Indeed, the protest-liberation movement was not only reborn, it was greatly expanded by many different folk singers, rock bands, entertainers, political activists and spiritual leaders, including Joan Baez; Bob Dylan; Pete Seeger; Peter, Paul and Mary; Gloria Steinham; Martin Luther King Jr.; Baba Ram Dass; Stephen Gaskin; the great rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Richie Havens, and many others far too numerous to mention here. In fact, huge numbers of people joined the liberation movement, better known as the love, peace and freedom movement, and they were and still are good, fair, compassionate, conscientious people. They tried, and most of them still try, to point out true spiritual values having to do with love, peace, freedom and equality, that are really at the core of all religions.
Gloriously, the idea that there is a unity at the core of all religions emerged once again in the 1960s. The basics of the esoteric spiritual teachings, along with an influx of Eastern religious teachings, created the "New Age" movement that blossomed in the United States in the 1960s. That's when "The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius" was widely announced in the great classic musical, Hair, which was great and wonderful, even though it was premature in announcing the beginning of the new age.
The huge peace-freedom-liberation movement in the 1960s was extremely effective politically and socially. However, it must be said that most of the "hippies" and "flower children" of the 1960s were non-political, contrary to current widespread claims made by conservatives. Most of them were involved in a "back to the earth" and "back to nature" movement. That's when the interest in natural foods, ecology, environmental protection and conservation really began to flourish. In fact, it was when the "Green" movement really began in America.
Unfortunately, what got more of the media's attention was the political part of the protest- liberation movement. It was called the "New Left," and it was very influential because it was very motivated. After all, they were seriously trying to save the world and establish peace, freedom, and social and economic justice and equity.
Granted, there was some foolishness demonstrated by certain small radical political elements of the New Left, because they responded in-kind to the violent right-wing suppression of dissent and protest. After all, some people are easily drawn in by the contagious energy of violent confrontation. That is part of our lower nature, and its what creates lynch mobs and other violent mobs. But, in spite of that, most of those in the political New Left were more rational and they succeeded significantly. Their influence ultimately produced many welcome reforms in environmental protection and criminal justice, and established more civil rights, more women's rights, and many other rights and protections for the majority of people and the environment.
Now, of course, part of the success of the New Left was due to the presidency of Democrat John F. Kennedy, a great charismatic man whose inclinations were truly democratic. He became president in 1961, and he helped to inspire the younger generation with great hope and courage. His Peace Corps was and still is great, and it has done and still does a lot of good in the world.
At the same time, however, there were very strong right-wing conservative Republicans vying for power. Indeed, the dissenting protests of the New Left provoked vehement and violent reaction from the Right. The earliest and most notable example of that was in the early 1960s, instigated by Ronald Reagan, who was at that time the newly elected Republican Governor of California. He reacted with intolerance and brutal violence against the student Free Speech Movement in Berkeley at the University of California, where the political New Left movement was born. Reagan was vehemently against it, and he falsely claimed it was led by "outside agitators, communists, and dirty bums who simply wanted to tear down society." He lied, of course, but he even said that if it took a "bloodbath," he would stop them. And sure enough, Reagan did create a bloodbath, because he used terribly brutal armed forces to try to suppress dissent and protest.
That is very significant, because in doing that, Republican Governor Ronald Reagan set the tone for the violent right-wing reactionary confrontations that swept across America in the 1960s -- first in reaction to the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, and then eventually in reaction to the civil rights and anti-war demonstrations and marches all across the country. Militant right-wing leaders used tremendous violent force to suppress protest and dissent in America.
The corrupt few were so corrupt that they resorted not only violent suppression of dissent and protest. They even resorted to murder and assassination, because President Kennedy was tragically assassinated on November 22, 1963. But, while that caused a lot of disappointment and frustration in those who were trying to reform our political-economic system, it soon made them stronger and more determined. Unfortunately, that created an even stronger right-wing reaction against them. Conflict and violence increased, and it caused a tremendous amount of grief, despair and suffering. When it peaked during the brutal police riots against anti-war demonstrators in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, it left the country deeply divided and terribly polarized. We were split between those who knew the truth, and those who bought the lies of hypocritical right-wing demagogues, some of whom thumped their bible, and all of whom waved their flag and rattled their swords.
Of course, because I say that, right-wing conservatives will claim that I am merely being biased and partisan, and that I'm just trying to start "class warfare." That's what they claim whenever anyone advocates for the poor and the working poor and criticizes the greediest of the wealthiest few. But the truth is the truth, even if it hurts.
Anyway, a very crucial time came in 1968, when the nation was deeply split and polarized, the balance of political power began to sway slightly to the right again. That happened for several reasons. Two more heroes of the democratic New Left, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, were assassinated, and Democrats then became split between conservative traditionalists and progressive liberals. Consequently, with Democrats divided, right-wing conservative Republican Richard Nixon was able to become president in 1969, and he was able to do so by selling the misleading notion that the whole New Left was just a radical misguided minority and that he represented the "Silent Majority." It was not true, because the actual majority of Americans identified more with the New Left and the peace and freedom movement, and even somewhat with the values of the "Woodstock Generation." However, many Americans were so disgusted with partisan politics that they did not even vote, and Nixon sold the idea to just enough people who did vote to get elected.
With Republican President Nixon in power, the Military-Industrial Complex became even stronger and more out of hand. He expanded U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam War, which was very profitable for certain U.S. corporations. After all, there was a tremendous amount of military hardware needed and used there during the war years, including huge numbers of very expensive helicopter gun ships, huge numbers of weapons, 11.2 million gallons of Agent Orange (the most toxic and long-lasting chemical ever synthesized by man), and countless tons of horribly destructive high explosive bombs that were dropped and inflicted on the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians during many years of senseless, careless and fruitless saturation bombing by American forces.
Now, an overlooked fact which should be emphasized is that the spiritual-philosophical movement that had become popular in the 1960s along with the peace and freedom movement, was a continuation and expansion of the movement that had been popular in both Europe and America in the 1700s and 1800s. It had not only survived, it flourished again and successfully advocated the ideals of universal love, peace, freedom, equality, and religious pluralism. And, behind the scenes, the popularity of the movement continued and grew in the 1970s, and even though it didn't receive the media attention that the political movement did, it was very influential socially.
Indeed, it was so influential that in 1979, a very deceptive and cunning right-wing conservative backlash began, and its most well known kingpins were presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and "Christian conservatives" like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. They were reacting to the influence and success of the love, peace, freedom and equality movement, and to the influence and success of the political New Left, which identified with the love, peace and freedom movement.
Reagan was supported in his bid for the presidency not only by extreme right-wing conservative religious leaders like Falwell and Robertson, but by other like-minded right- wing conservative political leaders and ideologues, and especially by very wealthy corporate executives and attorneys. Together they created the Reaganite New Right or Neo- Conservative Movement, which has, for the most part, operated ever since then under the guise of patriotism and religious "Christian values."
Here I must point out that the rise of the so-called "Christian Right" Reaganites in the late 1970s was in response to the spiritual peace and freedom movements that had been reborn in the 1960s, and that was very similar to what had occurred in the 1930s. History repeated itself, because all right-wing, patriarchal theocrats hate real religious freedom and pluralism, and they seem to think that religious freedom means they have the right to try to impose their rigid and distorted brand of religion and ideology on the whole country and world. They always have.
