The Aftermath of Occupy Will Surpass the Gains of 1960s Activism

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10125-the-aftermath-of-occupy-will-surpass-the-sixties

A tsunami of citizen activism, initiated by Occupy Wall Street, is poised to wash over American society. The coming battle to correct the grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth and power in this country is likely to have an even more profound impact on our society than what occurred in the 1960s.

Fifty years ago, a few white students like me were outraged to find that the sugarcoated view of America we had been taught in the 50s did not match reality. The notions of justice and human rights we had internalized motivated our actions, and as idealists, we opposed the Jim Crow laws in the South and the needless killing in Southeast Asia.

Young activists taking to the streets today harbor no illusions about justice in America. They are cynical, worldly wise and unemployed; many are weighed down by debt. They know they have few prospects for meaningful or even gainful employment. They protest in their own economic self-interest. They are a wholly different phenomenon than the 1960s activists.

(more at the link)

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Edit: I've run into 1960's activists here and elsewhere who decry having failed to change the world. I say you DID change the world, forever, in a drastically meaningful manner. Can you possibly imagine a world without hippies, peace, love, Woodstock? Try to for a minute. It is horrifically bleak. And the powers that be would not call today's activists "hippies" in an attempt to demonize them, if "hippies" hadn't evidently had a drastic and genuinely feared effect! It's a back-handed compliment. THANK YOU!