Originally Posted by
LateBoomer
Let's see. I'll go ahead and post my micro-turnings for the rest of the Millennial saeculum.
Awakening-High (1963-1966): Following Kennedy's assassination and the ensuing campus unrest and a strong uptick in the ongoing civil rights movement that began in the 1T, most of the culture outside campuses and urban areas was still pretty much stuck in the 1T. Unrest was in the air though. Betty Friedan wrote "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963 and housewives began to re-think their High era roles as mere wives and mothers. Women's fashions began to change from the sedate and fashionable Jackie Kennedy look of the late High to the more youthful Carnaby Street look of the mid 1960s. Women also began to wear pants (slacks) more often than they had. Mini skirts became the norm, as did long, straight hair. Men began to grow their short hair out into longer Beatles cuts and wear more colorful clothing. The Beatles arriving in America was the climax of the Awakening-High, and suddenly a new type of youth culture was born.
Awakening-Awakening (1967-1973). This definitely began with the Summer of Love in 1967. Campus rebelliousness and anti-Vietnam protests reached fever pitch, and protesting began to turn violent, as Boomers began to replace the more sedate Silent protesters. The hippie movement was born and music changed, becoming harder, louder, and dominated by electric guitars and lyrics of rebellion against the "establishment," free love, and drugs. Rock concerts became weekend long hippie festivals and suddenly it was okay to live together without marriage, and have sex with whoever you wanted, whenever you wanted. The antagonism between the young Boomers and their GI parents reached its peak, and Vietnam became a kind of symbol for everything the two generations couldn't stand about each other.
Awakening-Unraveling (1973-1977): The Watergate Scandal, 1973-1974 was the beginning of the end. While the hippie movement had been dying down for several years (as Boomers began to mature), there was still plenty of rebellion, only this time the movements were a bit better organized and more specific, fighting for things like women's and gay rights. More women decided to begin careers rather than marrying or having children. But Watergate put an end to any trust that might have remained in the government and in our leaders. This was a dark time in the Awakening, and people everywhere sensed the heady and exciting mood of the Awakening was soon coming to an end.
Awakening-Crisis (1977-1983). This started around 1977 with the rise of the Moral Majority and right wing Christian groups that would soon take over and define the mood of the 3T. A new type of "supply side" president, Ronald Reagan, was elected in 1980--who began the 30 year long chipping away at the government and its regulations and gave tax cuts to the wealthy. The "Me Decade" and hedonistic Disco era was now underway, with Boomers and many Silents turning inward to discover themselves through various religious cults, yoga, meditation techniques, and plain old fundamentalist Christianity. Cocaine, not pot, became the drug of choice. Movies like Kramer vs. Kramer were pre-3T cautionary tales that showed how spouses leaving their families could hurt their children. The abandoning wife and mother played by Meryl Streep in that movie was portrayed as quite self-centered and the little Nintendo wave Xer boy portrayed as an absolute angel. Other movies had similar themes, showing how parental selfishness hurt their children--Ordinary People is another movie of this type, showing a cold hearted Silent mother emotionally and eventually literally abandoning her befuddled husband and deeply hurting her Joneser son.
I'll post the 3T and 4T micro-turnings in a bit.
). For instance, in American society, that year saw a number of mass hysteria erupting that implicitly targeted the Consciousness Revolution, centering around the real or imagined hazards that 60's spawned culture implied towards children and young people. Among these were religious/New Age cults, pornography and devil drugs. (See: Jenkins, Philip: Decade of Nightmares, especially chapter 4 "The Politics of Children: 1977" (2006)).
