Daniel Cohn-Bendit, now on the establishment side of the barricades as a member of the European parliament, says the rebels of 1968 had a much more positive feeling towards the future than protesters do nowadays.
“Now there is more anxiety and fear,” he tells Reuters in an interview marking the 40th anniversary of the social upheavals that swept through many Western countries.
Campaigns nowadays may back specific causes but they don’t aim to change the world, the way they did in 1968, say grizzled veterans of the barricades. Some claim 1968 was the year of the “Big Bang” in terms of social protest, never to be repeated.
Maybe it’s because students nowadays face too much pressure to conform, to get jobs, to earn money. Maybe there are not enough causes around — or at least not enough of them that require a complete revolution in society to resolve.
But what about global warming, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and that old chestnut, the ills of global capitalism? Don’t they count as big issues?
Should today’s students be making themselves heard a bit more? Or was 1968 another world?
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Well, the ‘68ers may have had all these great ideals but if you look around now it is apparent that they completely failed on every point! Maybe their broad “you have to change all of society” goals were a little too broad.
- Posted by JOBThe question is stupid. Of course the spirit of ‘68 is gone forever because 1968 is gone forever. Their is a new spirit, the spirit of the 21st century.
- Posted by JOBThe young people of today are enjoying the fruits of the struggles of the ‘68 generation but do not realise it, and are reluctant to acknowledge it. Many more now go to university and achieve a high standard of living in their thirties. We meant to bequeath them freedom but many have settled for materialism and have become slaves to work. They have rejected trade unionism and have a naive and inflated belief in the market value of their personal skills which will be exposed in the coming recession.
Finally, to put the historical record straight: the revolutionary movement of ‘68 was not merely a movement of students. I was active in the anarchist movement in Britain and the most reliable and committed activists were workers, young and not so young.
- Posted by Terry PhillipsDoesn’t revolution mean “turn around”?
- Posted by Steve RussellWe like where we are heading, so there is no need to head back to the archaic days of class immobility and protectionism.
There is constant innovation in the world, but revolution? Maybe the protesters of today don’t have such pretentious and lofty world-changing ideals. Maybe today we realise that there is room for many ideas and no-one has the right to be self-righteous?
I think this is an excellent subject to bring to the forefront of discussion and debate, and Job… I think the article’s author is being a bit metaphoric and symbolic, and maybe not literal… regarding “the spirit of 68″.
Lets take a look at things from an odd angle. First, lets assume that capitalism is a keep-the-rich-rich and keep-the-rich-serviced type-of pyramid scheme con/sham… whose symbol is seen on the back of the USA one dollar bill. Now lets look at the term “support” as used in “WE have to support you” and “When are you going to grow up and support yourself?” The term and phenomenon of “support” is caused by free-markeeteer pyramid scheme (capitalism) PRICETAGS being placed on all the survival goods AND toys/luxuries. BECAUSE parents throw their kids “out there” into “the great shark tank” when they turn 18, and because the kids need to “support” themselves by getting the Amway (American Way pyramid scheme) slave-COUPONS just to survive (support themselves)… then they are forced to join the free marketeers church-o-competing pyramid scheme of servitude infestation. They will NOT be working WITH others, only FOR others. ALL happiness-contributing things on the planet… have free-marketeer pricetags on them. AmWay (capitalism) got the “exclusive” on the TYPE of coupons accepted in ALL USA supply depots (stores). Capitalism is a toybox tug-o-war of children, and parents/pricetags/society forces their young adults to JOIN the felony “pay-up or lose your wellbeing” Chicago mob-like criminal activity. This all happens even in the face of seeing ownerless, moneyless, tug-o-war-less socialism work GREAT in both the U.S. military supply system (survival system) and for the USA Public Library System. The “pyramid of capitalist” system (Google image search for THAT quoted phrase… to see it)… is runaway with “yay America, we’re the #1 AmWay gougers” pride and esteem, and top that off with a huge USA-wide addiction to enjoyments (etoys, sweets, meets, motorsports, sex, partying, being serviced)… and you have “current America” in a chestnutshell. Although I can’t even start to tell you how much I hate capitalism, and how much I try to get the herd to stop and examine it for servitude infestation (ordering and servicing)… that is not the subject of this article. I’ll save my further capitalism pyramid scheme bashing… for somewhere else. All in all, though, the creap of the church-o-competing (capitalism)… and the resulting lack of membership in the church-o-cooperating (Christianity/socialism) is a HUGE contributing factor to the loss of those who once challenged “the establishment”.
Larry “Wingnut” Wendlandt
- Posted by WingnutMaStars - Mothers Against Stuff That Ain’t Right
(anti-capitalism-ists)
Bessemer MI USA
what a load of rubbish,when did a load of old hippys ever change the world.Ever heard of Sea Shepherds?
- Posted by paulThe spirit of ‘68?
The revolutionary movement?
Veterans of the barricades?
Pi** and wind from the chattering classes with nothing better to do; talking the same cr** then as they do now.
The rest of us had to earn a living.
- Posted by Mike TSprit of ‘68 had gone with the end of cold war. In those days people were trying to be number one in every field.
- Posted by roseCould you please change above name “rose” with “Ajit”. There may be some spam problem.
- Posted by AjitSprit of 68 had gone with the end of cold war. In those days people were trying to be number one in every field.
- Posted by Ajit