1968

A Year of Militancy and Protest

 

In 1968 Edward Abbey’s most famous book, Desert Solitaire, was published.

 

“A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself. If industrial man continues to multiply its numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making. He will make himself an exile from the earth.”

 

The average cost of a new house was $15K

 

The average cost of a new car was $2,800

 

A gallon of gas cost 00.34 cents

 

Top Grossing film was 2001: A Space Odessey

 

The Beatles release “Hey Jude” (hottest single of the year) and “Revolution”:

 

“You say you want a revolution, well, you know
We all wanna change the world
You tell me that it's evolution, well, you know
We all wanna change the world”

 

The Vietnam War

 

            Battle of Khe Sanh Marine Base

 

            The Tet Offensive

 

            The Massacre at Hué (Viet Cong massacre 4K to 6K civilians with clubs)

 

            Walter Cronkite on the evening news calls for negotiations

 

            Anti-war sentiment becomes widespread across the US, especially college campuses

 

MyLai Massacre, US forces massacre 300 to 500 civilians in the MyLai village

 

Millions of students turn out for war protests in the US and Europe

 

Martin Luther King, Jr assassinated (Race Riots and demonstrations across the US)

 

Robert F. Kennedy assassinated (JFK’s brother, would have been elected president)

 

The 1968 Civil Rights Act (prohibited discrimination based on race)

 

Multiple Militant Ethnic and Racial movements across the US (i.e. Black Power)

 

Women’s and Gay Rights groups turn militant

 

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers on television

 

Mexico City Summer Olympics (two African American athletes raise their fists on podium)

 

1968 Presidential Election, Nixon elected

 

Chicago Riots (Chicago site of National Democratic Convention)

 

  

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

 

“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.”

 “A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.”

 “You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.”

“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.”

 

 “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.  May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

 “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

 “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

 “Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while, then a layer of scum floats to the top.”

“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”

 

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

 

“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture—that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.”

 

“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.”

 

“Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.”

 

“The ugliest thing in America is greed, the lust for power and domination, the lunatic ideology of perpetual Growth - with a capital G. 'Progress' in our nation has for too long been confused with 'Growth'; I see the two as different, almost incompatible, since progress means, or should mean, change for the better - toward social justice, a livable and open world, equal opportunity and affirmative action for all forms of life. And I mean all forms, not merely the human. The grizzly, the wolf, the rattlesnake, the condor, the coyote, the crocodile, whatever, each and every species has as much right to be here as we do.”

 

“Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.”

 

“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.”

 

“An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

 

“I despise my own nation most. Because I know it best. Because I still love it, suffering from Hope. For me, that's patriotism.”

 

“When guns are outlawed, only the Government will have guns. The Government - and a few outlaws. If that happens, you can count me among the outlaws.”

 

“Each thing in its way, when true to its own character, is equally beautiful.

 

“I am hopeful, though not full of hope, and the only reason I don't believe in happy endings is because I don't believe in endings.”

 

“If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.”

 

“If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making.”

 

“All we have, it seems to me, is the beauty of art and nature and life, and the love which that beauty inspires.”