Why were the 1960's so bad?

Question

Excuse my ignorance, but I was not born untill the 90's and have done little research on the subject. I appreciate all answers.

"your stupidity shows the failure of our current school system"

Jesus Christ, that is not my fault. I am NOT STUPID. I will have you know that I have studied on the subject of the Kennedy assassination as being one of the big events of that time, but I was just curious as to wether there was some big movement of the 60's or pop reference I seemed to have missed. Can't I ask a question?

Answer 1

They were wondrous times of free expression, artistic brilliance, soul wrenching conflict, unprecedented grief, passionate hope, unbridled awe and incredible bravery.

Our Nation lost A President, his Brother, many Civil Right's leaders, hosts of many young American lives to an unpopular war, and it's seeming innocence. There was the Summer of Love, and draft, and young men seeking to flee the draft by running to Canada.

People who could remember when automobiles became available to the masses, and remembered when movies first had sound... sat in utter wonder - watching television in their homes - as American's first triumphed over gravity and put a man on the moon.

Young people CARED. They believed that they had the ability to change the world, and they actively sought ways to do just that. They shook the known world here in the US and abroad.

There were too many drugs, and too much violence, and great and bitter heartache. The Vietnam War ripped our people apart. The Civil Right's movement exposed the nation's great sin of oppression and struggled toward change and equality.

There were tender times and joyous times and hosts of people seeking a better way of life for themselves AND OTHERS. (So many people cared about how we were treating the earth, they created the Environmental Protection Agency.)

They fought in good ways and bad ways to bring a time of peace on this earth. PEACE was a catch phrase of the day. Even President Nixon would flash the peace sign to crowds.

I was born just months before JFK was assassinated. I remember the sixties with the heart of a child. I hope you can get the perspective of someone who lived the events a bit more directly.

Peace.

Answer 2

Ok, ok, calm down, now, what do u mean by bad? I was born in 1966, and I don't know of anything REALLY bad that happened in the 1960's. Oh, except for the assassination of Kennedy. Oh yeah, and the Vietnam War was a terrible, terrible thing, far worse the the war in Iraq. Thousands of our men died (in Australia as well as the US). The Vietnam war lasted for 20 years or more.
There were heaps of cool bands that came out of the 60's, um, The Hollies, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, etc. and that was when the first mini skirt was worn.
There were many more good things happened than bad, though. Um, I didn't turn out so bad, lol. And I'm sure ur parents didn't either.
Good luck with ur research, love.

Answer 3

Three event come to mind during the early 60's.
1. The Cuban missle crisis
2. The assassination of John F. Kennedy
3. The Viet Nam war- which lasted almost 10 years.

There were a lot of good events during the 60's too.
1. Landing on the moon and bringing the astronauts back safely.
2. A lot of good tv shows.

Check out the internet by searching 1960-1960 each year separately.

Answer 4

The thing about the sixties was the change. You see the people who held sway over what happened and who could participate did not wont to lose what they thought was America.We (the hippies) were seen as evil or commies because we thought the world had to change. I don't say that the movement was without flaws but it was not destroying America. The world did change for the good if only a little. It was not the end of the America as some thought it would be. The movement had some bad results as well. All that free love gave us some s t d,s that i think would not have spread through the population other wise. And those who tried to stop us were not always bad guy,s some people were just afraid of change but it had to be done and who better to change the world then it,s youth. After all it is their future.

Answer 5

Its a good question (though the jerk you answered is right on one point--i the schools were doing their job, you wouldn't need to ask). But you'll find many people don't think of the 1960s as "bad"--and you should learn about it and make up your own mind.

Here's some highlights (without my comments on good orbad--just topics you can read up on. As to their importance--that's a judgement call--but I am a historian). In no paarticular order:
1.Bay of Pigs f(attempt to sponsor a counter-revolution in Cuba)
2. March on Selma (pivotal moment in the civil rights movement)
3. The Vietnam War and anti-war movements
4) Civil rights Act and Voting Rights Act--1964-5 Also Supreme Court intervention to force school integration (1968)
5) Assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King.
6) Women's liberation movement
7)First organ transplants
8) The "Space Race" culminating in the first landing on the moon--July 20, 1969. In my judgement, a thousand years from now, this will be regarded as the single most important event of the period.
9) Publication of "Silent spring" by Rachel Carson--seminal work for environmentalism
10) the "Prague Spring" attempt by Czechoslovakia to break free of Soviet control--wich was put down by Soviet military forces (1968)

Answer 6

There was the Kennedy and MLK Assassinations. Civil rights and Vietnam protests. Bell Bottoms, groovey, Shag carpet (pea green or Gold) and fondue weren't' great either, There was allot of good things though, the space race and landing on the moon, rock-n-roll (Beatles, Rolling Stones), muscle cars (Road Runner, GTO), Mustang and Camero introduced, sting ray bikes, James Bond movies, Wonderful World of Disney TV show, Super Bowl Started, Johnny Unites and Vince Lombardi, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, Mohamed Ali and George Foreman, Skate boards and hula hoops, Barbie dolls and GI Joe's, 30 cent gas, 10 cent candy bars, 50 cent movies, Adidas and Puma shoes introduced, aluminum tennis rackets.

If all the schools teach you are about the '60's is race and war tension you are missing allot of the good.

Answer 7

There was a struggle between the whites and the blacks to give them (blacks) civil rights; Martin Luther King did his famous speech 'I Have A Dream,' and his life was ended shortly after that, in 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated, then as Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed while campaigning to become president. The Vietnam War was happening, thousands and thousands of our troops died, there were Peace Marches against the war and violence too, for instance at Kent State University in Ohio. Hippies were strong, drugs were rampant, and I look back on it as a time of tension and loss of control.

Answer 8

Well for one thing, the Vietnam war was going full swing (A much worse war than Iraq for Americans). Then those were the years of the hippy movement - the movement originally started as a protest of the war and capitalist society in general (Which was seen as the cause behind wars). But the movement quickly became meshed in drugs (as one way to rebel) and it soon lost much of its sense, especially when a lot of the icons of the movement (Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix) started to pay the price of this abuse and died of overdose and just general abuse of their bodies in the late '60s and early '70s.

Answer 9

They weren't bad. It was a time of transition. Blacks, women, etc were demanding their rights. It was worse in the south than the north. Recently a few people have just been convicted for killing civil rights workers back then.

Answer 10

The fun ended with the rise of Richard M. Nixon.