Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
Critics of the 60's? Amazing. Maybe we'll see more critics of the revolution that happened in the Church around the same time, too.
Reminds me of the re-invention of the 50's as a mass of poodle skirts and greasers (which comprised a tiny segment of the population of that era and were called "hoods." The more prevalent--and more affable--character of the Beatnik has been severely gouged out of modern collective memory).
This re-invention was perpetuated by popular entertainment venues of the 70's like "Happy Days" and "American Graffiti" but the origins of this well worn image of the 50's come surprisingly late, with the unlikely group Sha-na-na...at Woodstock.
Once I saw the title of this clip "Why I hate the sixties," I could just imagine you putting something similar to that into the search box on Youtube, or into Google.
Good on you that you did; this is an excellent clip.
I've only watched the first three minutes but I am unimpressed with this sort of low-energy Two Minutes Hate. (extra minute necessary because it's so lugubrious). It reminds me of the anti-capitalist ballet Doris Lessing saw in Moscow and described in her memoir, full of scenes of Western decadence complete with gyrating underclad nightclub girls whom the audience could have the simultaneous satisfaction of lusting after and denouncing. If you turn off the sound, what you see is attractive young women. Maybe it gets better after the three minute but I'm not going to find out. I only saw ONE DIRTY HIPPIE! - Karen
Now you have time (and DG) try David Kynaston's two studies: Austerity Britain and Family Britain which look at contemporary newspaper reports, unpublished diaries, Mass Obserbvation - all that sort of thing - to chart how Britain changed. He's managed 1945 to 1957 so far.
I've tried to read some of the Mass Observation diaries. They are really, really boring. Surprise, poverty and isolation don't prevent people from being selfcentered and dull, they just do it with less stuff and worse teeth.
I really think this is something that North Americans fail to take into account when criticizing "the sixties:" "the sixties" in Britain was not the same phenomenon as "the sixties" on our side of the pond. North American dirty hippies and other counterculturalites were healthy, wellfed, leisured, spoiled brats. "The sixties" in North America was the result of unprecedented prosperity. The Brits? Someone once described Barbara Hulanicki's designs for Biba as being so successful because they looked so good on the results of postwar protein deficiency. When you look at footage of Carnaby Street or concerts or other agglomerations of the UK counterculture, the thing that explains it all is *rationing.*
And before someone says "well then how come the results were the same," the answer is that they weren't. It's a media lie that people acquiesce in and the sooner we stop thinking of British "Swinging Sixties," the French riots of 68, and what happened in North America as the same thing the better.
My mother used to tell me about rationing in Manchester. She said that all the children under 12 in the neighbourhood would be lined up twice a week for a single glass of orange juice.
She was horrified when she was taken to the US when she saw a kid in the playground scarfing down an entire chocolate bar by himself. In England, on the exceedingly rare occasions when you saw chocolate, you cut it up into as many tiny pieces as you could and shared it around... or you would get thumped by every kid in town.
She always believed that North Americans were horribly spoiled and absurdly sheltered.
Karen, Kynaston's genius is to leave out all the boring bits, or at least put them into a context in which the boring-ness becomes fascinating.
HJMW: We were being given cod liver oil and malt in Manchester in the 1960s because some doctor in the 1940s had said that it would make up for all the stuff that couldn't get through on the convoys any more. I had my first glass of orange juice (as opposed to squash or Britvic) when I was 19 - oranges were to eat, not to drink.
15 comments:
The RP pronunciation makes it sound like he's saying "decayed" instead of "decade" to me. Freudian earworm?
HS,
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"If you see hedonism as the peak of progress then of course it was fine. But if you see hedonism as the mark of decay, then it was less fine."
How glib.
"When would the pay? Later."
Unfortunately for those of us born in the eighties (or even the seventies), "later" is now.
Critics of the 60's? Amazing. Maybe we'll see more critics of the revolution that happened in the Church around the same time, too.
Reminds me of the re-invention of the 50's as a mass of poodle skirts and greasers (which comprised a tiny segment of the population of that era and were called "hoods." The more prevalent--and more affable--character of the Beatnik has been severely gouged out of modern collective memory).
This re-invention was perpetuated by popular entertainment venues of the 70's like "Happy Days" and "American Graffiti" but the origins of this well worn image of the 50's come surprisingly late, with the unlikely group Sha-na-na...at Woodstock.
Once I saw the title of this clip "Why I hate the sixties," I could just imagine you putting something similar to that into the search box on Youtube, or into Google.
Good on you that you did; this is an excellent clip.
I've only watched the first three minutes but I am unimpressed with this sort of low-energy Two Minutes Hate. (extra minute necessary because it's so lugubrious). It reminds me of the anti-capitalist ballet Doris Lessing saw in Moscow and described in her memoir, full of scenes of Western decadence complete with gyrating underclad nightclub girls whom the audience could have the simultaneous satisfaction of lusting after and denouncing. If you turn off the sound, what you see is attractive young women. Maybe it gets better after the three minute but I'm not going to find out. I only saw ONE DIRTY HIPPIE! - Karen
Now you have time (and DG) try David Kynaston's two studies: Austerity Britain and Family Britain which look at contemporary newspaper reports, unpublished diaries, Mass Obserbvation - all that sort of thing - to chart how Britain changed. He's managed 1945 to 1957 so far.
I've tried to read some of the Mass Observation diaries. They are really, really boring. Surprise, poverty and isolation don't prevent people from being selfcentered and dull, they just do it with less stuff and worse teeth.
I really think this is something that North Americans fail to take into account when criticizing "the sixties:" "the sixties" in Britain was not the same phenomenon as "the sixties" on our side of the pond. North American dirty hippies and other counterculturalites were healthy, wellfed, leisured, spoiled brats. "The sixties" in North America was the result of unprecedented prosperity. The Brits? Someone once described Barbara Hulanicki's designs for Biba as being so successful because they looked so good on the results of postwar protein deficiency. When you look at footage of Carnaby Street or concerts or other agglomerations of the UK counterculture, the thing that explains it all is *rationing.*
And before someone says "well then how come the results were the same," the answer is that they weren't. It's a media lie that people acquiesce in and the sooner we stop thinking of British "Swinging Sixties," the French riots of 68, and what happened in North America as the same thing the better.
Oops sorry that was me! - Karen
My mother used to tell me about rationing in Manchester. She said that all the children under 12 in the neighbourhood would be lined up twice a week for a single glass of orange juice.
She was horrified when she was taken to the US when she saw a kid in the playground scarfing down an entire chocolate bar by himself. In England, on the exceedingly rare occasions when you saw chocolate, you cut it up into as many tiny pieces as you could and shared it around... or you would get thumped by every kid in town.
She always believed that North Americans were horribly spoiled and absurdly sheltered.
Going to go bake my children a fat cake now full of butter and sugar while I still can. - Karen
Karen, Kynaston's genius is to leave out all the boring bits, or at least put them into a context in which the boring-ness becomes fascinating.
HJMW: We were being given cod liver oil and malt in Manchester in the 1960s because some doctor in the 1940s had said that it would make up for all the stuff that couldn't get through on the convoys any more. I had my first glass of orange juice (as opposed to squash or Britvic) when I was 19 - oranges were to eat, not to drink.
SILLY ME, SHOWING TITS IS GENIUS. THANK YOU FOR MANSPLAINING! - Karen
I've always thought if Vatican II had been held in the 1950's, or even the 1970's, its implementation would have been far less awful
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