Does Anyone Else Think This is a Silly Framework?
Posted On Thursday, April 24, 2008 at at 10:36 AM by Dan
I was listening to the Democracy Now podcast when Amy Goodman mentioned the group Recreate 68. Of course, I had to check this out. How could I possibly pass up the chance to read about a group struggling to go back in time?
If you haven't had a chance yet, read Bill Fletcher's commentary Doing Elections. I am particularly reminded of this line, "there are those who wish to engage in an electoral politics that does not exist in the USA and wish to avoid the electoral politics that does." The Recreate 68 folks seem to me to be folks who wish to engage a social movement of 40 years ago instead of the lack of a social movement today. We can't recreate 1968 because the social conditions of today are different then they were then.
To be fair, their website does state they don't mean to be a "not a throwback group trying to relieve some vision of glory days long gone." But just because you say don't make it so. They also state we all have a voice inside ourselves "that has realized we live in a police state and we have stopped moving forward 40 years ago." I'm down with the police state part, but do they really think we haven't done anything since Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman ran a pig for President? It just reminds me too much of the white pacifist groups pulling together another march, another rally, etc. because that's what they know rather than truly engaging in the politics of building power.
Besides, why would I want to recreate 1968 when I don't look good in bell bottoms?
