Watergate, Warhol and the Birth of Post-Sixties America

[Paul Mackin]

On Apr 16, 2006, at 5:43 PM, jd wrote:

> The 60s were vastly overrated IMO, I think the beatniks took the real
> chances and the hippies just kind of rode the glory.

A big negative we have the 60s to thank for would be over  
expectations generated.  "Times they are achanging" and all that. But  
times didn't change that much and many were left with anguished  
regrets over failure of the so-called revolution.

The 70s had to react to these disappointments. The hasty solution was  
postmodernism, incredulity toward meta-narratives, and ultimately  
toward all rational thinking.  Not that these critiques and  
innovations in thought didn't have some validity, but they contained  
traps as well. For example, one can apparently now use with a semi- 
straight face the charge that making a distinction between popular  
and literary writing is elitist in order to try and score a debating  
point.