In a lot of ways the 60's were ironic and inscrutable. They were a time of protest and also of predictability, of massive moral upheaval and "long grey line" sameness. They reflected the contradictory impulses of the youthful spirit(s) that ruled during that time.
It was a time of self-indulgence and addiction, and of great moral courage and achievement. If you were living during that time you couldn't outlast or ignore the changes, but you could try to discern them and choose your own path through them.
I am a Baby Boomer -- and became truly aware in the 60's. Because of a hypertensive Jesuit education (doubt everything; question everything) I both lived within and outside of many different strands of that era. Sex, drugs, rock and roll --- and family, duty, country --- did not contradict each other in my understanding. You could be anything you wanted to be in the 60's -- and that is what I still am striving to become.
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