“We want nothing of a world in which the certainty of not dying from hunger comes in exchange for the risk of dying from boredom.” — a slogan from France’s 1968 riots

The year 1968 epitomized the Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Interesting they were, in the extreme.

In the United States, we had the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and race riots that set cities ablaze. We had hippies getting their skulls cracked outside the Democrat nominating convention, a campaign made interesting when LBJ opted not to run for reelection (he had health and Vietnam issues). We had a naval ship, the USS Pueblo, captured by North Korea.

In Czechoslovakia, citizens rose up against the Soviets in what’s now called the Prague Spring. After a brief period of optimism, the Evil Empire sent in tanks and crushed the movement.

But France in May 1968 was most extreme. Nearly two thirds of its citizens went out on a general strike. The military moved into cities and universities trying to restore order. Things got so tense, Charles DeGaulle decamped temporarily at an Air Force base in Germany.

The revolt failed, but had long term impacts. As the Wikipedia entry says:

In France, it is considered to be the watershed moment that saw the replacement of conservative morality (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) with the liberal morality (equality, sexual liberation, human rights) that dominates French society today. Although this replacement did not take place solely in this one month, the term mai 68 is used to refer to the shift in values, especially when referring to its most idealistic aspects.

Today, when I hear talking heads and political candidates whine about the supposedly tough times we’re living in, I have to laugh. Forty years ago revolution was in the air. Things were strange. Authority was being questioned. But for all that, it was nothing compared to my parents who endured the Great Depression and World War II.