“1968 fifty years: Why 1968 still matter?” Social Sciences Paper

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1968 Fifty Years: Why 1968 still matter?
1968 is a year that many French and German nationals will remember for years. For them, this year represented a time when a majority of the youth said enough is enough. 1968 was marked by protests and demonstrations all over Europe, including countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Having seen certain aspects of injustice within the society, young men and women decided to push for certain legal reforms that would help propel their countries forward. This year was a year of revolutionaries, and it was the resolve of the youth that led or that instigated several reforms.
In France, there were earlier signs of unrest because of the Vietnam War. The war had provoked different reactions and students in France were among the ones who protested it. However, many were arrested, and in March 22nd, Lahut writes that “150 students occupied – aka barricaded – a building at Paris University at Nanterre” (np). Well, these students eventually left after learning that their colleagues had been released, but this was the beginning of a tumultuous year that would push the French president to leave his country albeit shortly. There were several unrests in universities as the students started noticing the lie in their education system. The French government had raised the school leaving from 14 to 16, and this necessitated “a massive expansion of teaching staff and building” (Smith, np). These were absent and the students, following in the philosophies of their intellectual gods, including Marx, Freud, and Sartre, decided to vent their frustrations. Sartre once said, “God does not exist, and as a result, man is forlorn because neither within himself nor without does he find anything to cling to” (Josef and Tamplin). Smith continues to write that “one had either started things on one’s own without adult backing or not at all. This was unprecedented and intoxicating freedom.” The students simply had everything in their hands, and it was up to them to do as they please.
The workers were also not left behind, and in May, both students and workers in France sent chills of fear to senior politicians who believed that an ins...