Bloody Conflict in America and Ireland: 1968-69

As class discussions and required readings continue in this class, I am continually drawn back to the significance of media portrayal in 1968. Much of the protest, violence, and conflict at the time was framed in such a way that had a substantial impact on the American population’s view towards these issues. For example, in reading the book Voices of the Chicago Eight, it became clear early on that the defendants wanted to use their platform of a trial that garnered huge media attention as a stage to voice their opinions on the issues of the time. This is one example but throughout 68, the coverage of media was pivotal in the attempt to create meaningful change. A speech or a protest didn’t mean much if that message did not have the ability to reach a wide amount of people. This made events that would have that ability to reach people so much more important because those involved knew that this was their opportunity to send a message out on a huge scale.

Nowadays, the issue of getting your message out to a big population is no longer the problem. Anybody can send a tweet or post something online that massive amounts of people will be able to see immediately. I believe the new challenge that our generation faces is sifting through that avalanche of information and interpret how all of that functions together. We all know that you can’t believe everything that you hear or see on the Internet, which makes it difficult when you’re trying to acquire knowledge of a topic. It can also make it difficult when you were trying to convey a message over the Internet because your story can be warped and spit back in so many different ways that the original message becomes obsolete. The trick nowadays is more about finding and distributing quality information, as opposed to 68, where simply trying to get your message out was the challenge. 

Though the challenges of both generations differ, the general idea stays the same – media portrayal to the population holds extreme value. It does not matter if you are doing the righteous act in the whole world, if you’re not getting media attention or if it’s not the right kind of attention then the message you were trying to send is not going to come across clearly. It’s interesting to observe how details may change over time, but fundamental ideas such as this continue to hold their value from decade to decade. 

In most history classes and history books I have read to this point, a time period is by default characterized by its most iconic symbols—influential people, remarkable events, and long-term effects on history at large. Historians, no matter on the “winning” or “losing” side of history, tend to record the most abnormal features of their period. This means that the “louder” some people are, the fewer of them are required to enter historical accounts. Country leaders are worth historians’ attention by themselves. Activist groups who otherwise are already prominent people may need a few members to be remembered. Civil Rights movements take thousands of political-minded citizens to enter history textbooks. Natural disasters and wars take millions of ordinary people to gain the same level of attention.

I was repeatedly reminded of this fact when I was reading Vinen—the overwhelming amount of historical knowledge and remarkable events seemed over the top to me. For example, the sheer number of student protestors and incidents of violence made me feel as if everybody was in the turmoil. However, even though there were a lot of uncertainties and radical activities in ’68, the people involved undeniably represented a very small portion of the human population. Reading Vinen was like walking into a dance party—whoever is louder and crazier grabs the most attention. Therefore, I became more interested in hearing the silent majority—what ‘68 was really like.

The discussions with Geoff Brown and Sam Lord were a good alternative to the processed material presented by Vinen. Seeing Sam skillfully screen-printing posters and hearing him talk about weekly conferences and poster sessions in ’68 allowed me to visualize their daily life. Hearing Geoff talk about how the radical movement was defeated but he still persists also let me feel how they feel. Even though they would probably fall in the “loud” group in ’68, they were mostly involved in one thing, and other movements happening globally were probably just as distant to them as they were to an ordinary citizen at that time. Therefore, people’s lives were probably not as hectic as what we would have felt just by reading history books like Vinen. Literature, as opposed to history, is often written from a single and small point of view. It also carries more emotion and everyday details that history often neglects. Therefore, I am looking forward to the literature we are going to read, which may shed light on the silent majority in ’68 to see how significant the turmoil actually was.

