Sárospataki Füzetek 1. (1997)

1997 / 2. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: How can we go forward? (Hogyan tovább?)

HOW CAN WE GO FORWARD ?

overchoice had dawned. People suddenly realized that democratic pluralism and marketability applied not only to oranges and apples, but also to ways of life, ethics and beliefs. The 1960’s were characterized in the west by a search for freedom from the banalities of the technocratic mind. There was a search for awareness and authenticity.1 This was complicated by the new globalization. Globalization refers to the continuing process of interlinking almost all parts of the globe. North and South, East and West met and are meeting as never before.

Having several lifeviews presented as all equally true quite naturally leads to fragmentation and some cynical questions and we notice this tone at times in the Beatles’ productions. In such songs as SHE’S LEAVING HOME, as well as in ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, the Beatles caught the air of uncertainty and emptiness felt by that generation. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND was so compelling because it emphasizes the alienation of a generation no longer at home in the values of the 1950’s. It is also a highly intricate studio production which was not performed live on stage, but rather theoretically produced and sent out almost like a revelation to the waiting millions. Many people, especially the younger generation of the time, felt separated from their roots: they seemed to be living in a modern, even postmodern world which was different than what their parents, schools, churches and neighbourhoods could identify with. This uprooted generation felt joined together in a revolution of consciousness. AH the big stories about western values which were supposed to unify life seemed to be falling away in the face of an onslaught of new possibilities, which included the advent of television, a fresh look at eastern philosophy, mind-expanding drugs, and cultural changes symbolized by the hippy movement and the new left social revolution which talked about the need to demask capitalism. Young people were calling for a new greening of western society.

So the Beatles rode the waves of the coming postmodern age. When sociologists speak of postmodernity, they mean that the great certainties, the unifying stories and building blocks of

1 cf.Francis A.Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? - The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (Crossway Books, 1996).

59