The events that people could see made Britain and the world extremely pleased with themselves and the development of technology. In 1966 England won the world cup, due to the invention of colour television, home spectators could see the matches live and in lifelike colours. This made the viewers feel more engaged and made the 60s seem like the best time to be living. As well as sporting events, the broadcast of the moon landing was a massive success. People everywhere were astounded by the news and the world just froze to watch the landing. This filled the people everywhere with a good feeling of success and also contributed to the amazing overview of the 1960s.
As well as amazing times, people suffered through the worst of times too. There were many conflicts and disasters that affected the way people thought about their own lives and others.
The Berlin wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin was erected in 1961. This split up families and friends and was a real downfall to the 1960s. This also made people in Britain think about how their lives would be affected by the crisis and also stirred up a lot of anger toward the German government.
Throughout the 1960s there were also several crises in America. Two of America’s greatest men and influencers were assassinated. John F Kennedy, US President, was assassinated whilst in the back of an open top car. Also, Martin Luther-King was assassinated while in the hotel he was staying at while representing AFSCME. These two horrors made the nation fall silent and thousands of people were devastated that people could do such things. This was, to some people, where things started to go wrong.
As well as the assassinations, America was heavily involved in the Vietnam Conflict (or second Indochina war). This meant the loss of many US troops and thousands of dollars being spent on the war. This meant that people were angry that men were lost and they were annoyed that so much money was spent on the war.
Another crisis the Americans were strongly involved in was the Cuban Missile Crisis during the cold war. This sent the whole of the US into shock and many US citizens were scared of the consequences. America and Russia both had nuclear weapons and were threatening to use them. This was a horrible scare and contributed to many peoples negative thoughts about the 1960s.
Other than crises and wars abroad, a disaster much closer to home was that of Aberfan in Wales. An immense pile of unwanted rock and rubble from a local mine collapsed and slid down Merthyr Mountain. This damaged lots of homes and primarily destroyed more than half of the local primary school taking 126 7-10 year olds and 5 teachers with it. I personally think that the saddest thing about this disaster was that he pupils had just left the assembly hall when a great noise was heard outside. Had they left for their classrooms a few minutes later, the loss of life would have been significantly less, as the classrooms were on the side of the building nearest the landslide. This was a real downside to the 1960s and even now seems such a sad thing to learn about.
As well as just good times and just bad times, some people saw different changes in different lights. Most of these were involved in women’s rights and freedoms.
In the 1960s, divorce became easier to access. Marriages could be split up much easier than they had been able to before and it also let women in bad relationships escape. Many people had just grown apart but could not divorce so were in an unloving relationship. This was normally the case. Also, some women were mistreated in relationships; sometimes being beaten or even raped. The easy divorce meant that they could escape these situations thanks to the more liberal Britain. Although these were good reasons, the Catholic Church was extremely against it and also the older generation were against the loss of tradition. This made older people think that the 1960s was the worst of times.
Also in the 1960s, abortion was legalised, this brought out many benefits, but also some downsides. This meant that backstreet (often dangerous) abortions were terminated; it also gave women more control over their lives and was useful if a relationship broke up through pregnancy. Although there were good sides to this, many religions (especially Roman Catholic) were against the termination of a baby’s life. Abortion and contraception is still looked down on by Roman Catholics today.
Knotted with the idea of abortion, the contraceptive pill (more commonly know as ‘the pill’) became widely available for everyday use. Again this gave women more sexual freedom and control over their lives, and again the Catholic Church was against it. But even worse was that there were disastrous side effects. Weight loss, depression and nausea were common side effects that were not very nice.
Another product that had nasty side effects was Cannabis, a recreational drug. Cannabis was not the only recreational drug to take Britain by storm, but it was probably the most common. Cannabis relaxed the smokers and left them feeling chilled out. It also showed a sense of liberty in letting people do what they wanted. But it also had some terrible side effects. Cannabis was, and still is, linked to depression, psychosis and bronchitis. Many people in the 1960s experienced this, but others didn’t. This made it such a two sided drug and two sided argument.
In conclusion, there were many factors that made people decide how they felt the 1960s were. I personally think that the 1960s wasn’t a lot different to life today. There is a lot of freedom, Britain is very liberal, the youth have money and new technology is being developed everyday. As well as all of the good things there are still wars, murders, drugs and a lot of poverty. Because of this I think that the 1960s in some ways was fantastic but was also a period where things started to go wrong.