The Woodstock Consensus
Newt Gingrich, during his tenure as House Speaker, declared the Sixties "a momentary aberration in American history that will be looked back upon as a quaint period of Bohemianism brought to the national elite." The implication was that the countercultural and political movements of the era were out of step with the American mainstream.
But forty years after the summer of '69, when a three-day festival of Peace, Love and Music in a muddy New York State pasture celebrated youthful ideals, isn't it high time we Americans face the truth that the ideals of the Woodstock Generation -- ideals once widely mocked, attacked and officially repressed -- have pretty much won the day?
The aberrant behavior to which Gingrich referred was not on the part of young people with long hair playing American folk music in a field at Woodstock. Far from an aberration of past history, the Sixties were the harbinger of the present, but the struggle to get here is best understood in terms other than the misleading labels of Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative.
Why such a struggle, after all? Were they truly radicals, the people who marched for civil rights, demonstrated against the Vietnam War, boycotted lettuce and grapes and carried picket signs advocating women's liberation? Were Che Guevara and Chairman Mao the most admired and influential heroes of America's youth? How many flashed the peace sign to complete strangers? Was Paul really dead?
Those are some of the questions I sought to answer when I crisscrossed the nation with co-writer Deanne Stillman in the late 1970's, handing out questionnaires prepared with the help of professional pollsters to more than 1000 people who responded to a call for "Sixties Vets." The results, published in 1979 as "Woodstock Census: The Nationwide Survey of the Sixties Generation," delivered a contrarian view of what "The Sixties" really meant to people whose experiences defined the era.
Instead of a generation of bomb-throwing anarchists, the majority of the people describing themselves as political activists in our survey -- who marched for civil rights (73%) demonstrated against the Vietnam War (93%), boycotted school classes (69%) -- were motivated less by ideology than by finding common cause with like-minded folks. "There was strength in numbers," wrote one respondent. "Also, I liked the spirit and the excitement and it was nice to see I wasn't alone in my frustrations."
Instead of the wild, Bohemian "Sexual Revolution" described in a sensational 1964 Time cover story as "Rebels of the 60s adrift in a sea of permissiveness," our survey pointed to a more profound change in mores: women taking control of their own lives. With 93% of our Sixties Vets agreeing it was "okay for a woman to initiate sex," the truly radical experience of one ex-hippie said it all: "Sleeping in a bed in our commune one night with four other people (two men, three women) and not having sex."
The most passionate, unifying experiences of the Sixties among the largely white, middle class respondents to our Woodstock Census survey involved issues that fall comfortably within the socio-political mainstream of America: equal rights for women, resolving the lingering racial divide, preserving the environment, defending individual freedoms. "My best 60's experience," one respondent recalled, was when his father, a Marine Corps drill instructor, came to bail him out of jail after an antiwar demonstration. "He told me he thought what I was doing was crazy but he loved me for standing up for what I believed in and told me not to stop."
In fact, our survey revealed that the majority of individual experiences with the countercultural movements of Sixties were shaped not by the radical ideology of a Marxist Left, but by a deep desire for a return to fundamental American ideals. From this point of view, one could say the counterculture was a kind of conservatism, framed in an inflammatory way as radical and "aberrant" by defenders of the status quo.
Headstrong is what you might call the African-Americans sitting-in at whites-only lunch counters, or facing down firehoses and police dogs -- maybe foolhardy -- but not aberrant. "Stubborn idealists" might describe those millions of citizens across the country demonstrating against the Vietnam War, but not out of step with our long tradition of democratic dissent. In the battle over discrimination against women in the workforce and the proposition of equal pay for equal work, whose was the more radical position? Aberrant behavior had nothing to do with wearing love beads (59%), believing in Flower Power (64%), going to a "Be-In" (58%), or flashing the peace sign to complete strangers (81%) -- maybe only a sublime silliness.
