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The Sixties.


Guest Stephen Turner

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Guest Stephen Turner

hereSome questions to start the debate.

1, Were the sixties a revolutionary period?

2, Are the sixties, as the Right like to claim, responsible for present day ills?

3, Ultimately, did the working class benefit from this epoch? and if not, who are the true beneficiaries?

4, When did "the sixties" start, and when did they end?

5, What is the single most important event of that decade?

Edited by Stephen Turner
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Guest Stephen Turner
4, When did "the sixties" start, and when did they end?

I don't believe that when people talk of the sixties it means Jan 1st 1960, to Dec 31st 1969, They rather use the term to describe an attitude of mind, that seemed to be about a rejection of the past, and an embrace of modernism, typified by the Arts, especially music, and a resergence of Political activism. Many of the elements that are most associated with the sixties were already blossoming in the late 1950s, CND, The Beatnics, Rock and Roll, and the beginings of that troublesome creature the "Teenager"

I believe it is proper to describe the Sixties as a double decade, in the manner of Hobsbawm's short Century, 1958-1977 would seem to encompass the neccessary elements, Growth of working class confidence, new, and more Democratic forms of Art, often employing revolutionary ideals, the rise of the teenager, A massive increase in popular revolt, anti war, Womens rights, Civil rights, the breakdown of "The family" A call for sexual freedom and the begining of the complete mistrust of anything, and anyone Establishment, embodied by that wonderful sixties saying "The Man"

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  • 4 weeks later...
Some questions to start the debate.

I presume that you are talking about the Western capitalist countries?

1, Were the sixties a revolutionary period?

Well they could have been if they had been permitted to run their course.

2, Are the sixties, as the Right like to claim, responsible for present day ills?

No the Right has more right to that claim .

3, Ultimately, did the working class benefit from this epoch? and if not, who are the true beneficiaries?

Yes. Though there has been a lot of take backs especially strike action by unions.

4, When did "the sixties" start, and when did they end?

I agree with your post #2.

5, What is the single most important event of that decade?

Hard for me to narrow it down to just 1.

The Cuban missile crisis

Beatles (more a phenomenon than one event I suppose)

Women's movement.

Civil rights movement

Political assassinations

Space exploration/moon landing

Manson murders

Just for starters

Edited by Maggie Hansen
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Some questions to start the debate.

1, Were the sixties a revolutionary period?

2, Are the sixties, as the Right like to claim, responsible for present day ills?

3, Ultimately, did the working class benefit from this epoch? and if not, who are the true beneficiaries?

4, When did "the sixties" start, and when did they end?

5, What is the single most important event of that decade?

In America:

1... no more than the Roaring 20's

2... hardly, freedom of thought, ideas, speech and media manipulation. And, who is selling present day ills as ills?

3... of course the working class benefited... fair to good paying job, a home, two cars, kids off to college.

4... for some, its STILL the 60's

5... commercial use of the transistor...

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  • 3 months later...

Absolutely

Yes: the Right's counter-actions to the revolutionaries.

Not over yet, the long awaited 'second wave' may be sooner than later.

Kennedy till Jimi et al.

Live news.

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