I realize that this is early, but I thought about something as I watch "Freedom Riders", which looks at the Freedom Rides in the summer of 1961, and I am wondering what is with the early part of the 1960s that has North America so fascinated, at least lately.
If it isn't the show Mad Men, its books, movies, and documentaries that deal with the period. While it isn't as prolific as maybe stuff on World War II, it is starting to get that way. Was it because of something like Hurricane Katerina making us realize that we still are so racially divided or was it the electing of Barak Obama, who was born in the early part of the 1960s, or is it people starting to realize that the race issue in the States needs to be dealt with on a more deeper level, as some sort of acknowledgement of what still is an issue, even though it is just lying underneath the surface or is it the fact that in the next decade there will be several commemorations of what happened in what happened during the Civil Rights movement?
Who knows the reason, but it is somewhat curious that a book/movie about black maids in white households in Jackson during the first half of the 1960s has become somewhat successful and probably may win a few Academy Awards within the next two weeks.
Its not that we're waxing nostalgia on that time period and thinking was everything was a-okay. Its almost as if its okay to take the blindfolds and talk about the reality of the time period and what happened to people who were American citizens (at least I think there were). What is it about that period that we, as a society are wanting to talk about this time period?
Its not like we wax poetically about the 1970s? Was it that society changed that much in the 1960s that we continue to talk about this time period or are we just starting to realize how impactful the events of the 1960s have had our culture as a whole, just like it took several decades to really realize how impactful World War II and other dramatic changes in history was on our culture?
I am not saying that the 1960s were innocent, they weren't, but they certainly had a huge impact on not only the United States, but also the industrialized world.
Your thoughts on this are most definitely welcome.
2 comments:
Personally, I was in college in the 1960s, so the ideas and events had a huge impact on my life.
In fact, these issues continued to affect me so much that when I penned my first novels, I revisited the era by fictionalizing the story of two college women who participated in the causes of the day...and showed how the consequences rippled in their lives for the next three decades.
I feel nostalgic when these events are spotlighted again.
Sometimes when enough time has gone by, those who gave only a passing thought to these events are now taking a look.
On my website at MY WEBSITE , you can read about my creations.
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@Laural Very true.
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