American Politics & Pop Culture

Obviously this music and movement held a lot of power, as Perone article discusses on page 702, they “had the numbers”. With much of the nation in support, they were a threat to the government, although really they shouldn’t have been. Tariq Ali states that, “The notion that the world’s largest, most powerful, imperial nation - the United States of America - could be seriously threatened by a writer, an intellectual, a singer, a painter, is laughable - I mean, it’s just a joke.” However, it didn’t take long for the government to see this “joke” as a real threat. If it were not a threat, they would not have tried so hard to shut it down. If it were nothing to worry about, they wouldn’t have FBI agents in the crowd writing down lyrics.
The whole deportation thing was a complete farce. If it wasn’t, why would they have waited until that point to file a case against him? They waited until the height of his peace movement to thinkup this shenannigan. Everyone knew it was completely bogus, especially the Lennons, but it’s hard to fight when you’re playing with the people that make the rules. The government had to bring him down some way and apparently the marijuana charge was the best they had to work with. It was definitely not warranted and certainly unfair.
Somewhere along the path of history, the U.S. got the idea that they could stop all resistance/disagreement with what they did. We have seen it in history many, many times before- whether it be with political assasinations, “accidents” etc. I am sure the general public has no idea about how many people aka “revolutionists” that the government has attempted to silence. And all of this, in a nation where our constitution dedicates our country to free speech. However, apparently that’s only if you are not going against war efforts or the what the government says.
In reference to the FBI agent that stated, “Anyone who didn’t like [America] could either shut up or leave,” I say, if we are all sheep just following blindly, what happens when we are led off of a cliff? If we don’t speak up, nothing will change. If Blacks didn’t take a stand against racism back then, we may still have slavery or even be drinking from different fountains. If women didn’t take a stand, they wouldn’t be able to vote or work outside of the kitchen. We have seen plenty of examples like these in history where people have taken a stand against injustice and it eventually led to change. We all know that the government does a lot of things that are questionable, but if the people stand by and do nothing, we are just as guilty as they are. Thus, I definitely disagree with this statement by the agent. If the government is in place for the benefit of the people, then it should be held accountable by those same people. Thus, the leftist radicals of the 60’s were not disloyal or traitors, they were doing exactly what they should do as citizens. It was the government official being disloyal to the foundations that America was built on and betraying the rights of the people to question their decisions.
On a side note, one thing that resonated with me during the movie, was how similar this situation is to the one we face today.Take a look at these elements:
Unpopular, unnecessary war
Thousands die on both sides
People are upset and protest
President who started it promises to end it once re-elected
The people buy into it and elect him again
No timetable or real plan for cessation of war given
Does any of that sound familiar? Only difference is Bush hasn’t resigned due to scandal…yet. It is baffling to me how so little changes. History truly does repeat itself.