The truly aberrant behavior belonged to their tormentors, those flag-waving ranks of ideologues, staunch segregationists, rabid commie-hunters and free-speech-smothering censors, bent on preserving their own quaint period of privilege, even if it meant radical measures. They were the un-Americans, the subversives undermining the principles that make America great, refusing to rise to the challenges set forth by our elite, long-haired Founding Fathers who created an imperfect union knowing it would be struggle but also knowing a day of reckoning must come... and come it did. It was called The Sixties and now even Newt is cool with it, speaking out on environmental issues and pushing a "green conservatism." Welcome to Yasgur's farm, Newtie... see you at the hemp store.
Rex Weiner is a journalist and the co-author, with Deanne Stillman, of "Woodstock Census: The Nationwide Survey of the Sixties Generation" (Viking Press)
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I spent much of the late 60's early 70's protesting the war in Vietnam and working for underground newspapers. Those war mongers continue to publish their memoirs.. admitting it was all a big mistake.
That's all the war mongers ever say... oops
The war on drugs... oops
The war in Iraq... oops
The financial collapse...oops
International corporate takeover of seed banks and water rights... oops
Torture... oops
Superb article. Thanks for writing.
However, Newt Gingrich is now advocating something he calls (in his predictable Orwellian style) "green conservatism." LOL.
Talk about an oxymoron! Isn't that like George Wallace in his day pushing "progressive racism" or Mel Gibson advocating "positive anti-Semitism"?
Unfortunately, Gingrich continues his repulsive and semi-sociopathic ways.
The sexual revolution is over and the Good Guys and Gals won.
Nothing anyone can do about it at this point.
I wouldn't look for Newt at the hemp store any time soon. He's a wingnut, ya know.
I recently saw, "Hair" on Broadway, and it was hairless, total disappointment: cynical, mocking...it wasn't that way at all, at the time. The author doesn't mention the evolution of Eastern religious thought, George on the sitar. Those of us who witnessed the organic growth of buddhism and vedanta wondered how it was going to flush out, mainstream, in the future (meaning now). So disappointing to see the political win out over the spiritual. The darling 60's hippies who brought us the East now despise any of us on the Right. Presumably because we can't dance. Bad reason.
As a lifelong fan of Kenneth Rexroth I have always found it fascinating how the young generation of the 1960s took from their elders, people like Rexroth, who at the twilight of his life in the 1960s, happily passed along his values and ideas as best he knew how in San Franscisco - writing and lecturing to young bohemians who then took many of his generation's greatest ideas that those young people came to believe originated with them. Conscientious objectors to Vietnam? Rexroth and others already did that in WWII and Korea. Back-to-nature? Rexroth and others already paved the way in the 1920s and 1930s. Political radicalism? The 1910s to the 1930s were WAY more radical than anything the kids in the 60s ever dared. Interest in non-western mysticism and spirituality? Rexroth and others had already done all of that in the first 30 years of the 20th century. Communal living as a rejection of a broader social society? Read Rexroth's 1972 book "Communalism" to understand why Rexroth predicted both the inevitable failure of most 60s generation communes, but also the emergence of communes as religious cults in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of what the collective cultural mythos of the "Sixties" celebrated by those who came of age in that decade didn't start with them, but in fact was already there, part of American culture for generations before the baby boomers ever came along...
I spent the first half of the sixties in the Marines being brainwashed to fear and hate everything not Marine Corps green. I learned to accept my perceived place, working full time and went to college under the GI Bill to improve my station in life when I was first was exposed to Hippies. I still feared change so I first observed what was going on and began to question my prejudice against everything unlike me. Unlike those I associated with Hippies seemed non-violent and more thoughtful of others, and pot and acid didn’t make them scary as I had been told. I found that under their influence we peacefully shared our prospective and discussed their merit and flaws. I learned that people have the same needs and desires and to focus on our similarities not our differences. I found acid expanded my perceptive to understand that I was not the center of the universe, nor should I want to be. I learned that we could only be as free as we are willing to allow others to be, and the value of an open mind.
I lived through Hurricane Camille, which happened at the same time. It was, until Hurricane Andrew, the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the US.
Silly me. I forgot. My life has no importance because I wasn't at Woodstock.
cosign.
Well, only an extremely small slice of the population---even among the young of 1969---was at Woodstock. Maybe you miss the point of the article? Or maybe you think cynicism is "cool"? Or maybe there's some jealously and regret on your part because you weren't there?
