The Lies Told to Us

Like many people I have not lived in the 60s, but am fascinated by the changes that took place during the late 1960s. It was a time that the baby boomer generation grew up and fractured. Looking back this time can be called a “loss of innocence” or a “great awakening”. The greatest changes happened to society, and politics. Inherently what I think caused most of this change is censorship and a great feeling of betrayal.

It may be difficult to remember (not that I do) that there was a prevalent fear of communism; take for example Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and even the changing of the Cincinnati Reds to the Redlegs. McCarthy ran his campaign of fear for years before it collapsed, think about that for years there were people who were scared of being accused of being a communist and have their lives taken away from them. Music, Movies, and other entertainment was mostly free of references to a more complex world view. Capitalism was good, Communism was bad, they were polar opposites including the view that one was correct and the other evil. Then there was a generation that grew up and had access to education that was never available before, civil rights questions arose (self reflection about how we treated our own citizens), and most importantly a useless unjust war that our government hoaxed the country into.

Life was no longer black and white, it was complicated. A sense of social and economic justice (which are communist ideas) spread and entrenched themselves in American society. Most importantly there was media shows about these topics (MASH is an excellent example). This is not saying the earlier generations did not understand that the world was a complicated place, though there was some of that too, but I think that there was a hope that the world is a complicated place.

There is an easy comparison today, a group that views the world as black and white is put in charge when there is a new enemy against America. The use of fear was used to justify an assault on civil liberties and racism (sorry the PC term is racial profiling) and to bring us into an unjust war. There is some media crying against what our government is doing; but ultimately the so called “culture wars” is a battle between world views; one simple and black and white and another that has almost nothing but shades of gray.

As someone who understands how complex the world is I sometimes think that I am like many people in my father’s generation who feel betrayed that a simple world view is responsible for actions taken in my name to justify things that I oppose. When the president takes actions in the name of “The American People,” he includes without my consent. That really pisses me off. People who see the world in shades of gray don’t always agree (in fact they almost never agree) but what those shades of gray do is leave room for debate and compromise.

I dislike it when people say that history repeats itself. History is not repeating itself now, but it is telling us that by looking into it once and a while there can be something learned.