Saturday, October 19, 2002

The Generation Gap in the Anti-war Movement I was chastened by some of the responses posted to my criticism of Michelle Goldberg’s article about fringe radicals in the anti-war movement.  One of the comments was from my son in Philadelphia, another from my nephew in New York.  Also I have received regular email about this blog from my other son in Ithaca.  The advantage of knowing who is writing is that I know they are all in their twenties—and represent a very different perspective on the movement than my own.   It is not that the caring is different; but that our generation had radicalizing experiences that made us feel tremendous empathy for victims of U.S. bombing.  I lived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for two years in the late 1960’s, and when the U.S. began bombing Hanoi, all I could think of was how I would feel to have bombs raining down on Dar es Salaam.  It seemed to me the U.S. had declared war on the entire non-white world, and I was prepared to do everything to resist.    During Vietnam, we faced a war that had immediate consequences for all of us.  I was a draft resister.  My best childhood friend in Texas was not and accepted the draft as he was about to enter law school.  He was killed in Vietnam.  He was an only child, and his parents, professors at the University of Texas, never recovered from his death.  They stopped seeing friends and grew old disintegrating in reclusive isolation.   I don’t think my children, their friends—or others whom I know in their twenties have had the collective experience we had in the 1960’s.  Their experiences are more individual—focused on jobs, graduate school, friends, personal interests and importantly, political and social interests.     But their political and social interests do not so visibly define their lives.  For those of us in the movement, it was our whole life—friends, values, life-style, everything.  And this experience shapes our political feelings even today.   That this is somehow better, though, could be the conceit of age that our struggles when we were young were always more important.  Remember our parents lives at the same age were caught up in World War II, and our struggles must have seemed shallow to them.   But, perhaps because of WWII and the aftermath, our parents accepted regimentation, stifling conformity and orthodoxy that we had to break out of.  We thought we were the first to fight for civil rights, to fight for feminism, to fight for the rights of the Vietnamese to live in peace.  But in retrospect, these fights have been continuous, and at least some of my relatives were socialists and communists in the 1930’s—committed to the struggles of that time, not accepting the majority view.  In fact my grandmother voted against Roosevelt in 1932 because he was not radical enough. I think she voted for Norman Thomas (the socialist) instead.   I think the comments on my reaction to Michelle’s article are partly right—the integrity of the organizing groups is important—and if you don’t have the same experience of dealing with factionalism that we did in the 1970’s, the fringe political groups are more likely to make people uncomfortable.  So I may have approached this problem through too narrow a perspective.   Those in our generation who are politically active think of ourselves as people of integrity, making choices that conform to our beliefs—but we also have jobs and careers, families, social commitments, and community responsibilities.  So maybe we don’t appear that different than our own parents from the perspective of the twenty-somethings.   My son in Ithaca writes in response to my what is worth fighting for post :   I find it a little ironic, btw, that you have TWO SUVS, one of the biggest reasons why Bush profits from invading Iraq.  If you are really serious about being free from the domination of oil, why don't you drive a fuel-efficient car?  Or at least drive one of Saturn's gas-electric SUVs (the Vue).  If you are not willing to make that sacrifice, how can you ask other people to?  If you're not willing to change your lifestyle to lead a more environmentally friendly life, I think you a being a bit hypocritical.    Maybe we are, and a little more humility and open mindedness would not hurt. 2:05:59 PM   comment []

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