Was There a Cultural Revolution c.1958-c.1974?

Practically all the activists, student protesters, hippies, yippies, Situationists, advocates of psychedelic liberation, participants in be-ins and rock festivals, proponents of free love, members of the underground, and advocates of Black Power, women's liberation, and gay liberation believed that by engaging in struggles, giving witness, or simply doing their own thing they were contributing to the final collapse of bad bourgeois society. To say that is not to withold admiration from the activism and the idealism, nor to deny the many positive achievements of the protesters; but it is to recognize that their ultimate objectives were based on a fundamental fallacy. There was never any possibility of a revolution.


So, left-centre and right do seem to agree that, for good or ill, something significant happened in the sixties. But the disillusioned revolutionaries, the extreme left, declare that nothing very much happened in the sixties. It was all just froth and empty spectacle, in which so-called counter-cultural practices were manipulated by the usual commercial interests; the distribution of economic and political power was exactly the same in the seventies as it had been in the fifties. There is a kind of `soft left' variation of this negative view, propagated by many of those who were active in the cultural innovations of the time: `The sixties were great--i.e, we were great--but of absolutely no enduring significance. Tough you weren't there.' That is the approach of Jim Haynes, of Traverse Theatre and Arts Lab fame, and of musician George Melly:

AND THAT IS THAT.


THIS IS MY STUPID REVIEW OF THIS SERIOUS AND STUPID BOOK. HE WRITES;
What happened between the late fifties and the early seventies has been subject to political polemic, nostalgic mythologizing, and downright misrepresentations. WELL, THERE YOU HAVE IT. MORE MYTHOLOGIZING AND MISREPRESENTATION. I'VE TAKEN EVERY ONE OF HIS CLAIMS ABOUT THE ERA, AND REFUTED ALL BUT ONE.

Was There a Cultural Revolution c.1958-c.1974?



For some it is a golden age, for others a time when the old secure framework of morality, authority, and discipline disintegrated. In the eyes of the far left, it is the era when revolution was at hand,

HIS LIST OF WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT. NONE OF WHICH IS TRUE. EXCEPT THE PART ABOUT MUSIC. AND THAT WENT AWAY TOO. : black civil rights; youth culture and trend-setting by young people; idealism, protest, and rebellion; the triumph of popular music based on Afro-American models and the emergence of this music as a universal language, with the Beatles as the heroes of the age; the search for inspiration in the religions of the Orient; massive changes in personal relationships and sexual behaviour; a general audacity and frankness in books and in the media, and in ordinary behaviour; relaxation in censorship; the new feminism; gay liberation; the emergence of `the underground' and `the counter-culture'; optimism and genuine faith in the dawning of a better world.


What I shall hope to demonstrate is that the various counter-cultural movements and subcultures, being ineluctably implicated in and interrelated with mainstream society while all the time expanding and interacting with each other, did not confront that society but permeated and transformed it.

From THE SIXTIES Was There a Cultural Revolution c.1958-c.1974? By ARTHUR MARWICK

NO. SOCIETY WAS NOT CHANGED. NOT PEERMEATED OR TRANSFORMED. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF THE BOOK HADN'T BEEN WRITTEN. IT WILL MISLEAD MANY, AND IT COMPLETELY WASTED MY TIME.


NO IT DIDNT TRANSFORM IT. A NEW ART FORM EMERGED AND TOOK ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE PANTHEON OF GREAT ART. , popular music based on Afro-American models as a universal language. To quote Marwick. BUT THAT'S THE ONLY TRUE THING ON THE LIST.


