General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Does this atmosphere, this feeling in the air, remind you any of the late Sixties...? [View all]scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)I graduated from HS in '67. I remember the 60s well. There is absolutely nothing in air now that resembles what was in the air back then. Nothing.
What was in the air in the 60s was hope and excitement and a splendid belief in the power of love, a belief in possibilities, a belief in freedom, a feeling of determination and a feeling of joy and empowerment in that determination. There was a feeling of mass rising up, and faith in the power of that rising up.
Faith, hope, and love - those were the forces that moved us in the 60s - not confined to just the religious sense of those words, although that religious sense was most certainly encompassed in the Civil Rights movement.
We had faith in the inevitability of social and spiritual progress. We had hope for the triumph of true humanity over war and hatred. And we were fired with the power of love - love of truth, love of justice, love of beauty, love of free expression, love for the greater world.
The 60s was a wave of light passing through millions of hearts. There's nothing like that now. Now, there's only impotent anger, frustration, seething resentment, apathetic resignation or accomodation as a means of self-preservation.
There's no overwhelming will to agitate. No sense of solidarity. No love, no joy.