With MAy Day coming up, I though about this, and could not find the answer.
What is causing the serious lack of any revolutionary activity among people our age (uni-ish) today. In thae times of our parents you had the black power movement, womens lib, Weatherman, the SDS; and that is just scratching the surface. Music like Bob Dylan and the beatles protesting against injustice. sit-ins and protests and riots and Operation Mindfuck and the feeling that people believed in something and were willing, not merely to die for it but to live for it (which is much harder)
Today, we have those clueless fuckwits who come out of hiding once a year and accomplish nothing, and apart from Rage against the Machine and System of a Down there is nothing imploring the youth of today to get up and DO something (myself included)
So why (in your opinion) is activism today so… stagnant?
simply because… although the system needs improving and there will always be things that can be made better… the majority of people in our country are happy, everyone is able to vote and voice their opinion in a legal mannor… who needs to protest… apart from those that want to smoke weed legally and they are so stoned when they protest that they cant get violent!
ig you went abroad to countries where there are no rights you will find the urge to live and die for freedom is still very much alive…
hence, i put it down to the system in this country being as good as it can to a certain degree… most people are happy. The theory is that revolutionary urges and movements are a result of hunger… if peoples stomachs are full they will not be revolutionary, all the great revolutions were during times of famine… so if Britains economy fails and we cant eat properly… see the activists rise!
I wouldn’t call 60’s america and europe “times of famine” and also most of the protestors during that time were “stoned when they protest”. Those protests were about great injustices being committed by the government both at home and abroad. the same thing is happening today, so where is today’s Democratic Convention, todays Woodstock, todays Students for a Democratic Society?
activism is alive. maybe there aren’t any woodstocks, etc, but what did they achieve, the system today. the protests of the 60’s were for the most part ineffective or just demanding too much. eg. CND - the CND movement would never have suceeded as anyone who could look at the issue objectivly could see that if the west put it’s nuclear weapons beyound use the USSR hand a free hand to take over the world.
activism today maybe more violent, but it willa ctually achieve something (hopefully), in the prevention of globalisation (which if it suceeds will see our of lives suffer). all you have to do is look for activism today and you will have no trouble finding it.
I wouldn’t ssy that Women’s lib, Black Power and Gay Pride accomplished nothing! And the social change of the 60’s led to a far more egalitarian society. The results of that decade may not be explicit, but they cannot be ignored. They changed the world in far to many subtle ways to fully list.
the leaders of the 60’s demonstrations sold out, no true equality was reached by the black/womens movement. look at the world today, descrimination is still rife and with the old boy network firmly in place not much is going to change.
actually more people are turning against there governments just in general. we all need a common enemy and governments religion and others organizations are being targeted. as far as music… bad religion , anti flag, propagandi, dead kennedys, the international noise consiparacy, i think the hives i havent read many of their lyrics the list goes on.