CWB - Creating a New Society: Culture and Society During the Cold War, con't. (Lesson)
Creating a New Society: Culture and Society During the Cold War, con't.
The Youth Movement and Counterculture.
Counter-Culture: rebellion against parents, authority figures and status quo
- Baby boom after WWII developed a distinctive and international youth culture
- Many were raised in economic prosperity and a more democratic class structure
- New generation was influenced by revival of leftist thought, created a "counter-culture"
- Youth in America took the lead
- Some youth rebelled against conformity and the boredom of middle-class suburbs
- Rock music helped tie counter-culture together
- Beatles, British rock band, became one of biggest pop groups in music history
- Increased sexual behavior among many young people during 1960s and 1970s
- Growing tendency of young unmarried people to live together on a semi-permanent basis with little thought of getting married or having children
Causes of the emergence of international youth culture in 1960s.
- Mass communication and youth travel linked countries and continents together
- Baby boom meant youth became unusually large part of population and exercised exceptional influence on society as a whole
- Postwar prosperity and greater equality gave youth more purchasing power than ever before
- Youth to set mass trends and fads in everything from music to use of chemical stimulants
- Common patterns of consumption and behavior fostered generational loyalty
- Good jobs were readily available
- High demand for workers meant youth had little need to fear punishment from straight-laced employers for unconventional behavior
Student Revolts in the late 1960s.
Causes:
- Opposition to U.S. war in Vietnam triggered revolutionary ferment among youths everywhere
- Influenced by Marxist undercurrents in French universities after 1945 & the new left thinking in U.S.
- Believed older generation & U.S. were fighting immoral & imperialistic war against Vietnam
- Students in western Europe shared U.S. youth's rejection of materialism and belief that postwar society was repressive and flawed
- Problems in higher education - classes overcrowded; little contact with professors; competition for grades intense; demanded even more practical areas of study to qualify for high-paying jobs after college
- Some students warned of dangers of narrowly trained experts ("technocrats") who would serve the establishment to the detriment of working class
French student revolt, 1968.
- Students took over the university, leading to violent clashes with police
- Most students demanded changes in curriculum and real voice in running the university
- Appealed to industrial workers for help; spontaneous general strike spread across France
- To many it seemed the French Fifth Republic might collapse
- De Gaulle called in troops and called for new elections (which he won decisively)
- The mini-Revolution collapsed
For much of the older generation in western Europe, the student revolution of 1968 signaled the end of illusions and end of an era.
Czechoslovakia.
- Due to Khrushchev's reforms in USSR, the 1960s brought modest liberalization and more consumer goods to eastern Europe
- In 1968, reform elements in the Czechoslovak Communist party gained a majority and voted out long-time Stalinist leader
- Alexander Dubcek is elected leader: ushered new period of thaw and rebirth in famous "Prague Spring" of 1968.
- Czech reformers building "socialism with a human face" frightened hard-line communists
- In retaliation, Soviet troops brutally invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968
- Czechoslovakia became one of most hard-line communist regimes well into 1980s
Brezhnev Doctrine: Soviet Union and its allies had right to intervene in any socialist country whenever they saw the need.
Image: Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops and armored vehicles block access to Prague Castle.
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