            Of the many parallels that can be made between ‘68 and the present day, none might be as obvious, or rather, as concerning, as the escalation of violence. It is hard to ignore the fact that the ‘68ers had plenty to be upset with. Injustice was found throughout their world, just as it is today. Protests called for political action as emotions swelled and frustration grew. It seems only natural that violence followed. But as the line between politics and violence began to blur, the coherent message of ‘68ers started to fall apart. Those who vilified the unnecessary violence carried out by governments began to cause violence themselves; those who denounced the Nazis began to become anti-Semites themselves. While this hypocrisy wasn’t uniform, the combination of intense frustration and romanticizing of the “outlaw” figure in popular culture began to sway some to abandon their just principles. Due to this, I worry about what will happen in our current times.

            Last week a black man shot in the back seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Coupled with the unrest already present in the wake of George Floyd, there is plenty to be angry about. Nothing seems to change. Indeed, we see today the same kind of rioting motivated by lack of political change that was present in ’68. But I am left worried about how this violence will evolve. We’ve seen the type of damage caused by rioting escalate, and frankly, knowing the progression of ’68, I am worried it will escalate further. The parallels are there, from growing frustrations to the reemergence of the outlaw. Yet another black man being killed by police makes people increasingly infuriated with a system that not only doesn’t listen to them, but actively oppresses them.  Likewise, today’s outlaw can conceal their identity with a mask with no suspicion, emboldening people to instigate violence for fun in an otherwise peaceful protest with no repercussions.

            While the growing violence is in and of itself extremely undesirable in my opinion, the even more dangerous issue is the potential harm to today’s political message. The growing anger of the ‘68ers came to a point where its direction was often unclear or too all-encompassing. Sometimes coming to the point where their message seemingly contradicted itself, such as with the treatment of Jews. The breakdown of a political stance weakens the cause greatly, and I worry that could happen today. The movement for true equality is too important to be tampered with by growing violence, but I’m afraid that is what might come to pass.

Throughout all the different events and eras of history, the one thing that remains consistent is human behavior. In this class, we have already recognized a lot of patterns between 1968 and 2020, but the one that stands out the most is the inherent tendency of humans to be selfish.

This can be demonstrated by the hypocrisy that we have talked about in the lives of ‘68ers, where they were fighting for a movement that seemed so unselfish, all the while using it to make their own autobiographies more interesting. Once they grew up and became the age they told themselves never to trust, many of them selfishly changed from fighting for their ideals to going into politics and becoming a very influential part of the system they had previously tried so hard to take down. While this does not describe all ‘68ers, it is a pattern that can be noticed in many of their behavior. Similarly, during all of the protests and social media campaigns of 2020, I have personally seen many people use the movement for personal gain, particularly looking for praise from others on social media. Many do not actually care about the people they seem to be fighting for; rather, they care about how people will look back on them and being on the “right side of history.” 

Another prime example of this tendency is the discussion we had about the “white slavery” argument and the pattern that it seems to be used so much more during times where black Americans have been demanding equality. We are all at the center of our own narrative, so a lot of people try to relate to the hundreds of years of African American oppression in the U.S. by convincing themselves that their ancestors went through something similar. Many people cannot handle not being able to understand the suffering of black Americans and having little to no attention on themselves, so their way of trying to relate to the movement or take back attention is to bring up the “white slavery” argument.

The actions of protesters in ‘68 as well as 2020 show that selfish motives do not always result in bad outcomes. They can motivate people to do the right thing and fight for real change, but the common theme amongst everyone is that they do the things that they think will benefit themselves (or their legacy) in the long run. I think that this human tendency is the main cause of history repeating itself over and over, and I wonder what it would take to ever change it.

As more tension manifests itself through protests and violence following a series of instances of police brutality throughout America, many parallels can be drawn between the current turmoil and the tension of 1968. Both eras contain a multitude of movements surrounding perceived injustices.

Leading up to ’68 in America, the tension boiled around movements for civil rights, anti-capitalism, and campus free speech – just to name a few. Today much of the tension stems from intense political polarization and immense frustration as the US confronts the Covid-19 pandemic. While the causes of the tension aren’t exactly the same – as one would (hope to) expect more than 50 years later – the most apparent similarity is that major events coupled with the mounting tension to set off the conflict and extreme radicalism of both eras.

