Bernardine Dohrn

I think the Sixties in some ways is a barrier to young people today. They think of it, you know, what we’re doing is not that. But it’s partly the myth of the Sixties. It always felt embattled and small. It always, almost always, was a small group of people relative to the opposition around.

I wish I could take back some of the things I said and some of the things I did. But in the bigger picture, I don’t feel that it was violent and terrible. I feel like it was primarily–obviously not completely–moral, based on a vision that the government should be better, and that people could be better, and that democracy should be real.

Today enormous effort goes into convincing the American public that we’re just consumers of media manipulation and sound-bites and spin doctors. That we care only about ourselves, money, and stuff. That acting out of passion and conviction doesn’t make a difference. But all history shows that it does.