Judging by many of the sixties vets I see, the ideals of poor hygiene and getting something for nothing have endured the strongest.
Bring back the steam engine or better yet the horse drawn cart
"Justin", do you think that's because you're out of it and live in a very isolated little world?
I guess the Woodstock sounds better than Bethel where the concert and event really occurred. A short BTW a first class museum dedicated to that happening is now there.
The concert was more than a event. It was part of a cultural turning point for a generation who would begin to rally around not only music but a wide variety of social issues.
The rebel nature of our youth is no longer present, it is interesting to see how our youth has matured.
While our youth has become less impetuous our so called adults have not. We now find ourselves once again embroiled in a protracted deployment of our military. I refuse to call this a war because we have no enemy, we are engaged in Nation building. We should have leveled Syria and told the rest of the middle east to either get their nut cases in line or they are next. If we were unwilling to do that, then we were not at war and the thought that diplomacy could work with fanatics, naive.
Woodstock was a long time ago, the music has changed but the politics sadly has not.
same ole same ole
Ah, yes. Woodstock. Missed it because I was working at a department store and didn't care to deal with the traffic tie-up on the Thruway to get there. I did sell more sleeping bags than usual to folks making the trek.
First of all. Woodstock was a good concert.
Second, it assumed an undeserved significance in US history.
Third, those who never moved beyond Woodstock, whether freaks or radicals, lost their ability to really provide new and innovative political leadership.
Good vibes, good music. But let's not let OD on it. While it is always good for a new book or movie, most folks don't get it. But, that's OK. Most have moved on. Those of us hitting the 60 scaffold have hopefully moved beyond the 60's. That doesn't mean giving up social justice or environmental issues. It simply means engaging people on the basis of their needs and concerns and moving forward politically beyond "progressivism" and building a real Green agenda. It's not Woodstock that can help us now.
From all appearances “People in the world just want to be free”.
Well said MatoSka and I generally agree (BTW, nice name. I used to know a man named Matoska. He said it was a Sioux name that meant "White Bear").
Have we met? I was given the name in ceremony in 1993 and made a part of the family of Cetan Bluesky, enrolled Wind River Shoshone in Las Cruces, NM. You are right on about the origin and meaning of the name.
The Woodstock generation gets ripped off by so many writers from bozoville who are clueless. As the anniversary nears, folks should read Woodstock Consensus, as well as Abbie Hoffman's Woodstock Nation. The ideals and planted seeds remain alive. Newt Gingrich, however, turned out to be an aberration of our species. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta
One of the coolest things to come out of Woodstock is the work of announcer and Hog Farmer Hugh Romney (Wavy Gravy). Unlike some folks who did the hippie thing as a fashionable lark, this guy has lived by his ideals for decades and has helped a lot of people.
It is never accurate to dabble in labels to define a generation, but it helps as a form of shorthand for describing a general state of affairs that most people can agree recognize. To some extent the civil rights movement, the anti war movement, and the women’s movement reached a symbolic crescendo with Woodstock. But, like a castle built in beach sand, the edifice was not long for this world. Only through constant effort and renewal can the so-called Woodstock ideal persevere. Too few are rebuilding its walls as wave after wave of right wing ideology sweep over them. We’ve let the lesser lights of naked self interest move in and take over.
The true clash of the “Sixties” was between the concepts of individually-based, personal liberty and the economic liberties beloved of the right wing. The same battle was fought during the Lochner era, as individuals came together in the struggle against the oppressive might of the developing corporations. It was won, and then lost again from lack of care. We are now in today’s version of the Lochner era of unvarnished corporate greed. It appears, alas, that they learned the tactical lessons better than we, and are more insidiously ensconed in the seats of power than ever. There is much to be done.
Incidentally, I always blanch when somone mentions Gingrich in context of historical erudition. Newtie is to the study of history what mule piss is to perfume.
The 60's sold out and became the machine. Not a peep on 2 wars? They get good dividends from their GE stock. They became politicians with no principles, no compass. It is sad to look back at the hope and see the results.
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