I was 13 when Kennedy was inaugurated, 15 during the Cuban Missile crisis. I don't think a single factor caused the breakdown of social cohesion in the 1960s. I think that a lot of things combined. I would rank The Kennedy assassination fairly high on the list because it was one of the first traumatic events of that era that played out on television which had only just become universally available. The truth is that there was a steady drumbeat of traumatic events in the 60s. Urban riots, the Vietnam War, assassinations. The peak year was 1968 which began with the Tet offensive and continued through Lyndon Johnson's withdrawal from the presidential race, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Sr., urban riots, the Democratic Convention riots, and the election of Richard Nixon.
The sixties counterculture wasn’t restricted to the US, or even to English-speaking countries. In France they were called the “soixante-huitards” after civil unrest in 1968.
You are totally correct. There were youth movements all over the world in 1968. OTOH many of them were dedicated to protesting the Vietnam War. That shows both the amount of head space America occupies in the minds of foreigners and the effectiveness of Soviet PSYOPs. Sort of like 2020 when Black Lives Matter movements erupted in European countries without black people.
I remember a very left wing professor claiming that the Cultural Revolution in China was the best youth movement and showed the tremendous support of youth for Mao.
Amazing that it takes so long for the left wing insanity to be recognized for what it is and to be rejected by the normals. Today, leftist norms such as open borders, boys playing girls sports, transgender surgery for minors, drag queen shows for children, etc are recognized for what they are - REPULSIVE 🤮. Normals reject this insanity and gravitate away from the Democratic Party.
This will continue until the self proclaimed elites are removed from positions of influence, which is difficult to accomplish since people rarely give up power/influence easily. Get you popcorn 🍿 and watch the disintegration of the Democratic Party! 👍👍
“Above all, perhaps, it may involve forcing a confrontation with the cultivation of controversy; an assertion by the silent majority that some things are not, in fact, controversial, and there will be no argument over self-evident truths: Terrorism is bad, antisemitism is bad, racism of any kind is bad, crime is bad, rioting is bad, and so on.
Last November, the American people appeared to take the first step in that direction. Whether this is the shock treatment required to bring the progressive left to its senses and end six decades of latent and active psychopathy remains, for the moment, an open question.”… I am hopeful that common sense and overall human intelligence will prevail here, although the last four years have proven it is not a sure thing.. almost an entire generation has been brainwashed and still spouting wokeist nonsense. It must continue to be fought, tooth and nail… more shock treatments, please..
Yeah, but he beat the hell out of Gore Vidal. I always found it odd that one of Mailer’s best friends was none other than William Buckley. I suppose people were better able to put politics aside in those days.
Yes, they were better at it. But from what I understand, it was also because of Buckley's own personality. Apparently, he made it a point not to hate people who were on the opposite side of the aisle, with the exception, ironically, of Gore Vidal.
He was easy to hate, but he had quite a line in aperçus. For example, he said, “The three saddest words in the English language are ‘Joyce Carol Oates’.”
I was 13 when Kennedy was inaugurated, 15 during the Cuban Missile crisis. I don't think a single factor caused the breakdown of social cohesion in the 1960s. I think that a lot of things combined. I would rank The Kennedy assassination fairly high on the list because it was one of the first traumatic events of that era that played out on television which had only just become universally available. The truth is that there was a steady drumbeat of traumatic events in the 60s. Urban riots, the Vietnam War, assassinations. The peak year was 1968 which began with the Tet offensive and continued through Lyndon Johnson's withdrawal from the presidential race, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Sr., urban riots, the Democratic Convention riots, and the election of Richard Nixon.
If you want a sonic introduction to the era, I recommend Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention 1967 album "Freak Out". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ykt9Kce2MQ&list=PLMNMmvIC2uGbZR5Wzzls66Ctww1pllewU
For all the chaos of 2024, I saw it as the lite beer version of 1968. Or as Marx said: History repeats itself, first as a tragedy then as a farce.
The sixties counterculture wasn’t restricted to the US, or even to English-speaking countries. In France they were called the “soixante-huitards” after civil unrest in 1968.
You are totally correct. There were youth movements all over the world in 1968. OTOH many of them were dedicated to protesting the Vietnam War. That shows both the amount of head space America occupies in the minds of foreigners and the effectiveness of Soviet PSYOPs. Sort of like 2020 when Black Lives Matter movements erupted in European countries without black people.
I remember a very left wing professor claiming that the Cultural Revolution in China was the best youth movement and showed the tremendous support of youth for Mao.
Amazing that it takes so long for the left wing insanity to be recognized for what it is and to be rejected by the normals. Today, leftist norms such as open borders, boys playing girls sports, transgender surgery for minors, drag queen shows for children, etc are recognized for what they are - REPULSIVE 🤮. Normals reject this insanity and gravitate away from the Democratic Party.
This will continue until the self proclaimed elites are removed from positions of influence, which is difficult to accomplish since people rarely give up power/influence easily. Get you popcorn 🍿 and watch the disintegration of the Democratic Party! 👍👍
“Above all, perhaps, it may involve forcing a confrontation with the cultivation of controversy; an assertion by the silent majority that some things are not, in fact, controversial, and there will be no argument over self-evident truths: Terrorism is bad, antisemitism is bad, racism of any kind is bad, crime is bad, rioting is bad, and so on.
Last November, the American people appeared to take the first step in that direction. Whether this is the shock treatment required to bring the progressive left to its senses and end six decades of latent and active psychopathy remains, for the moment, an open question.”… I am hopeful that common sense and overall human intelligence will prevail here, although the last four years have proven it is not a sure thing.. almost an entire generation has been brainwashed and still spouting wokeist nonsense. It must continue to be fought, tooth and nail… more shock treatments, please..
How often was Mailer beaten to a pulp and would he consider that a blow against the man?
I believe the actor Rip Torn once beat him pretty badly, though I'm not sure "to a pulp" would be an accurate description.
Yeah, but he beat the hell out of Gore Vidal. I always found it odd that one of Mailer’s best friends was none other than William Buckley. I suppose people were better able to put politics aside in those days.
Yes, they were better at it. But from what I understand, it was also because of Buckley's own personality. Apparently, he made it a point not to hate people who were on the opposite side of the aisle, with the exception, ironically, of Gore Vidal.
Did you ever see any of Vidal’s interviews? He was pretty easy hate. Think of the Gorgeous George of the literary world.
When you say, "Vidal, that asshole" you just said the same thing twice.
He was easy to hate, but he had quite a line in aperçus. For example, he said, “The three saddest words in the English language are ‘Joyce Carol Oates’.”
As I recall (correct me if you have the details), he just punched him once.
Vidal got up and said, "once again, words fail Norman Mailer."
I think I might be able to take one or the other but not both.