1968: Lessons Learned

Did the protests and protesters of 1968, all together, make up the Weltseele on pavements? Those Old Regimes fell in the early nineteenth century only to be resurrected, re-overthrown and re-resurrected, re-invented and . . . and . . . and . . . . A lot happened before a stable, Western constitutional order emerged after 1945. Look only at the Big Historical Picture, you'll miss contingencies. Nineteen-sixty-eight challenged the post-1945 order. Many people were surprised because what had seemed sound rattled. There was much original in the 1960s, but not this surprise. People (especially intellectuals) often mystify what is in front of them, imagining the past leads inevitably to it or that it opens an inevitable future. Recall the "end of history" riffs in the decade or so before 1968. Some reveled in what was perceived to be the end to challenges to the One Big Idea (liberalism). Others despaired. We were reduced to (circle one or more): lonely crowds, organizational men, one-dimensionality, or structures. There was truth in all this, but only some.