Reply #20: cultural identity and political commitment [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

most of what i'm going to write pertains to my views on "the 60's" ...

i see the "cultural personality" of generations as a great opportunity for each generation to define itself ... through its music, its language and perhaps even its values, the generation is able to distinguish itself from the parents' generation ... someone in this thread recalled the term: generation gap ...

and in defining itself, a generation can also find a set of political beliefs ... it seems this is often taught or at least communicated through song lyrics ...

the mistake that was made in the 60's was that we confused the numbers of those who listened to the same music, those who had long hair, those who were pot smokers with the numbers of those with a genuine commitment to change the society ... my point is not to argue that important changes did not occur but rather that "the movement" had more breadth than depth ... and our "counter-culture" was quickly co-opted by the mainstream ... it was not long before many people with long hair who smoked pot and listened to the same music had very conservative political views ... the culture no longer seemed to be aligned with what was once thought to be the political ideology of the generation ...

and even within the "60's generation", the level of political activity after the draft ended or after people left college to join the workforce rapidly diminished ... i think this new generation needs to do better than we did ... i think cultural identity can be an effective unifying force but should be seen only as a means to an end ... listening to hip hop music does not change the world ... getting a group of people who like hip hop music to form grassroots organizations, or join existing organizations, is what needs to happen ...

defining a generation's values through cultural expression is critically important ... but working for change is the only way those values will ever be realized ...