THAT'S ALL THAT HAPPENED. AND IT DIDN'T LAST. AND IT WOULDNT HAVE HAPPEND IF NOT FOR THE CLUSTER OF YOUNG GENIUSES THAT SUDDENLY APPEARED. THE BEATLES, BOB DYLAN, THE ROLLING STONES, JIMMY HENDIRX, THE BEE GEES, MOODY BLUES, ELO, YES, EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, THE MOTOWN GENIUSSES. THE EAGLES. AN AMAZING WEALTH, OF ART, AND HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE ART, ACCESSABLE,. WITH NONE OF THE TRAPPINGS OF APPRECIATION AND SNOBBERY AND CLASS DISTINCTION. NOBODY CAN ACCOUNT FOR THIS SUDDEN BLOSSOMING, AND ITS EQUALLY SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE.
--



1. BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS. NOT A HIPPIE PHENOMENON. POLITICAL INTERGENERATIONAL. MLK WAS AS FAR FROM A SIXTIES ICON AS POSSIBLE. STRAIGHT LACED AND SQUARE.

2. TREND SETTING BY YOUNG PEOPLE. A NEW AND ENEVITIBLE PHENOMENON. THE BEATLES WERE, TRUST ME, THE FIRST FAMOUS PEOPLE UNDER THIRTY IN RECENT HISTORY. POLITICIANS, ACTORS. WRITERS, CULTURAL ICONS, WERE ALL OLDER FIGURES. THIS HAS TO BE CLARIFIED. FOR THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME THERE WAS A SPOTLIGHT ON THE YOUNG. IT'W NOT THERE ANYMORE.. BEFORE THAT, THE FIFTIES YOUTH WERE THE SILENT GENERATION, THE FORTIES WENT TO WAR, THE THIRTIES STRUGGLED, THE TWENTIES, ONLY THE VERY RICH WERE PART OF THE CULTURE OF FASHION AND FADS, AND BEFORE THAT, THE TEENS AND THE TENS? THE ZEROS? CERTAINLY FEW, MORE LIKE NO YOUNG PEOPLE WERE IN THE HEADLINES. LEADERS AND TRENDSETTERS HAVE ALWAYS HAD THE GRAVITAS OF AGE. THE SIXTIES HAD THAT DIFFERENCE, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT, BUT IT DIDNT LAST. IT HAD NO LASTING EFFECT.


FOR THE LAST TIME, HIS POINTS, POINT BY POINT. HE HAS NOT BOOK HERE.

a general audacity and frankness in books and in the media, and in ordinary behaviour; DIDNT GO AWAY, TOO BAD, THANKS TO IDIOTS LIKE GEORGE CARLIN. THAT'S A SHITTY LEGACY.

relaxation of censorship. YES. AND THAT'S TOO BAD. SHAKESPEARE AND MELVILLE WROTE MASTERPIECES WITHOUT CURSE WORDS. A HIT TUNE TODAY? IN MY PANTS, BY THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS.

the new feminism; BEEN HAPPENING FOR DECADES.

; the emergence of `the underground'... BUT NOT FOR LONG.
the emergence of `the counter-culture' BUT NOT FOR LONG


They might, in addition, be able to contrast this with a list of key features of the fifties, including: rigid social hierarchy; subordination of women to men and children to parents; repressed attitudes to sex; racism; unquestioning respect for authority in the family, education, government, the law, and religion, and for the nation-state, the national flag, the national anthem; Cold War hysteria; a strict formalism in language, etiquette, and dress codes; a dull and cliche-ridden popular culture, most obviously in popular music, with its boring big bands and banal ballads.--

EXCUSE ME? Subordination of children to parents??? AND HOW IS THAT A BAD THING. HOW CAN HE WRITE BULLSHIT LIKE THAT. a strict formalism in language,??? WELL, EVERYONE WAS GOING TO COLLEGE AND READING SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. STRICT FORMALISM IN LANGUAGE.

; a dull and cliche-ridden popular culture, most obviously in popular music, with its boring big bands and banal ballads.
WELL YES. BUT THAT'S BECAUSE THERE WEREN'T ANY GREAT COMPOSERS. IT WAS THE BEST THEY COULD DO. MOTOWN AND THE ENGLISH INVASION CHANGED THAT, FOR A WHILE. TODAYS POPULAR MUSIC IS DULL AND CLICHE RIDDEN AGAIN.


