VLVL"the Movement"

[MalignD at aol.com]

> <<Not at all. There was a unity of purpose and organisational solidarity in 
> the earlier '60s which was starting to fall apart pretty dramatically by 
> '68-9, and which collapsed entirely in 1970-1. It's a simple point, one easily 
> substantiated through a multitude of first hand reports.>>
> 
You had said:    "By 1968-9, the time depicted in the novel, the 
counterculture had forgotten all about civil rights and the Vietnam War ..."   

Now it's 1970-71, although the student strikes, leading to the killings at 
Kent State were in May of 1970.   But why quibble.   Next post you can make it 
1974, when Nixon resigned.

In any case, "unity of purpose" could mean anything; and there was certainly 
never anything like organizational soldarity.   There was no "organization."   
There were numerous groups and agendas and goals among many across a vey 
broad country.   There   might seem to have been unity to someone looking back 
from the remove of forty years or, in your case, six thousand miles, but it was 
never so, your "first hand accounts" notwithstanding.

<<You seem to be arguing against any suggestion that there ever was a student 
movement or counterculture in the U.S. during the '60s.>>

I seem to be arguing no such thing, unless you insist that "a" student 
movement or "a" "counterculture" was the united bastion you fantasize.

<<The sit-ins, Freedom rides, anti-war marches and civil rights rallies, and 
the campus activity at Berkeley in 1964 specifically, received massive 
publicity, brought together a range of very
different activist groups and causes, and created ripple effects all across 
the globe.>>

You're making my point, while again revealing your rather bald chronological 
ignorance.   The Freedom Ride was entirely the product of CORE and the 
southern black movement.   It had nothing to do with campus activity in Berkeley in 
1964, if not for other reasons, for the very good one that the Freedom Ride 
began in May of 1961 and, after numerous splinterings, was/were over by the end 
of that summer.

As for bursting my bubble, mate, you'll need find a sharper pin first. 

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