FREE PRESS: Was there anything really unique about Isla Vista,
as distinct from what was going on in other college communities
across the nation?
FLACKS: What struck me very strongly when I arrived here from
the University of Chicago was that there was a much more pervasive
and integrated sense of rebellion against authority here. And
this wasn't just among the activists! I mean, your father was
a part of it, the police was a part of it, the University Administration
was a part of it. Nixon was part of it.
In a sense, everyone in their youth rebels against authority.
But you learn to suppress and control these feelings because
these feelings are unsafe, even dangerous. So, you learn to
"play by the rules," at least outwardly. Maybe you'll
break some of the rules in private; that kind of split of the
"self" is quite ordinary.
But, what happened here was that there was some kind of mass
release from that need to suppress the rebellion. When thousands
of people are marching in defiance of authority, suddenly you
become "authorized" to rebel against that authority,
to express those buried feelings. And, there was an emotional,
psychological release in expressing them, especially with a
whole lot of other people expressing them, too.
Social systems of control are pretty fragile to begin with.
And when they got challenged in a very comprehensive way, they
collapsed.
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