3. IDEALISM? THAT DIDNT LAST. IT CAN'T LAST. EVERYTHNING'S PRAGMATIC.


4. PROTEST AND REBELLION. MAYBE. BUT I THINK IT WAS JUST LOTS OF PEOPLE IN THE STREETS, DANCING IN THE STREETS, BE INS AND LOVE INS, THAT DIDNT LAST. BUT MANY OF THOSE MILLIONS OF HIPPIES WENT TO THE POLITICAL EVENTS FOR THE PARTY. AND THE REBELLION? THE LOOK OF ROCK AND ROLL WAS REBELLION. NOBODY KNOWS WHY THAT WAS THE STYLE AND LOOK OF THE ROCKERS, BUT IT MOST CERTAINLY WAS. ROGUES AND COWBOYS AND WILD IN THE STREETS. EVERYBODY PICKED UP ON THAT LATEST FAD. HELLS ANGELS AND TEDDY BOYS, THE ROLLING STONES AS STONED THUGS, IT HAD THE APPEAL OF FREEDOM AND BADNESS/ IT CAUGHT ON. BUT AGAIN, NOT FOR LONG. AND IT'S A FUCKED UP LEGACY.


5. the search for inspiration in the religions of the Orient; AND IT DIDNT LAST. IT JUST DISAPPEARED. IT WAS A FAD, AND THE BEATLES AND THE BEACH BOYS WERE THE CAUSE OF IT ALL. THAT AND THE HASHISH.


6.massive changes in personal relationships and sexual behaviour; WELL, FOR ONE THING, THE UPPER CLASS ALWAYS HAD THAT. BLOOMSBURY, POST RREVOLUTIONARY FRANCE... AFTER THE WAR AND THE FIFTIES DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS CULTURE, BETWEEN DRUGS AND DEMOCRATIZATION, THE FRUITS OF THE TOTAL END OF THE CLASS SYSTEM. IT ALL KICKED IN AT ONCE. MEANING IT WAS INEVITIBLE. OK. SO I'LL GIVE YOU THAT. MUSIC AND SEX. BUT NOT YOUTH. YOUTH IS IRRELEVANT TODAY AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN. THE SIXTIES WERE A FLUKE.


AND OF COURSE THE EVER POPULAR BULLSHIT, ; optimism and genuine faith in the dawning of a better world. GENUINE NONSENSE YOU MEAN.



LOTS OF PREJUDICE. THE BELIEF THAT IT MUST HAVE HAD A LASTING EFFECT BECAUSE IT WAS SO HUGE. IT WAS HUGE. BUT IT LEFT NO LASTING IMPRESSION.


The counter culture is the embryonic cultural base of New Left politics, the effort to discover new types of community, new family patterns, new sexual mores, new kinds of livelihood,

ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT, NEW KINDS OF LIVLIHOOD WAS WHERE THE WHOLE MOVEMENT CAME A CROPPER AND ALL BUT COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED.

HIPPIES HOPED AGAINST HOPE THEY COULD SOMEHOW AVOID GOING BACK TO SCHOOL LAND THEN BACK TO WORK, TO SLAVERY FOR THE MOST PART. AND THAT OF COUSE COULDNT HAPPEN.. THAT WOULD BE A TRUE REVOLUTION, GIVING US POPULATION CONTROL AND A AUTOMATIC STANDARD OF LIVING, NINETYOUSAND A YEAR FOR DOING NOTHING. LIKE THE BEATLES.

MOST OF THE HIPPIES WERE FOURTEEN TO EIGHTEEN, AND THAT IS A STUPID AGE, AND THEY WERE OUT ON THE STREETS FOR ANYWHERE FROM SIX MONTHS TO A YEAR, AND THEN WENT BACK TO SCHOOL. IN FACT, MOST OF THE PARTY DRESSED YOUNGSTERS WERE STILL IN SCHOOL, OR WERE WORKING CLASS, AND TEMPORARILY DROPPING OUT, OR JUST ACTING OUT, BUT KEEPING THEIR DAY JOB.

