Mass Movement

Mass movements mostly come out of nowhere or at least left field. What preceded the sixties were the fifties which as we all are reminded was the era of the gray flannel suit and political apathy except for the McCarthy witch hunts. But student activism started not much after 1960 on college campuses and then coalesced with the civil rights movement that stayed joined at the hip throughout Vietnam protests. And there was a bonafide mass movement that many people left and center, black and white, could easily join. This movement broke the back of the anti-communist witch hunts of the previous decade.  The movement had organic roots and the participants all had vested interests of one kind or another. Sadly the unions opposed and argued against this movement as they didn't see there were any advantages to being part of the movement and as time went on and Vietnam ended and civil rights moved forward though at a snail's pace. Fragmentation occurred and we are where we are today. ( far too complex for me to go into here). But the seeds have been planted and another movement will eventually emerge. It's not apathy as big mouth Nugent says. It's history and history comes at us in waves and some are smaller and some tsunamis.  And this generation will give rise to another and so on and eventually that tsunami will happen and most of us won't see it coming.