History Repeats Itself, Right?

The past year has been one of the most transformative and unpredictable years in the modern conscience. Just muttering “2020” ensures a groan or sign of dismay, with 2021 only bringing more unpredictability.

In this time of social unrest, calls for justice, lockdown under indefinite proportions, and public outcry at its very peak, it seems as if this current time is the most socially aware and active as ever. Yet, for those of the ever-so-proud Baby Boomer generation, it seems as if history is repeating itself. Amongst the singular worst years that have claimed the public mind, one specific decade brings one that can rival 2020 itself.

Setting the tone for the 1960’s, the parallels seem all the more familiar. It was a decade marked by the shift from post-WWII mindset, assassinations of prominent figureheads, the brink of nuclear destruction, and a youth counterculture movement.

One year specifically that highlights the most unrest, tragedy, and ever-so “2020-esque” dread was that of 1968. In a year where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert (Bobby) Kennedy were gunned down, the nation was thrust into an unwinnable and unfavorable war with Vietnam, and the spirit of change seemed to ebb and flow throughout the people of the United States. This year was one of social protests and unrest such ensuing post the 1968 Democratic Convention or across the world.

In a year where LBJ announced he would not run for president, the Tet offensive claimed soldiers lives, student protests occurred simultaneously around the nation and the world, Olympians rose their hands in silent protest against racial discrimination, and more. The list goes on and on, with some seemingly vital and consequential events happening and marking that calendar. So what can the year 1968 show us about 2020 and beyond?

The 60s already was a time of protests and the call for change, with its means being delivered from way of songs or sit-ins or situational shoot downs at times. Public and political change ushered in by the Civil Rights Movement, vocality by way of the Women’s Rights movement, and the youth counterculture mimics current social awareness every “hip” young adult seems to possess. It was young adults, especially college-aged ones, who made up the crowds singing at Woodstock or at the walkways protesting the Vietnam War on college campuses. And although they didn’t flood their Instagram stories with reposts and political posts, many were out and part of this growing youth counterculture movement.

1968 itself was a year of similar tension to now: a conservative President now at the helm of the nation, protests nearing a boiling point, and unsolved issues and newfound problems all coming together. One of the major moments that seems to call into mind the correlation between these two years is the DNC Convention held in Chicago. After the surprise announcement that LBJ wouldn’t run again and the death of Bobby Kennedy following his earlier declaration of his campaign, the convention that year was set to be a battleground for change on multiple fronts.

If you want to learn more about what happened, the Netflix movie “Trial of the Chicago Seven” is a great way to learn, yet go into it knowing that there have been some creative liberties taken. Yet, it is those images of young members of the Yippies group yelling at cops or those being taken custody by police that seems to be reminiscent of what was on last year. It seemed as if many of those ideas fought for back then, are still those repeated on the front line of protest groups.

Thinking about what 1968 had brought, it can seem that what we have seen this past year can echo some of the events. And although there do lie correlations between the 14 points set out by the Black Lives Matter movement of today and the 10 points by the Black Panther Party, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and John Lewis echoing a similar sadness of political figures who had also passed, or the looming feeling that the world was going to end, it seems as if everything faced now may not really stand up to those seen in the 60s. However bad it's gotten, capital insurrection and pandemic policies included, it does seem like this has been seen before. It isn’t really right to judge what happens now to a world that is entirely different from the one of the current. What can be learned from these two titular “bad” years are all the positives and progress that has emerged.

History doesn’t repeat itself, rather some of the same issues remain unsolved and unchanged. It is only when actual change occurs that history moves on from something of the past to something representing the future.