Reply #75: The 60s progressive youth became the 80's fundamentalist youth [View All]

I was in college during the Reagan era, and by then the youth energy of students was being channelled into the fundamentalist Christian movement and the more general right wing agenda.

It was about that time that the YAF (William F. Buckley Jr's "Young Americans for Freedom") was recruiting young idealistic students to support what we now think of as neocon ideas. They used to give these students stickers that said "KGB Approved" to put on professors' doors, and students put them there. The YAF were just beginning to get their claws into the university then. Today, the YAF (the Young America Foundation) is the largest outside source of cash for student activities on campus. They dwarf the other competitors.

The YAF was linked ideologically (if not financially) to fundamentalist Christianity as well. This neocon form of religion began recruiting in the late 70s and made its way into the high schools by the early 80s. I remember in college going to a "prayer meeting" with a friend who had "turned her life over to Jesus" after a promiscuous and drug-filled adolescence. The leader--long haired guy with a guitar--was clearly chosen for his attractiveness, but the message was as anti-progressive as it could get. Their opinions on women's rights were appalling.

I did not join, obviously, but other kids with more problems and fewer emotional resources got totally caught up in this. I think it was this fundamentalist movement that replaced the progressive movement on college campuses and I think it was deliberately done. It was clear that a lot of money was put into the thing. I think the YAF funding was a big part of this.