Generational Emblems

Two events were marked this weekend that may well be symbols of my generation. The first was the release of Lynette Squeaky Fromme from a life sentence in federal prison. Fromme was the nutcase Manson follower (but there I am redundant) who tried to shoot President Ford. Technically, Fromme is not out of the 1960s - she attempted to shoot the President in the 1970s. But Manson's beginnings happened when he formed a commune in the late 1960s in San Francisco. The Manson family was an example of the wretched excess of the sixties. The summer of love was transformed into maniacal deviance.

The second was the coverage of the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock. We've always held Woodstock in high regard because it is also the weekend that my wife and I were married. (Not at Woodstock) Although there was a lot of discussion at the time and since that Woodstock was an important cultural event - I am not sure that the reality and the hype are tied. There were some great performers at the concert. Jimmie Hendrix's performance of the Star Spangled Banner - was an emotional reconfiguration of a standard piece of music. And for a couple of years large concerts seemed to be important events. Yet only a few months after Woodstock was held the Stones' concert at Altamont seemed to change the tone in a dramatic fashion.

Woodstock had a lot of people proclaiming that it was a cultural sea change. Many of the hangers on from Waavy Gravy to even some of the performers made those claims. The period was also a time when old barriers began to break down. So about the time of all this Norman Mailer's wife held a party for the Black Panthers. (Tom Wolfe did a wonderful service to us all when in Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers, he lampooned Mrs. Mailer's lack of knowledge about the Panthers - "I wonder if the Panthers have cheese balls with nuts at their cocktail parties.")

Ultimately, I am skeptical of any generalization about a generation. At the time of Woodstock there were plenty who were supportive of the war effort in Vietnam (although the opponents got better press). A lot of the new freedom of the generation extended into libertine excess. But a lot of it also made fundamental changes in the way Americans thought about key issues.