Analysis and Restrospective: cont...
FLACKS: So, when these common experiences were combined with such
deep-felt needs to express rebellion against illegitimate authority,
this all got released in mass demonstrations
I suppose, too, that the close proximity of so many people of
the same age [75% of I.V. at that time was students--it's 60%
now, up from 50% in the mid-'70s] in such a densely packed, ghetto
environment, added a lot to this common experience.
This was the biggest difference between what I saw here and what
was happening in the East, where it was primarily political activists
who were at the forefront of the demonstrations. But here, it
was a much broader spectrum of people who were involved, and they
were involved more to release cultural repression than just to
achieve political goals.
In other words, it was the golden sons and daughters of California
who burned down the Bank of America. This was a new generation
of people who were convinced that the values their parents were
trying to teach them just didn't work--because they weren't working
in the parents' lives.
What
Whalen and I discovered in interviewing a lot of the I.V. activists
of that time was they were overwhelmed with the feeling that there
was some kind of Apocalypse coming. There was a pervasive belief
that everything was coming to a head, and that there was no sense
in planning for the future, at least in a personal sense, because
the U.S. was headed toward some kind of civil war, some kind of
total conflict.
The things which were going on in I.V. were also happening across
the country. For example, the killing of four people by the National
Guard at Kent State University.
I believe, too, that if these same people came through Isla
Vista five years earlier, they wouldn't have been involved in
these activities. But, it was this amazing combination of personal
and social experiences which lead to the events we are recalling.
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