To Some People, The 1960s Were The Best Of Times, To Others It Was A Period Where Many Things Went Wrong In The Society, Why Do People Have Such Different Ideas About The 1960s?

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To Some People, The 1960’s Were The Best Of Times, To Others It Was A Period Where Many Things Went Wrong In The Society, Why Do People Have Such Different Idea’s About The 1960’s?

        In this essay, I will explain how society had such diverse opinions about the 1960’s. The two main groups of people that I will be focusing on are Traditionalists and Liberals and I will be reasoning their different thoughts and opinions about the changes that took place in the sixties. The following are significant factors that affected the beliefs of these two different groups: Traditional ideas, Attack on the Establishment, Break down of society, New Liberal ideas and Nostalgia. This essay will contain an explanation and description of the above factors.

        To begin with, there was the traditional group. The traditionalists were people who adhere to tradition, especially in cultural and regional practises. They saw the changes that took place throughout the sixties as a threat to traditionalism as people were more illegible and free to do what they wanted as they were more independent, therefore they didn’t want society to go out of control.

         In 1961, the pill was on sale. It not only provided a safe form of contraception, but also reduced painful menstruation and even acne. Traditionalists thought that this was a disgrace as they believed in natural intercourse and also it was available to unmarried women as well as married women therefore the pill was blamed for an increase in sexual immorality. How ever, this is not proven. It is true that there were more pregnancies in the 1960’s than the 1950’s but that was true for every decade in the twentieth century. On the other hand liberals thought this was a great invention because for women the pill seemed to be a simple solution to a difficult problem. Traditionalists also believed that people with lower class should be segregated from people with higher class. Prime Minister Harold Wilson that was elected in 1964 was from a working class, he wanted society to become more meritocratic so people would do well because of their ability not because of their social status and how much money they had. People began to dress differently and wear clothes that were for everyone instead of clothes that showed class difference. More over, posh accents became unpopular and middleclass people began to adopt cockney accents. Traditionalists thought that this was an outrage as class was very important in Britain in the 1950’s and it was expected that lower-class would be respectful to upper-class. Alternatively, liberals thought that this was great as people were now recognised for talent and hard work, not money!

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        During the 1960’s more young people than ever before in Britain started to carry on their education after school. The number of student’s doubled and 16 new universities were opened to cater for all these new students. At university, young people had more time to question and think about the world they lived in. many came to a conclusion that there were many important things wrong with the world around them. They no longer accepted the authority and people of the establishment so they began to protest. It became fashionable to protest about issues such as the American involvement ...

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