The media were more active participants in The Revolution than many of us realized.

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When I re-examined my own Aquarian-age behavior a little more closely, I realized I hardly had cause to be smug.  Yes, I had come to oppose the Vietnam war based on information and reason, but what had led me to explore the points of view and information that brought me to that point in the first place?   

In all honesty, I couldn’t imagine myself ever seeking out information or opinion from the likes of the yellow-booted Scott Weinstein of my own hometown.  I had rejected him and his set just as emphatically as anyone else in the mainstream of my high school.

What had first made me willing to go to the teach-in and listen to New Left, I realized, was the fact that they were appearing in the media.  This gave them a kind of imprimatur of significance—making them seem new and “happening” in an attractive sort of way—that allowed me not to notice that they were probably just the Scott Weinsteins of their own hometowns.  When I could see them as potential leaders rather than just geeks, I was willing to give them a hearing.

I could also see that as The Movement gained momentum, the significance of the media in shaping my generation’s outlook and values increased—to the extent that calling what developed a “youth movement” now seems almost a misnomer.  In my experience, the primary and most successful flow of information and trends probably wasn’t directly from kid to kid.  I think we were all comparing ourselves more significantly to what we saw in the media—from protests and confrontations on campus to the Woodstock festival.   Our experience was that if you wanted to set a trend, you had to appear in the media.  The media thus served as our locus not only of power, but also of value and significance.

 

(c) COPYRIGHT 2000 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.