The Protest Generation

The counterculture movement of the 50's and 60's convinced a bunch of liberal, drug-abusing, nymphomaniac hippies that they could influence massive social change, which somehow indoctrinated the next generation with the notion that they too could convince the world to change if they could gather up enough like-minded people to wave some poorly made signs around. The right to free assembly, guaranteed by the First Amendment, sadly is just an illusion granted by the government for plebians to feel as if they have some say in the matter. The only reason why the counterculture had so much success in the 60's was because most of the issues that they were fervent about had been brewing for a long time. The Civil Rights Movement that they supported was already making great progress in the South, and racial equality, if not cultural influences was being given brick by brick in the decades previous (Tuskegee Airmen, Harlem Renaissance, the birth of jazz). But you'll notice that protests today hardly have any sway in how something swings. The gay marriage protests, while admirable, really isn't going to change the minds of those bigoted pricks. For change to happen, we gotta find some other subversive way to achieve the goals, starting with socialization and education. That's how it went for the Civil Rights Movement, we just had to let it simmer for a few decades. Ask the New Left how their Vietnam protests fared. Waving signs doesn't do shit, and it never will.