WORK, WAGE DRUDGERY, PROFESSIONS ONE HAD NO REAL IJNTEREST IN, THAT IS THE CORE OF THE SIXTIES SHOWDOWN, AND IT WENT NOWHERE. SURE, IT ENDED THE WAR, BUT TO TELL THE TRUTH, MOST OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE MARCHES WERE JUST OUT FOR A FUN.

IF THIS IS TOO SUPERFICIAL FOR HISTORIANS, WELL AND GOOD. BUT ONCE THE MEDIA GOT AHOLD OF THE HIPPIE LOOK, THE WHOLE THING BECAME A FAD. AND THE PARTICIPANTS BY AND LARGE WERE ONLOOKERS. PUTTING OFF RETURNING TO SCHOOLL OR WORK, AS I SAID, AND WILL ALWAYS BELIEVE.


Charles Reich, in an even more speculative and less precise work, The Greening of America, suggesting that adoption of the new lifestyles and new ways of thinking would completely transform the world.

SO, THERE WERE TWO THINGS WE WANTED AND COULDNT GET. ONE HAD TO BE WON QUICKLY,
MAKING MONEY WITHOUT WORKING. THE OTHER, NOBODY COULD REALLY CARE ABOUT. BOURGEOUS OR NOT, DO YOU OWN THING. LONG HAIR, SHORT HAIR, SQUARE OR STONED, THAT DIDNT MATTER, BUT IN FACT, THE HIPPIE THING PERMEATED AND TRANSFORMED SOCIETY, IN SMALL WAYS, NOT TRANSFORMED, MODESTLY ADDED A BIT HERE AND THERE, BUT NOT FOR LONG. THE WORLD TODAY IS EXACTLY AS IT WAS IN THE NINETEEN FIFTIES. WE WORK AND PLAY. NOBODY HAS LONG HAIR EXCEPT WEIRDOS. NOTHING HAS CHANGED,. ALL THAT HAPPENED IS THERE WAS THIS HUGE FAD FOR A WHILE, AND SOME WONDERFUL NEW MUSIC. RYTHYM BASED GENIUS DRIVEN ART SONGS. BUT THAT DIDNT LAST. FROM 1990 TO 2009, TWENTY FULL YEARS, NO NEW MUSICAL GENIUSES HAVE ARRIVED. IN FACT, IT WAS THOSE SONGS THAT CHANGED THE PANORAMA OF THE WORLD FOR A FEW SHORT YEARS. THE STONES, YES, ELO, MOODY BLUES, COUNTRY JOE, THE BEATLES, EARTH WIND AND FIRE AND THE MOTOWN SOUND, THE SUPREMES, TEMPTATIONS .


THAT WAS AMAZING. IT WAS AN ARTISTIC SHORT LIVED GOLDEN AGE. AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, GENIUS ART WAS EATEN UP BY THE PUBLIC. OPERA AND CONCERT MUSIC WAS NO LONGER A LINE TO DRAW BETWEEN THE ECONOMIC CLASSES. SNOBBER ABOUT ART WAS ABOLOSHED.

THAT MIGHT BE THE TRANSFORMATIVE ELEMENT OF THE SIXTIES. AND FILM AS WELL. THE POPULARITY OF THE GODFATHER AND HUNDREDS OF HIGH QUALITY, LITERARY FILMS STRUCK A NEW NOTE IN CULTURE ITSELF, AND THAT HAS REMAINED. SNOBBERY IN THE ARTS WAS DEALT A DEATH BLOW IN THE SIXTIES, AND IT REMAINS DEAD. EASEL ART HAS BECOME UTTER BULLSHIT, OP ART, PERFORMANCE ART, WHAT YOU CAN EASILY SEE AS A RETREAT OF SNOBS INTO THEIR OWN LITTLE WORLD. THE SAME WITH SERIAL MUSIC, SO FORGOTTEN THAT I WOULD HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT.

