The real 1960s revolution

Did you miss it?

For most Baby Boomers, and others, the 60s are best remembered for free love, plenty of drugs, the Vietnam War, all sorts of protests, an active music scene, and devastating assassinations. Even now, many folks who should know better insist that all of this “revolutionized” America.

However, while these things were going on, the REAL revolution was taking place. Indeed, profound changes were put forth that dramatically transformed this country, and not for the better.

The school prayer decisions

***Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) : School-sponsored prayer in public schools is unconstitutional.

A New York State law required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God. The law allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found it objectionable. The petitioner held that this practice violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

As with so many “landmark” Supreme Court decisions, the reasoning is laughable. How in the world was New York State establishing a religion? And, that argument was raised in the dissent. For what it’s worth, Engel’s group was comprised of Jews, atheists, and a few “I’m very religious but not a churchgoer” types.

***School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp, 374 US 203 (1963): A required Bible reading each morning, even as later made voluntary, is unconstitutional.

Under Pennsylvania law, public schools were required to read from the Bible at the opening of each school day. The school district, no doubt seeing which way the wind was blowing, sought to enjoin enforcement of the statute. The district court ruled that the statute violated the First Amendment, even after the statute had been amended to permit a student to excuse himself. 

Interestingly, this case was combined with Murray v. Curlett, brought by Maryland atheists who challenged a city rule that provided for similar Bible readings, and the Maryland court held that this did not violate the First Amendment.

As such, essentially any expression of religion was removed from the public square. Naturally, many opposed these decisions, including President John F. Kennedy, but the die was cast, and the US was well on its way of becoming a functionally atheistic country. It is difficult to overestimate the profound effects these decisions have had on America.

While morality can certainly exist outside of a religious context, whatever those principles might be are necessarily watered down to fit the popular culture, and by extension, man becomes God. Or, do you think that the morality of the US is higher now than before the decisions were handed down?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

This law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Little comment was made at the time that most of the discrimination in place was put there by the government. Still, rights once removed were brought back. But, soon after, the problems with the Feds enforcing “civil rights” began to emerge.

“Affirmative Action” originally meant that strong action would be taken to encourage the participation of those previously discriminated against. But, this soon morphed into full-blown quotas, based on the absurd notion that wrongs of the past could somehow be corrected by more discrimination (largely against white males) in the present.

Even worse, discrimination and violations of civil rights were now seen in every conceivable setting. Thus, it is somehow a civil rights violation to prohibit “trans” athletes from competing against biological women.

Medicare and Medicaid Act (July, 1965)

Originally set up to get the Feds involved with healthcare services for the poor and elderly, mission creep led to the formation of gigantic and sinfully wasteful agencies, that now control all aspects of healthcare in the US—whether directly or indirectly. At the time the law was enacted, we were assured that it would only and forever apply to the destitute and old people.

The net result is our country paying the most money in the world for a system that has destroyed the doctor/patent relationship, while putting incompetent and feckless bureaucrats in charge. While we don’t yet have fully socialized medicine, the debacle of Medicare/Medicaid has put us dangerously close.

Immigration and Nationality Act (December, 1965)

In the earliest known expression of white guilt, this law changed many provisions of how immigrants were to be chosen, with the original favoring of Western Europeans being jettisoned. Of course, naysayers were assured at the time that the intent of the law was NOT to change the composition of America, but that is precisely what it did.

There is no doubt that the evil minds behind this law realized that their dream of America as a socialist paradise could not occur unless the American character itself were drastically changed. And, they were willing to wait decades to accomplish this.

All of the above was hiding in plain sight, amid the sex, drugs, and rock and roll.