Compare And Contrast The Political And Political Events Of The 1960s

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The 1960s were a time of political and social change across America. New attitudes towards politics, society, and drugs resulted in new styles of music that were accepted by American society despite their meanings and implications. Revolutions and protests across America resulted in music that had the purpose of entertainment and spreading messages. The experimentation with new substances led to an entire genre: psychedelic rock. The threat of war sparked a peace and anti-war movement that led to music advocating the same ideas. In the 1960s, music changed alongside politics and society. One pivotal political event of the 1960s was the Vietnam War. Originally, Vietnam’s conflict was between Vietnamese people who supported a communist government …show more content…
First, Americans felt that the war draft was unfairly administered to lower income and minority citizens. In theory, if communism had spread to the United States in the 1960s, the people who would have benefitted from it would have actually been lower income and minority citizens because they would *theoretically* have been equal to people who were previously their superiors. Communism is appealing to those who are in the lower class because the idea of everyone holding equal weight in a previously “unfair” society gives them hope and diminishes their sense of inferiority in society. The people who actually had business in being afraid of communism were upper class citizens who would not have wanted to give up their wealth for a communist economy. For this demographic of people, communism was completely objectionable because they would have had to give up their wealth for society; a communist economy would require the upper class’ collective wealth to be redistributed in order for it to work. The people who were afraid of communism were not fighting in the war, which is what was so controversial about the draft. The idea of young, poor men fighting and losing their lives over something that primarily affected and was incited by old, rich men was the controversy of the Vietnam War draft. Another target of the American condemnation of the Vietnam War was the increasing threats of nuclear war, which …show more content…
“The Unknown Soldier” (1968) by The Doors mirrored the American concern of the way the war was being broadcasted in the media. The lyrics “Breakfast where the news is read/Television children fed/Unborn living, living, dead/Bullet strikes the helmet's head” give some insight into what people witnessed in the media surrounding the war. Graphic and raw images of the war were being displayed on the news, in newspapers, and on the radio. Constantly showing imagery of this nature resulted in some Americans becoming desensitized to the war. Another issue was that the intense depictions of the war were being integrated into all forms of media, which contributed to war becoming so casual for people. The line “breakfast where the news is read/television children fed” accurately reflects the relaxed attitude of the war as the result of the excessive broadcasting of the war. Some Americans blindly supported the war and developed blind nationalism - over a war that their country was losing - as a result of the media portrayal of the war. “Fortunate Son” (1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival was an anti-Vietnam War song that discussed the issue of the draft. The first lyrics of the song are “Some folks are born made to wave the flag/Ooh, they're red, white and blue/And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"/Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord/It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son/It ain't me, it

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