The Hidden Legacy of 1968

Resumo

Conventional historical and political wisdom in Western Europe has it that the
revolutionary aspirations of the 68ers failed – and that, paradoxically, this very
failure constitutes their great success. The movements of ‘68 (to be more
precise: their radical wings, whose picture dominates the historical memory in
public images und cultural representations) more or less aimed at some kind of
anti-authoritarian, anarchist, later on also socialist/communist overthrow of
the ruling order. The experience of Paris May 1968, for instance, seems to be
mirrored in the catch-phrase “All Power to Imagination” (“L’immagination au
pouvoir”).