The ’68ers and Unfreedom

The ’68 movement is still seen as a freedom movement. A misconception. The opposite is the case. A commentary by Karl von Habsburg.

Among the many anniversaries commemorated this year, 1968 must also be mentioned. This year became particularly known for two events. One is the so-called Prague Spring, which was crushed under Soviet tanks.

The second is the so-called ’68 movement, which held the western part of Europe in its grip. One of the hotspots back then was Paris, which was under a state of siege for days. I still remember quite clearly the speech by the then French President Charles de Gaulle. My father, who knew him well, encouraged us children at the time to listen to the speech with him on the radio. De Gaulle began his speech with the word “non”. No. He would not bow to the protests. The message could not have been clearer.

Even today, the ’68 movement is seen as a kind of freedom movement. Some describe the events of that time as a revolution. If it was a revolution, then this revolution very quickly devoured its children. The ’68ers came forward with the claim of rebellion against the state. This story of rebellion persists as a legend to this day. Yet the consequences of the ’68 “rebellion” were precisely the opposite. No generation before them entered state service as unconditionally as the ’68ers.

The march through the institutions was probably one of the most bureaucratic and statist manoeuvres history has ever seen. It was not just about marching through institutions, but about creating many new bureaucratic and centralist institutions that ultimately created the bureaucratic and paternalistic state under which many of us suffer today. Fifty years later, people still believe the ’68 movement was a freedom movement. The opposite is the case. It created bureaucracy and centralism. Bureaucracy and centralism are twins that lead directly to the loss of freedom.

Equally evident is this movement’s sympathy for tyrants like Mao, Pol Pot, or Fidel Castro, and their henchmen.

No, this movement truly had nothing to do with freedom.

The article originally appeared on the website of Karl von Habsburg.