And here we are again – confusing wars that have become disconnected from the reason they’re being fought; nightly harangues about racism and socialism on the evening news; conservative this and liberal that. One thing about those sixties that was different for me – I didn’t know the history that went with it. I mean I didn’t know it from the inside. I knew there had been a Great Depression and that there had been a labor movement and lots of singers and songs that came out of that time. I guess I didn’t know so much about the opposition to FDR and the New Deal. By the time I came along, it was World War II and FDR was venerated as the person who got us through the Depression and that horrible war, rather than the New Dealer that many called a communist or a socialist who waged war with those moneyed Americans that plunged us into financial ruin.
I’ve always said that the sixties was the only period when I ever really understood the world. Segregation was wrong; the War in Viet Nam was wrong; JFK and MLK and Pete Seeger [and me] were right. The world made sense. Fix the wrong things and everything would be just fine. By then, communism was a noble idea on paper, but it just didn’t work. It just deteriorated into Dictatorships. And anyway, American Democracy usually gets things right sooner or later. The pendulum just swings back and forth – and the middle prevails. "We shall overcome…"
Only now the history is my history, some things I was even a part of. It’s not some vague black and white photo of the dust bowl or FDR, or a scratchy record with Woody Guthrie’s nasal voice. And when I read these signs from last weekend’s march, I wonder what in the hell those people are thinking. Do they have any idea of what those historical references really mean? The symbols seems too dark for the topic [our symbols were pretty extreme too]:
I suppose we all overstate our causes. We feel and live as if the the issue of the moment is for all time, and if it doesn’t go our way, the cataclysm of centuries will befall us, never to be undone. That’s not right, of course. But that is the way things feel. And I suppose that’s what those hateful teabaggers’ signs are about. I doubt that Jane Fonda in Hanoi, "Flower Power", or the self-sacrifice of the Monk won many hearts and minds either.
I was especially glad to read your blog today.
More so when I was younger than nowadays. I’d find myself trying to convey strongly-held feelings as though even hyperbole itself wasn’t able to accurately depict their importance. I eventually learned the difference between vaguely knowing something and actually feeling it passionately (much, I’m certain, to the relief of those who were within earshot of me). I learned it the way I seemed to have learned practically everything worth learning in my life – by running headfirst into it over and over until I wore myself out. Nobody ever said I was smart.
So there’s no substitute for perspective. “American Democracy usually gets things right sooner or later. The pendulum just swings back and forth – and the middle prevails.†You are exactly right, and I know it, and I’m glad you reminded me of it. Of course, it just doesn’t feel as good as I’d like. On the other hand, there’s no way I could be consumed by worry and outrage 24/7. The old ticker wouldn’t take it, I get all kinds of good things from your blog!
Mickey, I’m grateful for your blog too.