The Sixties: Cultural Revolution - Essay Example

The Sixties Introduction The 1960s also the Sixties is the seventh decade in the 20th Century. It de s inter related political and cultural trends world wide. This decade is loosely described as the cultural decade than the actual decade itself especially from 1963 to around 1974. In America, the Sixties is a term that the journalists, historians, and other objective academics use in some cases to describe nostalgically the social revolution and the counter culture near the end of the decade and to describe the era pejoratively as one of the flamboyance and irresponsible excess. According to Joshua, this 60s decade was also termed the Swinging Sixties due to the relaxation or fall of some of the social taboos especially those that are related to the racism and sexism that took place during that time. However, the 1960s decade has resultantly become synonymous with the new subversive and radical trends and events of the period, which developed continually between the 1970s through to 1990s and beyond. On the other hand, the 1960s decade was a decade of political change in African nations. This is due to the attainment of independence by more than 32 countries from the European colonial rulers. Therefore this paper seeks to highlight how the constellation of the historical moments of the 60s ended. The paper also aims to discuss the social, cultural, economic, and political events of the decade ended or changed. According to Joshua, some of the commentators have experienced the 1960s era as a classical nightmare of Jungian cycle in which a stiff culture that is unable to host the demands of the greater freedom of individuals, which broke the social constraints free of the previous age via an extreme deviation from what is termed as normal. Booker Christopher in the scene of the 60s charts the success, rise and fall, and explosions of the decade, but this does not explain the massive nature of the phenomenon alone. In the early 1960s, most of the governments shifted to the left. In America, John F. Kennedy, a staunch anti communist and a Keynesian, made efforts to push for the social reforms like the civil rights for the healthcare for the poor and the elderly and African Americans. He was elected to the White House as the President. John F. Kennedy pledged to have a man landed on the moon before the end of the 1960 decade, an accomplishment that was achieved in the year 1969. In March 1962, Italy had its left of the center of the government formed with the coalition of the moderate Republicans and the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. The Socialists joined the block of ruling in December 1963. The Labor Party attained power in Britain in the year 1964, and in Brazil, Goulart Joao after Quadros Janio resigned, became the president. The 1960s decade were years of intricate challenges to the makers of the United States policy. Several years later, the Yale University and the Brookings Institution sponsored jointly a conference that reconsidered the 1960s economic policies of the nation and the theories that had influence on them, according to the consequent events in the developments in economy and theory of economics and research. This decade also had tremendous changes globally. According to Maslin, culturally, several things started percolating in the previous decades and eventually exploded in the period of Vietnam War. In the same decade, technical innovations altered the manner in which people lived as the music of the decade transformed the way in which people thought about things. All in a while, the wage of the Cold War continued as well in the same 1960s decade. According to Arthur, the Sixties were characterized by several political and social movements. In the second part of the decade, the group of the young started revolting against the conventional norms of the period and also removed themselves from the liberalism mainstream, specifically the high level of the materialism that was very common in that periodic era. These events resulted into a counter culture that ignited a social revolution all over the western world. This whole event started in America simply as a reaction that was against the social conformity and conservatism of the 1950s, and the extensive military intervention of the government of the United States in Vietnam. Those youths who were implicated in the popular aspects of the social movement were referred to as the hippies. This particular group in the 1960s decade made up a movement towards the liberation of the society that included the questioning of the government and authority, sexual revolution, and demand of more rights and freedoms for the minorities and women. In the same decade, the Underground Press which was a widely spread eclectic collection of the newspapers was serving as the unifying mode of the counter culture. The hippies were also marked by the very first socially accepted widespread use of psychedelic music and drugs such as marijuana and LSD. In accordance to Maslin’s writings, the 1960s decade was also characterized by war movements. The Vietnam War eventually would have resulted to the commitment of more than a half a million troops of Americans that could result into the deaths of over 58500 Americans that may have produced an anti war movement in large scale in the American nations. By 1965, some few Americans made efforts to protest the involvement of America in the Vietnam War. The war however continued and the dead counts multiplied leading to the escalation of the civil unrest. The students and campuses of various Universities became so powerful and had disruptive force which sparked debates over the war nationally. Doubts about the war within the administration itself arose as the ideals of the movements spread beyond the university campuses. There was a mass movement that opposed the war of Vietnam that eventually ended the mass of the Moratorium protests in the year 1969 along side the movement that resisted conscription for the war. According to Arthur, there was also the growth of the popular culture in the 1960s decade. The counter culture movement had dominance in the second phase of the decade. The most eminent moments were the 1969 Woodstock Festival in the upstate New York and the San Francisco’s Summer of Love in 1967. Other cultures that developed were the use of psychedelic drugs like LSD medicinally, recreationally, and spiritually throughout late 1960s. This culture was made popular by Timothy Leary with his “Turn on, tune in, drop out” slogan. Psychedelic had great influence in music, films and artwork of the 1960s decade. A lot of musicians who were very prominent in the decade also died of drug overdoses. A growing interest was seen in the eastern philosophy and religions during the decade. Several efforts were also directed to making found communes that varied from free love support to the support of religious Puritanism. In summary, the 1960s decade was dominated by Vietnam War and showed people how they could impact politics through peaceful demonstrations. It was not possible in the West for politicians to stop demonstrations that opposed their policies. Several conflicts in the 1960s were due to the ongoing Cold War between the West and the East, Capitalism and Communism. John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President of America. In the same decade, Martin Luther King used non violent mechanism along side the power of speech to create an influence through his strong followers and was assassinated in 1968. The life of the minority Africa Americans were changed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act that ensured equal rights to everyone. In the same decade, 1960s, there was a space race that eventually led to the landing of a man on the moon. Works Cited Arthur, Marwick. The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. Joshua, Zeitz. 1964: The Year the Sixties Began: American Heritage. New York: Prentice Hall. 2006. Print. Maslin, Jane. Brokaw Explores Another Turning Point, the ’60s. London: Springer. 2007. Print. Read More