Pro/Con: Was society better in the 1960s when peace and love was promoted?

Society has changed significantly in the last 50 years. Technology, music, and education are just a few of the changes. Was life better then?

Pro:

By: Michael Winn
The 1960s were a time of revolution in American life and culture. It affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. With over 70,000,000 baby boomers becoming teens in the ‘60s, the youth dominated this revolution.

Time then was better than today in that thought back then included peace, love, and happiness and ‘non-violence’ movements. Culture was evolving too, and the 1960s produced some of the greatest artists and writers such as Andy Warhol and his pop art from ‘62 to ‘67, to Harper Lee and her famous novel To Kill A Mockingbird (1960). Music was the definition of the 1960s with icons like “The Beatles” and “The Beach Boys”, which innovated rock music, and promoted peace and love.

The most famous moment in music for the 1960s would be ‘Woodstock’, in which 400,000 young people rocked out in support of love and sharing. Another huge movement going on was the Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr., which encouraged changes throughout the ‘60s in support of African American equality.

The youth of the decade swayed the fashions and trends. Fashion had it’s own tastes then too, with men’s longer hair, beards, and mustaches, to women’s ‘big’ hair-do’s and African American’s afro look. Clothing brought forth a new look with bright colored clothing, jackets, polyester pant-suits, and turtlenecks contributing to the scene. At least fashions then encouraged teens to dress well, while sagging jeans and ‘hoodie’ styles would be shunned in ‘60s society.

Perhaps the best representation of this decade is influenced by the space race, which sent the first American to space in 1961, orbit the Earth in 63’, and walk on the moon with Neil Armstrong in Apollo XI in 1969. The 1960s population was definitely united by this space program in a way that no one today could possibly recreate today. I think that the ‘60s were definitely safer, and better than the world today in 2010. Kids could walk to school alone without being kidnapped like today, and could unite and voice their opinion in a non-violent way together, full of peace, love, and happiness.

Con:

By Tasia Falcon
Society in 2010 consists of all different religions, ethnicity, customs and traditions mixed together. Still they accept each other for the most part, better than in the 1960s.
In modern society, people can make decisions for themselves and do the things they want to do within reason. However in the society of the 1960s, many people were oppressed and therefore could not live life how they wanted.

In the 1960s, African Americans were fighting for equality. People like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were fighting for African American civil rights. Now we have our first ever African American president, Barack Obama.

Laws today are better at protecting people of this generation than in the last 50 past years. Women have more rights now, than they did in the 1960s. In the early 1960s women were discriminated against in the workplace until the Civil Rights Movement barred it. Women were excluded from educational programs, school activities and everything else that was federally funded.
Now, women are treated just like men in the workforce. They are equally paid, have equal job positions and cannot be discriminated against. It’s no longer a “man’s world.”

Society has improved significantly since the 1960s with new, more advanced technologies, such as cell phones and computers with internet. There are now even cell phones with internet available on them. People can keep in touch and meet new people easier and faster than 50 years ago. Now we have technology where we can do almost anything with the touch of a few buttons.

In the 1960s there was not as much technology. Life was way harder and to say society was better when people did not have half of the things they have in today’s society, would be crazy. Back then, it was work, work, work!

In today’s society, people get tattoos, piercings, and write books or songs without being judged or told not to do it. Back then, people could have done these things, but with more judgment.
There have been a lot of positive changes between the 1960s and now.