1968 vs 2020: Compare and contrast

[Green Habit]

Keeping it short for now, I would say the similarities are that both are calling for massive teardowns and rebuilds of institutions, and holding the differences as while 1968 was decried as institutions being too structured, with 2020 the complaints are that they're not enough structured enough.

[Simple Torture]

It's a shame there's never any good assassinations anymore.

There have been the two nearly-successful assassination attempts on sitting members of congress in the last decade.

[Simple Torture]

It's a shame there's never any good assassinations anymore.

There have been the two nearly-successful assassination attempts on sitting members of congress in the last decade.

I'll add "that I can think of."

[Mickey]

Keeping it short for now, I would say the similarities are that both are calling for massive teardowns and rebuilds of institutions, and holding the differences as while 1968 was decried as institutions being too structured, with 2020 the complaints are that they're not enough structured enough.

Or structured improperly? Otherwise I think I broadly agree with this. If 68 inaugurated global anti-systemic movements reflected in something like Prague Spring but continuing with Battle of Seattle, anti-IMF riots, etc. the new age of protests don't seem to dream of an escape from the system anymore.

[Mickey]

It's a shame there's never any good assassinations anymore.

There have been the two nearly-successful assassination attempts on sitting members of congress in the last decade.

Steve Scalise is still out here.

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Mickey]

Keeping it short for now, I would say the similarities are that both are calling for massive teardowns and rebuilds of institutions, and holding the differences as while 1968 was decried as institutions being too structured, with 2020 the complaints are that they're not enough structured enough.

Or structured improperly? Otherwise I think I broadly agree with this. If 68 inaugurated global anti-systemic movements reflected in something like Prague Spring but continuing with Battle of Seattle, anti-IMF riots, etc. the new age of protests don't seem to dream of an escape from the system anymore.

Let's parse this out a bit...

UBI
Free college
Defund the police
Single payer healthcare
"The green new deal"

Why don't these equate to a dream of an escape from the system, in your mind?

In very basic terms because they require a *massive* public infrastructure? I mean, I'm thinking in very broad strokes here, but Michael Denning has (rightly, I think) characterized post-68 as having an ethos of anti-totalitarianism, anti-statism--hence "anti-systemic" where the system in question is Wallerstein's world-system. Think about, say, the EZLN revolt in Chiapas: the dream isn't a better Mexican state but the end of the Mexican state in favor of local autonomy, indigenous sovereignty, etc. I think that desire for the local is fading, even if there are signposts like "we protect each other" going around--revolutionary and radical desire, at least in the US but I also think elsewhere, has shifted to a different object, a more robust, possibly more democratic state instead of the abolition of the state. Whether that's because the possibility of escaping the global economy seems far-fetched now or some other push of historical forces, I can't say, but I do think Nick has identified a key difference.

But again, broad strokes. Something like NoDAPL would maybe frustrate this. Not sure how seriously we want to take the CHAZ, but you could also look at the ZAD and Occupy as similar movements of land seizure. So perhaps we have to say that there is no unified global resistance right now, but that as the spectre of authoritarian communism dissipates there's conflicting desires for revisiting the role of the state.

[Mickey]

Btw this is the Denning book I have in mind, which I believe is, erm, available online.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/163-cu ... ree-worlds

[Green Habit]

Yep, Mickey has the general idea of what I'm getting at.