I have spent a good part of the day today watching an extremely sad movie.
It wasn't intended that way when it was first released 39 years ago, but the four-hour director's cut of "Woodstock" almost made me feel like crying.
Not just for a time gone by, not just for the fact that so many of the wonderful artists who performed there are no longer with us, but for the loss of all that optimism.
If most of the kids who went to Woodstock were between about 18 and 30, that means nearly all of them are in their 60s now.
I wasn't there, but I was 19 that summer and I know how they felt. I felt the same way. We were living in an era of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and we honestly thought we would change everything.
No more sexism, no more racism, no more greedy corporations dominating our economy.
Oh, a few things changed. Last year we essentially decided between a woman and an African-American man to be our president. If sexism and racism haven't quite gone away yet, they are clearly on the wane.
But who would have figured we would have two presidents -- 16 years -- who were even worse than Nixon? And who would have figured the government would be controlled by people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for eight years?
None of us would have believed that the '60s would be the high-water mark of egalitarianism, and that the middle class would be as threatened as it is 40 years later. How could we have comprehended the "Greed is good" culture of the '80s and the second Gilded Age that follows?
Listen to the interviews in the movie.
Listen to the music.
So much optimism.
So much hope.
Part of the problem is that the counterculture, as it was called then, was never really a unified movement. Blacks cared more about racism, women about sexism and white men about the war in Vietnam.
We couldn't keep it together, so it all fell apart.
But watch the movie if you get a chance. For one brief shining moment -- three days at least -- it was all there to be won. It was a glorious time, and maybe someday it will come again.
I still believe.
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8 comments:
Mike, you're letting your bile show again.
I can only assume that the two presidents (two double terms of eights equals 16 years) are to you George Bush and Ronald Reagan.
While I understand your disappointment with Dubya (as you like to call him), Reagan was a much better President than even I have cared to admit.
Unless you meant Slick Willy, the president i will forever regret voting for twice.
Ernie
Just saw the same thing two nights ago at a friend's.
I'm a year younger than you and I had the opposite reaction.
I was embarrassed by it all.
We were such gullible, arrogant fools.
Optimism is one thing; arrogance is another.
We were arrogant.
Sorry, but you're viewing the movie and the times through the rose-tinted lens of a man who seems to regret something.
Oh, I wouldn't vote for Carter again, but I regret very little.
You puts down your nickel and you ake your turn.
No guarantees of what will happen.
Live every day as if it's your last.
Jeff, in Pomona
I didn't see much arrogance, but to each his own.
Sorry, Ernie. Reagan wasn't as bad as I feared he would be, but I could live a thousand years and never regret not voting for him.
As for Dubya ...
"None of us would have believed that the '60s would be the high-water mark of egalitarianism..."
Are you kidding?
I think you're remembering things with the type of fogginess that so many aging people do.
I know, Mike.
I find myself doing it, too.
But Jeff is closer to the truth -- and on this one point, I have to agree with Ernie, Reagan was no where near as toxic a pResident as Carter, Clinton, or as you've noted Nixon.
Johnson was no walk-in-the-park, and Ford was the proverbial village idiot who lucked into the position.
Mike,our generation may have been smarter than the current one (no doubt on that score), but we were also arrogant.
Look in the mirror and admit, your failure to see that may be a mild case of arrogance on your part.
I came to reconcile with that a few years ago.
I was not at Woodstock, but I did attend Watkins Glen and a few other notable BIG concerts.
We were self-centered (as almost all young people are) and convinced we were the greatest thing that ever happened to the world.
We weren't.
Evelyn
I may have written that sentence poorly. What I meant by egalitarianism was that statistically, the middle class was its strongest at that point and the gap between CEOs and workers fairly low.
Okay.
I accept your explanation.
You did write that sentence poorly.
:)
Do better in the future, hon.
;)
Evelyn
What is this unending bias against young people?
We're as smart as any other generation. I agree with what Alex has written on this subject.
Evelyn -- stop bashing young people.
Aaron
She wasn't really bashing young people; her comment was about the baby boomers.
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