Sorry for the odd placement of the mov.
Stolen from http://transafixion.com/
, I highly recommend it. Besides the great footage, some never seen before, the connection between this film and today are amazing. The fight John Lennon and everyone else from the late 60’s were fighting is still being fought today.
The peace movement never broke through. In fact, it failed. Since the end of Vietnam, the only relatively good president we’ve had is Jimmy Carter. And during that period Republicans slowly (and then forcefully in 1994) took back congress and moved this country further and further to the right.
And it’s just not that the Republicans took back congress. Rather, the Democrats (championed by Bill Clinton) decided that the ideals of the early 70’s just weren’t “winning” ideas, and moved their politics towards the right. And in terms of politics, and thus in my opinion the power to create change in our country, the peace movement during the Vietnam war was a failure. Moreover, it’s actually people from that era that have created this Republican dominated landscape where war is seen as a viable policy option.
Lennon said, “The ‘flower power’ didn’t work, so were trying it another way.”
It’s too bad he couldn’t keep it going because who knows what else he would have accomplished. And this brings me back to the film. The fight Lennon, and Kennedy and everyone else was fighting for is still being fought today. Today we are fighting the same, pro-war, anti-community movement that existed back then, only it’s worse now. Between 1982 and 2002, the ball was dropped. Yeah, there were some people doing amazing things throughout that period, but over all, the right wing of this country took over. Until 2002, there was no strong movement to move the country forward towards the ideals of the 60’s.
Some of you may not know this, but right now, there is a huge progressive infrastructure developing across the country. It’s what has created this Democratic and progressive wave taking place in Congress this year. It’s what has helped push most of the Democratic party into stopping this awful war in Iraq. And this infrastructure is going to change this country more than anyone can imagine.
But this wasn’t by accident. Generation X and Y have picked up the ball. We have taken the ideals that Lennon and Dylan eloquently spoke and sung about, stopped using protests as the means to the end, and put them into an infrastructure the will turn this country to what we all know and believe is possible.
This might all seem optimistic against the backdrop of the worst presidency in the history of this country, but I’ve been following this movement since ‘03, and participating since ‘05, and I will tell you first hand that this country is about to become the place everyone has dreamed it could be.
It won’t take place over night, but within your lifetime and with your help, you will feel the change…maybe even experience it. And John Lennon’s Image will not be a goal, rather it will be life.
Via Ian @ Transafixion
