Newsweek has a big cover story this week about 1968.
I have written here many times about the importance of 1968 in setting America's political course.
It is time we buried 1968.
The average American today was not born in 1968. Why should they have the course of their lives determined by something which happened before they were born?
What are the problems of 1968 to us, that we should continue to be dominated by them? What are the solutions of 1968, that they should remain relevant?
Newsweek calls 1968 "the year that made us who we are." No it didn't. It didn't make me who I am. It didn't make my wife who she is. It's easy to note that Barack Obama was just a first-grader in 1968, but Hillary Clinton had yet to graduate college or meet Bill Clinton, and John Edwards was a teenager.
It is time we buried 1968.
I do not doubt the power 1968 holds over the editors of Newsweek, and
everyone else in the Washington Village, but consider its distance from
us in time:
- We are further removed from 1968 than the Spanish-American War was from the start of the Civil War, by 2 years.
- We are further removed from 1968 than the end of the Second World War was from the start of the First -- by 8 years.
- We are further removed from 1968 than the dawn of television was from the launch of the Model T Ford -- by 8 years.
- We are as far removed from 1968 as 1968 was removed from the dawn of talking pictures.
- The first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, had not come to market by 1968.
- The first oil shock came in 1973, five years after 1968.
The picture above, an iconic image from the bottom of the Great Depression, taken in 1932, is closer in time to 1968 than we are to 1968, by 4 years.
It is time we buried 1968.
In 1968 I was 13. I watched 1968 on TV, and did not participate in it. Today I am nearly 53. My kids can only read about 1968 from history books, and one of them is already a registered voter.
It is time we buried 1968.
It is time Newsweek, and everyone else in the Washington Village, buried 1968. It is past time for us to stop obsessing about 1968, to stop even caring about 1968.
You can start this process easily, by tossing your copy of this week's Newsweek into the nearest recycling bin and canceling your subscription.
Recent Comments