Stand Alone Pages on 'Musings of an Old Curmudgeon'

20 April 2018

HIRH Archduke Karl on 1968

In the original German:

Die 68er und die Unfreiheit

Translated by Google:

The 68 movement is still seen as a freedom movement. A mistake. The opposite is the case.
Among the many anniversaries that are commemorated this year must also be the year 1968. This year has become known in particular by two events. One is the so-called Prague Spring, which was rolled down under the Soviet tanks.
The second is the so-called '68 movement, which kept the western part of Europe in suspense. One of the hotspots back then was Paris, which was in a kind of siege for days. I remember very well the speech of the then French President Charles de Gaulle. My father, who knew him well, encouraged us children to listen to his speech on the radio. De Gaulle began his speech with the word "non". No. He would not bow to the protests. The message was unbeatable.
Even today, the 68 movement is seen as a kind of freedom movement. Some describe the events of that time as a revolution. If it was a revolution, then this revolution has eaten its children very quickly. The 68ers have come up with the claim of a rebellion against the state. This story of the rebelliousness continues to be a legend today. The consequences of the 1968 "rebellion" were exactly the opposite. No generation before has entered government service as unconditionally as the 68ers.
The march through the institutions was probably one of the most bureaucratic and statist maneuvers history has ever seen. It was not just about the march through the institutions, but the creation of many new bureaucratic and centralist institutions, which ultimately created that bureaucratic and paternalistic state, which we often suffer today. Fifty years later, people still believe that the '68 movement was a freedom movement. The opposite is the case. It has created bureaucracy and centralism. Bureaucracy and centralism are twins that lead directly to the loss of freedom.
Equally evident is the sympathy of this movement for tyrants like Mao, Pol Pot or Fidel Castro, and their henchmen.
No, this movement really had nothing to do with freedom.

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