1968
1968 is the year where the summer of love turned into the year of protest, riots and an escalation in world tension.
World events of 40 years ago seem obscure today. The fear of rising communism, increasing multiculturalism, and general chaos as a new younger generation struggled against older strictures and structures.
Some events seem similar, with names changed: US Presidents squeezed between domestic tension and international ego and guerrilla warfare stagnating into needlessly killing. The Tet Offensive, the pivotal point of the Vietnam war, was fought in 1968.
France during May of 1968 witnessed protests and riots as an authoritarian de Gaulle combated both the left wing movement, and a younger generation demanding radical change.
In the midst of this turbulent month, in this pivotal year, I was born.
Thanks Mum and Dad. I wouldn’t be dead for quids.