As Geoff Brown said, in Britain in ’68 he considered himself a radical socialist. He stated that it was the Vietnam War that truly radicalized him and launched him into activism. This seemed to be the case for many ’68ers in America. Today it was the death of George Floyd that coupled with the built-up tension in order set off conflict. Cities have been damaged, widespread looting has occurred and two people were killed during a protest in Kenosha on Tuesday night following another case of police brutality.

People change, movements change and times change. However, the trajectories of these two eras seem to be quite similar. While activism now primarily takes place on social media as opposed to ’68 when people were declaring their views via posters and the radio, the attitudes of current activists appear to be familiar. It’s too early to tell how our current situation will play out, but it might not be a terrible idea to turn to the aftermath of ’68 for an idea.

As humans, we don’t enjoy being boxed in, whether it’s into a category, a state of mind, or even a physical space. When thinking about 1968, I have tried to fit it into a compartment in my brain that can be analyzed and pored over, but every aspect of the year has been amorphous. I think it is fitting that this year is so multi-faceted; none of the groups involved in conflict at that time wished to be physically barricaded or compartmentalized. The posters that we saw in class today called for barricades to be taken down. Civil rights protests called for the ending of separation, the ending of a compartmentalized mindset in the United States. The French yearned to be free in their universities and in their work. Putting up walls and barricades only brought violence, fear, and greater radicalism.

Seeing photos of walls, barricades, posters, and murals is one way to heed the messages and imagine the tension of the Long ’68, but reaching out to touch the Peace Wall in Belfast or walking along the stone walls in Derry makes one feel that tension. Last year, I had the privilege to travel to Northern Ireland and learn about the Troubles from various perspectives. The upheaval and unrest that came in 1968 and beyond has left behind remnants that cannot be erased; there are still extremists and paramilitary groups ready and willing to incite violence at any moment, there is a sadness that hangs over each city in the rain-clouds. The walls, barriers, and gates were meant to protect each community from violence, but they kept the tension, the despair, and the grief inside of them. I hope that in moving forward through this class, I can come to think of 1968 and its conflicts as something that cannot be compartmentalized; it is a symphony of fears and categories and states of mind that mingle in raucous bursts of sound.

During the first week, while still in-person, we spoke as a class about what “American Exceptionalism” really is. Since then, I have continued to mull over that idea. As we talked about, most people believe that the USA has the best opportunities available, regardless of their political beliefs. It is not wrong to think that, it is just what we grew up with and likely what we learned in school in one way or another. It is who we are as Americans.

However, I think it also makes us numb to what happens around us. When I found this class, I was probably like most other students in being very surprised that connections could be found between the events in Ireland and the events in the US. Even more, I did not see how a whole class could rest on these connections. However, we learned from Geoff Brown and Sam Lord that much of their ideas and drive came from seeing the civil rights movement. Leaders of the movement in the US even traveled to England and Ireland to speak about their experiences. Yet, this makes me think of the likely many times that this has happened, where a foreign event has been shaped by an American event or vice versa. Do we as Americans spend too much time thinking about what has happened here and not enough time thinking about who we are affecting and who has affected us? The answer, likely to be influenced by subjectivity, is not easily answered definitively. I hope, in this class, that I might find my own answer, even if just on a small scale with respect to 1968. I also hope that I will be led to continue to broaden my horizons in my knowledge of the connectivity of worldly movements and events.

The use of posters to voice one’s opinion on a certain event has always been very fascinating to me. Instead of writing an article, a lot can be conveyed through a simple image and a few words printed onto a poster. I studied a lot, in my junior year of high school, how to analyze a political poster to understand the full story behind and meaning of a political poster. It is an art. After inspecting the posters regarding the Irish civil rights era from Geoff Brown, it is easy to understand what was going on politically when the posters were made, and the voices of civilians upon those matters. 

