- 00:51:49eloquently by dr manning maribel
- 00:51:52the 60s
- 00:51:54created
- 00:51:55a fundamental challenge in question to
- 00:51:57the very essence of what american
- 00:51:59democracy is all about
- 00:52:01the 60s represented a fundamental
- 00:52:03question
- 00:52:04about the absence of material equality
- 00:52:07for poor people and people of color in
- 00:52:09the society
- 00:52:10the 60s represented a cultural challenge
- 00:52:14to the conformity and the velvetization
- 00:52:17of american culture
- 00:52:19the fact that we could be proud that we
- 00:52:21were so similar
- 00:52:23the 60s said we should be happy that we
- 00:52:25are different
- 00:52:26and within the difference we find
- 00:52:30creativity we find challenge and change
- 00:52:34we find excitement and vibrancy
- 00:52:37that is really the power of american
- 00:52:39society
- 00:52:41the 60s was a fundamental challenge to
- 00:52:43what america had said about itself for
- 00:52:45so many generations
- 00:52:47it was a lie built on top of a lie
- 00:52:50democracy didn't live for millions of
- 00:52:52african americans and equality was not
- 00:52:55real for the poor
- 00:52:57the 60s forced america to look in the
- 00:53:00mirror at itself
- 00:53:02and what it represents
- 00:53:04is the promise of american life in the
- 00:53:06future because the questions the 60s
- 00:53:08raised still haven't gone away
- 00:53:14when will those questions be answered
- 00:53:17with the memories and passions from the
- 00:53:1960s still stirring in so many perhaps
- 00:53:22history won't be able to decide on the
- 00:53:24full impact of the 60s until the last
- 00:53:27member of the sixties generation has
- 00:53:29passed on
- 00:53:30that's the sentiment of the second
- 00:53:32answer to the question about the real
- 00:53:34meaning of the sixties experience
- 00:53:37an appreciation that on a personal level
- 00:53:40at least
- 00:53:41final assessments don't come easy
- 00:53:44carl oglesby
- 00:53:46and meantime we had an experience which
- 00:53:49i suppose is unique
- 00:53:51in american history
- 00:53:54and which nobody who went through it
- 00:53:55will ever forget uh it's an experience
- 00:53:59filled with treasured moments and
- 00:54:01nightmares
- 00:54:02alike
- 00:54:03to this day all inter-interwoven
- 00:54:06and i think that it will always be this
- 00:54:08way the 60s will never level out
- 00:54:12it's a corkscrew it's a tail spin it's
- 00:54:17a joyride on a roller coaster
- 00:54:20it's a never-ending mystery
- 00:54:24who won who lost what were the terms of
- 00:54:26victory and defeat
- 00:54:29we'll always be discussing that i think
- 00:54:31it was an american it was another civil
- 00:54:34war in a sense
- 00:54:36and it has all the
- 00:54:38the the drama the melodrama
- 00:54:42the comedy
- 00:54:43the pathos
- 00:54:44above all the confusion
- 00:54:46the uncertainty as to outcome and
- 00:54:49meaning and significance
- 00:54:51that the civil war of the 1860s had
- 00:54:55maybe it's just that
- 00:54:56in every 60s decade
- 00:54:5918th century 19th century 20th century
- 00:55:03we have to go through some
- 00:55:05crisis like this but it was
- 00:55:08certainly uh
- 00:55:11certainly that we had us a time
- 00:55:14and we're still trying to figure out
- 00:55:15what it was all about
- 00:55:24no we ain't
- 00:55:26got no barrel
- 00:55:29of mine
- 00:55:33[Music]
- 00:55:41but we'll travel alone
- 00:55:46[Music]
- 00:55:58we don't
- 00:55:59know what's
- 00:56:02[Music]
- 00:56:14but we'll
- 00:56:16[Music]
- 00:56:25time
- 00:56:35what if the sky should fall
- 00:56:39not just as long as you and me
- 00:56:47[Music]
- 00:56:56you'll be the
- 00:57:03[Music]
- 00:57:22traveling
- 00:57:25[Music]
- 00:57:28and we're shy
- 00:57:32[Music]
- 00:57:42[Music]
- 00:57:49major funding for making sense of the
- 00:57:5260s was provided by the corporation for
- 00:57:55public broadcasting
- 00:57:58and by viewers like you
- 00:58:02additional funding was provided by sims
- 00:58:04clothing stores where since 1960 an
- 00:58:07educated consumer has been our best
- 00:58:09customer
- 00:58:11and by toms of maine a pioneer in
- 00:58:14natural personal care toms of maine and
- 00:58:16nature a friendship of 20 years
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- 00:58:38this is pbs
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- 00:58:47journal graphics 267 broadway new york
- 00:58:50new york one triple zero seven to order
- 00:58:52by credit card call 212 227 read
- 00:59:18you
- 1960s
- American history
- Cultural change
- Civil rights
- Vietnam War
- Family dynamics
- Sexual revolution
- Political shifts
- Counterculture
- Women's liberation