New generation lacks 'cohesion' of the 1960s, iconic folksinger says

punditman says...Wondering where the antiwar movement is? According to Joan Baez, it is dispersed amongst 400 other issues, that's where. And when you dilute something, it loses its potency. Punditman also thinks Bush was such an easy target, that once he was gone, peace activists sort of melted away. But still the war drags on...

The gentle urgency of Joan Baez's stunning vibrato on "We Shall Overcome" turned the song into an anthem for the antiwar movement on the 1960s. Back then, it seemed possible for music to galvanize a generation into calling for peace. 

That was a long time ago, observed the legendary folksinger during a recent phone interview, and things have changed. In addition to the war in Afghanistan, today's youth have to deal with everything from environmental catastrophes to economic ones.

"It isn't like a community of people working for the same thing," Baez says. "The only thing that's missing is the feeling of cohesion. By circumstances, that's what you had in the '60s and early '70s. It was a perfect storm. It was by chance that I was there and involved in it, but now without the antiwar movement being the central issue, with 400 issues instead, it's very difficult for people to feel that cohesiveness."

Even the optimism she felt when U.S. President Barack Obama was elected is beginning to slide, largely because of the U.S troops in Afghanistan, "which makes absolutely no sense from any angle" Baez can see.

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