This poster, created after Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech of April 20, 1968, shows the anger people felt after that racist speech. This poster also touches on racism, targeting people for their skin color and race. After some research on this infamous ‘Rivers of Blood speech’, Powell essentially argued that Britain should not allow immigration to Britain from the country’s former colonies and to send home immigrants that have already moved to Britain, on the claims that there would be a violent clash between white and black communities. I think this poster is still very relevant today. With Donald Trump closing borders to countries he believes are dangerous, and the wall between the US and Mexico, anti-immigration is still prevalent. Almost four years after Trump pledged to divide Mexico and the US with a wall, it has not been completed for the reasons why this poster was created: immigrants are not the issue, racism is. With the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, there is still a fight to end racism, making yet another connection between 1968 and 2020.  

My earliest memories take place in airports; in these recollections, I blink sleep out of my eyes as the hypnotic conveyor belt spins round and round. It is hard to remember where I was in those jet-lagged moments. Possibly America (where I went to school), or maybe Italy and Greece (where I spent summers with my grandparents). There was a personal odyssey uncovered through balancing these three identities, cultures, and languages. Unfortunately, along with it came a source of self-doubt and shame (both are a result of the lack of my ability to communicate and the absence of any patriotic roots), something I struggled to shed throughout my childhood.

 I have never spent a full year in one continent, nor a full day in one language. Summers were spent in countries and immersed in cultures completely separate from my life at school– in American school, I was placed in a course that deemed English as my Second Language. While I eventually learned English, one subject that I am both literally and figuratively foreign to is US History. At home, my history lessons strictly revolved around Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. My restricted, public school education didn’t have much to offer either.  

 In fact, part of the reason I took this course was due to the large gaps in my knowledge regarding US History. Specifically, in relation to the year 1968, before I read the course description, I had no idea that this year carried the significance it does. As I was reading ‘1968’, I found myself routinely stopping after each paragraph to look up the different terms, events, and ideas I hadn’t heard of before. It became particularly tasking yet rewarding to connect them back to the ones mentioned previously in the text. Even though this demonstrates how heavily intimidating the source material is to me, I feel inspired by the wealth of knowledge I am going to gain by the end of this semester. 

I’ve always thought that the past is an important aspect of understanding the present. Furthermore, due to today’s political climate, my ignorance of past US events (and worldwide) has never been more apparent. When reading about the years leading up to 1968 and the events that were unfolding during it as well, I caught myself repeatedly drawing parallels to the experiences currently taking place in the United States today. Whether it be the protests for Black Lives Matter connecting to the Black Power movement; the strong disapproval of authority figures; the radical political views on both the right and left; the transnational exchange of ideas (as can be seen from Black Lives Matter protests happening abroad); or more, it would be an understatement to claim that history is beginning to repeat itself. 

In conjunction with this idea, it is said that insanity can be deemed as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. How can we learn from the past so that we do not make the same mistakes? We are living in a time that people feel comfortable, if not encouraged, to demand change. Shouldn’t we look back to the past to find the best answers to achieve that desired change? In this class, by learning more US History, not only do I hope to find the answers to these said questions, but I also wish to chip away at the residual shame that has accumulated from my childhood.

I am excited to learn about the confluence of Irish and African experiences in the tumultuous ’68. I do recognize that the groups are vastly different from one another but look forward to analyzing the parallels that can be drawn. Thus far, I have found Vinen’s novel to have done a good job in setting up the foundation to begin making these connections. The sheer amount of social and political upheaval of ’68 is fascinating. However, it seems that many of the parallels that we will lay out over the course of the semester will be between ’68 and the present day. I certainly sense that the current cultural attitude is similar to that of ’68. An utterly polarized political landscape along with several looming threats is an environment ripe for drastic, sweeping changes. While I am young, I believe it is telling that at no point in my life has society felt so unsettled by current events. The global pandemic is just the tip of the dumpster fire our generation has inherited; massively daunting challenges such as global warming, racial inequality, and potential economic collapse in the wake of the lockdown lie on the horizon. From reading Vinen, I felt that same sense of desperate fear for the future— young people such as the students in ’68 felt the need to voice out against the system for fear of their futures.