24.5: The Youth Movement and Cultural Revolution

Existentialism and postmodernism critiqued many aspects of Western culture, from the progressive narrative of history to traditional religious beliefs. Ironically, radical philosophy flourished in the midst of postwar consumer society: discontentment with popular values and a demand for greater social freedom grew along with, even in spite of, the expansion of economic opportunity for many people. Part of the explanation for the fertile reception of radical thought was a straightforward generational clash between the members of the generation that had survived World War II and that generation’s children: the baby boomers.

Youth Movements

Much more significant than postwar philosophy was the global youth movement of the 1960s and 1970s, as an unprecedented number of young people reached adolescence right at the height of postwar prosperity. Enormous numbers of young people from middle-class and working-class backgrounds became first-generation university/college students. Meanwhile, the contentious political climate of the Cold War and decolonization contributed to an explosion of discontent that reached its height at the same time.

There were essentially two distinct, but closely related, manifestations of the 1960s youth movements:

• a largely apolitical counterculture of so-called “hippies” (a term of disparagement invented by the mainstream press; the contemporary analog is “hipsters”)
• an active protest movement against various forms of perceived injustice.

Of course, many young people were active in both aspects, listening to folk music or rock n’ roll, experimenting with the various drugs that became increasingly available, and/or joining in the anti-war movement, the second-wave feminist movement, or other forms of protest.

Figure 24.4.1: The album cover from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967. The individuals pictured behind the band members include everyone from their fellow musical pioneer Bob Dylan to the “godfather of the beat generation,” William S. Burroughs, to the Beatles’ younger selves (on the left).

During the 1960s, Western society faced an unprecedented problem: there were more highly-educated young people than ever before. Up until the mid-20th century, the purpose of higher education was to reinforce class divisions: a small elite attended university and were credentialed representatives of their class interests. However, in the relative social mobility brought about by the postwar economic boom, far more young people from non-elite backgrounds completed secondary schools and enrolled in universities. In turn, these college students formed the core of the politicized youth movement of the time: taught to think critically, be globally aware, and well informed.

The Cold War threatened the human species with annihilation. The corresponding wars, as well as the decolonization process, provided an ongoing litany of human rights violations and bloodshed. The U.S.-led alliance in the Cold War claimed to represent the side of freedom and prosperity, but many young people felt that U.S. policy abroad was as unjust and violent as Soviet policy in Eastern Europe. On the domestic front, many young people chafed at what they regarded as outdated rules, laws, and traditions, especially those having to do with sexuality.

A key factor in the youth movement was the U.S. war in Vietnam. Despite Soviet control of the Eastern Bloc, the U.S. government was a much more visible oppressor than the Soviet Union. U.S. atrocities in Vietnam were perceived as visible proof of the inherently oppressive nature of capitalism and imperialism, especially because the Viet Minh was such a relatively weak force in comparison to the U.S. military juggernaut. Thus, Vietnam served as a symbolic rallying point for the youth movement the world over, not just in the United States itself.

A radical philosophical movement called the New Left became associated with the youth movement. These leftist thinkers came to reject both the obvious injustices of Soviet-style communism as well as their own capitalist societies. The key term became “liberation” – sexual, social, and cultural. Liberation was meant to break down social mores as much as effect political change. For example, the idea that it was perfectly acceptable to live with a romantic partner before marriage went from being a marginalized, “bohemian” concept to one that enjoyed widespread acceptance.

Elements of the youth movement and the New Left came to champion aspects of social justice that had often been neglected by earlier radical thinkers. In the United States, youth movements campaigned for the end of both racist laws. A new feminist movement emerged to champion women’s rights before the law, and the idea that the objectification and oppression of women were unjust, destructive, and unacceptable in supposedly democratic societies. In addition, for the first time, a movement emerged supporting homosexuality as a legitimate sexual identity, not a mental illness or a “perverse” threat to the social order.

The youth movement reached its zenith in May of 1968. From Europe to Mexico, enormous uprisings led mostly by college students temporarily paralyzed universities, infrastructure, and even whole countries. The most iconic uprising began in a grungy suburb of Paris called Nanterre. There, the newly-opened and poorly-designed university faced student protests over a policy forbidding male students to visit female dormitories. When a student leader was arrested, sympathetic students in Paris occupied the oldest university in France: the Sorbonne. Soon, the entire Latin Quarter of Paris was taken over by thousands of student radicals, wallpapering buildings with posters calling for revolution and engaging in street battles with riot police. Workers instituted a general strike in solidarity with the students, occupying factories and in some cases kidnapping supervisors and managers. At its height, French infrastructure was largely paralyzed.

Figure 24.4.2: Leftist workers outside of their occupied factory during the Events of May.

At first, the French public sympathized with the students, especially since it was well-known that French schools and universities were highly authoritarian and often unfair. But, as the strikes and occupations dragged on, public opinion drifted away from the uprisings. By late June, workers accepted significant concessions from business owners in return for calling off the strike. Finally, the students agreed to leave the occupied universities. In the aftermath, major changes did come to French universities and high schools, such as students having the right to meet with professors, questioning grading policies, and demanding quality education. Likewise, the more stultifying rules and policies associated with gender and sexuality within schools and universities were slowly relaxed over time.

The “Events of May” (as called in France) were the emblematic high point of the European youth movement. The “thirty glorious years” of the postwar economic boom ended in the early 1970s, and the optimism of the youth movement tended to ebb along with it. Likewise, the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 robbed the movement of its most significant cause: opposition to the war.