[Peace-discuss] ron paul, teabaggers, and some of their best friends

[David Green]

In my opinion, the student antiwar movement of the 1960s (which was part of a much larger antiwar movement, including soldiers themselves), was NOT motivated by self-interest or even self-preservation. It was motivated by the spirit of resistance of the Civil Rights Movement and the Free Speech Movement, the Black Power Movement and the specter of the urban rebellions. It was motivated by a truth-seeking culture, however one may view the specifics in retrospect, engendered by radical journalists, and folk troubadors and rockers alike; and yes, by the "alternative consciousness" movement that--whatever one thinks about it--was not compatible with dropping napalm on Asian peasants because they were called Communists by the president. It was motivated by a literary culture that was relatively common (in relation to any such thing now), from Catch 22 to Soul on Ice, and widely seen films like "Battle of Algiers." And it was motivated by the blatant
 military-industrial research complex on campus, as well as all of the dreadful "social science" that went along with that (including pseudo-Freudian explanations for adolescent rebellion). In addition, it was motivated by an increased appreciation of the "3rd world" of consisting of something other than the spoils of capitalism or Stalinism. A short list, of course, that would have to inlcude the arrogance of leaders of the day. And finally, for whatever reason, it didn't burst forth as a mass movement until a couple of cohorts that had been somewhat (however poorly) prepared for this in high school had entered college.

DG




________________________________
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
Cc: E.Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>; Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Tue, May 4, 2010 5:51:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] ron paul, teabaggers, and some of their best friends

"The usual explanations for the difference between then and now
won't do. The suggestion, for example, that the renewal of a
military draft would ignite students' self-interest doesn't
account for the fact that most 60s-era students were sufficiently
sheltered from the draft to make their chances of seeing combat
negligible. Lewis B. Hershey, director of the Selective Service
until 1970, granted draft deferments to students and some
white-collar professionals on the reasoning that engineers,
scientists, and teachers were essential to national security and
the war effort. By the time the lottery system evened the playing
field somewhat in 1969, 'Vietnamization' was under way, and the
number of combat roles filled by American GI's began shrinking."

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Times-They-Changed/65192/


On 5/4/10 4:54 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> The only way to get ANY folks out of the woodwork to protest the US's
> imperialist wars is to reinstate the draft. How 'bout we [peace activists]
> start a rumor that that's in the works and see what happens? Add that to
> blogs and picket signs, get talk radio hosts ranting about it. Worth a try
> :-) -- Jenifer
>
> --- On *Mon, 5/3/10, Ricky Baldwin /<baldwinricky at yahoo.com>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss]
> ron paul, teabaggers, and some of their best friends To: "E.Wayne Johnson"
> <ewj at pigs.ag> Cc: "Peace Discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> Date:
> Monday, May 3, 2010, 11:06 AM
>
> Wayne, I assume you are referring here to the "tea party" as the rebellion?
> I think there's an element of that, but it's dragged so far out of that
> orbit by the weight of its racism and Know-Nothingism, homophobia and fear
> of socialism, and miscellaneous rightwing conspiracy theories, that it's
> more likely to push national policy away from anything that might help
> working people than accomplish anything good and decent...

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss



      
-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20100504/b576bbcb/attachment.html>