SO, YES. THE SIXTIES CHANGED EVERYTHING IN THE ARTS. IT BECAME CLEAR THAT FINE TAST WAS DEEPLY , I DONT KNOW HOW TO PUT THIS, I MEAN, EVERYONE LIKED THIS ART FORM.. LIKE FOOD, EVERYONE APPRECIATES FILET MIGNON. FORGET WINE AND CAVIER, ITS BITTER OR ITS SALTY, BUT FOR THE MOST PART FOOD SNOBBERY COMES A CROPPER WHEN YOU TAKE A PEASANT TO CHASENS AND LET HIM ORDER. HE'LL LOVE IT. HE STILL WONT LILKE OPERA OR PLAYS OR BEETHOVEN QUARTETS.


DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING. OF COURSE IT DOES IF YOU LET IT BE, IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT.

SNOBBERY AND "APPRECIATION" WERE CLOBBERED BY THE NEW ARTISTS AND WRITERS AND COMPOSERS. I LIKE THAT. AND YES, WE GOT OUT OF VIETNAM, BUT TO TELL THE TRUTH, AS I STATED BEFORE, THAT WAS A SMALL MINORITY OF ACTIVISTS, AND THEY ARE ALWAYS THERE, WHO FOUND THE CROWDS ON THE STREET, FOR THE FIRST AD LAST TIME, PEOPLE WALKED IN LOS ANGELES, AS THEY DO IN ANY CIVILIZED TOWN.

THESE PUBLIC CROWDS NATURALLY WERE ATTRACTED TO CIVIL RIGHTS AND POLITICAL, ANTI WAR RALLIES. BUT ALL THE CROWDS WWERE WAS KIDS DRESSED TO PARTY, AN EVANASCENT STYLE OF INDIAN AND TIE DIED AND POVERTY, DON['T FORGET, ALLOWANCES WERE CUT, JOBS WERE QUIT, AND CLOTHING BUDGETS WENT ALL TO HELL.

AND DONT FORGET DRUGS.


THE SUDDEN ONSET AND ACCEPTABILITY OF DRUGS, AND THE PUBLIC CONCERTS OF THE NEW GENIUS COMPOSERS... WELL, THAT DIDNT LAST FOR LONG DID IT. PRETTY SOON, WE ALL WENT BACK TO WORK OR SCHOOL, TOOK THE DRUGS WITH US, BUT THOSE WHO WERE FELLED BY THEM, WELL, THAT STILL SHOWS UP AS URBAN BLIGHT... BUT THAT WAS NOT OUR INTENTION, TO CAUSE URBAN BLIGHT. THATS AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE. BLOWBACK.

DRUGS CHANGED THE LOOK OF THINGS, DRAMATICALLY, BUT NOT FOR LONG. POT BECAME THE NEW MARTINI. ITS THAT SIMPLE, AND THAT COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO ANY DESCRIPTION OF ANY SUPPOSED TECHTONIC SHIFTS IN CULTURE.

HIP HOP, JIMMY HENDRIX, THE VIOLENT COWBOY BLACK MAN. THAT CAME INTO THE CULTURE. MORE BLOWBACK. NO. SORRY. A BLIP ON THE SCREEN. NOTHING MAJOR. YOUTH CULTURE? THERE'S NO YOUTH CULTURE TODAY. EVERYBODY DRESSES THE SAME. DESIGNER TORN JEANS? A FASHION FAD. THAT'S WHAT IT WAS. A FASHION FAD. A WEIRD, EPHIMERAL FAD. AND THE SEX. WHO KNOWS. SDS KILLED THAT REVOLUTION.

NOPE. SORRY. NO BIG DEAL. AND I'M COMFORTIBLE SAYING THAT. DESPITE THE SHEER NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS, ALL FAR UNDER THE AGE OF THIRTY, IN RETROSPECT, NOTHING MUCH.