Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

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Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Atheist-Lite » Fri Jul 20, 2012 4:52 pm

Anti war rhetoric from then and from now. Culture, docs, music and all else besides. A rationalia protest thread. :zig:

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Blind groper » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:20 pm

A big difference between now and then is that the Cold War is over. This means most people do not fear nuclear war in the way they did in 1965.
For every human action, there is a rationalisation and a reason. Only sometimes do they coincide.

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by maiforpeace » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:33 pm

Atheists have always argued that this world is all that we have, and that our duty is to one another to make the very most and best of it. ~Christopher Hitchens~
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:59 pm

In 1968, when I was 17, I heard about the Chicago convention and decided to check it out. I had a car and a license and my own money, so I went the 120 miles or so from Indiana. There was a friend of mine who lived there then and she put me up the night I go there, then we went to the protests the next day. It was my first smell of tear gas. My second was in boot camp.
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by JimC » Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:48 am

I was part of the anti-Vietnam-war protest movement in Melbourne in the early seventies. Made a banner saying "Shaft the Draft" with a friend, and carried it proudly.

Got punched on the jaw by a right-wing spectator in one demo...

Got arrested for handing out "Don't register for National Service" pamphlets...

Worked with fellow members of SDS to fill out thousands of false registration forms, and post them to the Man...
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Twoflower » Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:35 am

I repeatedly put a peace sign on my locker (the Dean of Students kept ripping it off) while in high school and almost got expelled for it.
I'm wild just like a rock, a stone, a tree
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Warren Dew » Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:29 am

Blind groper wrote:A big difference between now and then is that the Cold War is over. This means most people do not fear nuclear war in the way they did in 1965.
That's part of it. The other part is that ten times fewer Americans are dying in the mideast than did in Vietnam.

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by maiforpeace » Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:41 am

Warren Dew wrote:
Blind groper wrote:A big difference between now and then is that the Cold War is over. This means most people do not fear nuclear war in the way they did in 1965.
That's part of it. The other part is that ten times fewer Americans are dying in the mideast than did in Vietnam.
Yes, but there are significantly more permanently disabled vets than there were from the Vietnam war too - that crisis is only beginning to be felt.

Hearts and Minds: Vietnam and the War in Iraq
We have all heard the stories of homeless, disabled Vietnam War veterans freezing to death in Washington DC because they “slipped through the system”; of veterans too traumatized by their wartime experiences to hold down a regular job and maintain a stable home. That’s all changed, right? The government now takes care of those who have sacrificed for their country, right? Wrong. Not only are the numbers of casualties being kept from public view, many combat veterans wounded in Iraq are physically marginalized and kept from the quality care they are entitled to. According to one officer, they are “being treated like dogs”. Many wounded veterans have had to wait in “medical hold” for “weeks and months at places such as Fort Stewart military base in Georgia, for proper medical help,” often under conditions “unacceptable for sick and injured soldiers.” More than 1,000 National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers, including hundreds who had served in Iraq were forced to wait in hot concrete barracks with no air conditioning or running water. According to one Sergeant, it “took months to get appointments . . . We were made to feel like we had failed the Army.”
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Warren Dew » Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:55 am

maiforpeace wrote:
Warren Dew wrote:
Blind groper wrote:A big difference between now and then is that the Cold War is over. This means most people do not fear nuclear war in the way they did in 1965.
That's part of it. The other part is that ten times fewer Americans are dying in the mideast than did in Vietnam.
Yes, but there are significantly more permanently disabled vets than there were from the Vietnam war too - that crisis is only beginning to be felt.
Are there disabled and homeless vets from Iraq and Afghanistan? Absolutely. Are there more than there were from Vietnam? No, not even close.

Don't get me wrong - I'm probably far more strongly against today's wars than you are. I just don't kid myself that as many people are personally affected by today's wars in the short term.

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Blind groper » Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:11 am

The decade of 2000 to 2009 involved the smallest number of war dead since records began, and the current decade looks like it should break that record. We should celebrate the few casualties and try to get the number down even more.
For every human action, there is a rationalisation and a reason. Only sometimes do they coincide.

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by maiforpeace » Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:16 am

Warren Dew wrote:
maiforpeace wrote:
Warren Dew wrote:
Blind groper wrote:A big difference between now and then is that the Cold War is over. This means most people do not fear nuclear war in the way they did in 1965.
That's part of it. The other part is that ten times fewer Americans are dying in the mideast than did in Vietnam.
Yes, but there are significantly more permanently disabled vets than there were from the Vietnam war too - that crisis is only beginning to be felt.
Are there disabled and homeless vets from Iraq and Afghanistan? Absolutely. Are there more than there were from Vietnam? No, not even close.
Perhaps, but the Iraq war did produce significantly more disabled vets for the number of total troops deployed vs the Vietnam war.

Surge in disabled vets to cost U.S. billions
The American Legion's Smithson says the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are resulting in more severe injuries — amputations and traumatic burns — the kind of injuries that troops in Vietnam and earlier wars would not have survived.
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Atheist-Lite » Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:27 am

Blind groper wrote:The decade of 2000 to 2009 involved the smallest number of war dead since records began, and the current decade looks like it should break that record. We should celebrate the few casualties and try to get the number down even more.
Bringing the troops back home might help. They are less likely to kill Americans. :tup:
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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Blind groper » Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:02 am

The USA needs a new policy. Any president who commits the country to war should be required to lead the first charge into battle. Natural selection then comes into play, and eventually you guys might get some decent leaders.
For every human action, there is a rationalisation and a reason. Only sometimes do they coincide.

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Rum » Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:24 am

Blind groper wrote:The decade of 2000 to 2009 involved the smallest number of war dead since records began, and the current decade looks like it should break that record. We should celebrate the few casualties and try to get the number down even more.
A fact people seem unable to absorb. Violence worldwide, counter intuitively perhaps and probably due to 24 all pervading media coverage has much reduced over recent decades.

I used to go on demos in my early 20s. I remember going on an anti-nuke power rally in London. The 'establishment' is and was so confident, that a delegation (of which I was one) were invited into the 'lobby' where Tony Benn (energy minister at the time) was available to answer questions. Then, very civilized, we trotted out again.

..all the while, the police taking pictures mind you!

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Re: Sixties Protest Contrasted With Today

Post by Atheist-Lite » Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:41 am

I knew a viet AWOL who was in hiding running a smallshop locally. :zig:

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