“Liberation” means breaking free from any kind of restraint or oppression. Historically, Aug. 15, the last day Japan surrendered among the rogue states of World War II, was the day many nations like Korea was liberated from Japanese occupation.
Aug. 15, 1968, although not as much as 1945, has something to do with “liberation.” On this day, a music festival began in Woodstock, New York, in the United States. Known as “Woodstock,” the festival lasted until Aug. 18. It was an event that young people of the day declared liberation from the established order, and was also an important symbol of the transition of post-war society from modernism to post-modernism.
It was difficult for the generation that suffered a disastrous war and the older generation who risked their lives to fight for community and democracy to understand the seemingly “selfish and troublesome” young people. When the older generation saw the extremely disorderly, irresponsible, and selfish children, society in general criticized this strange generation, deplored it, and lamented the future they would take on.
This “new generation”, symbolized by hippies, is now the elderly in their 70s and older in the world, was the generation that the older generation felt pitiful about at the time. In reality, the Woodstock generation was never as irresponsible or incapable as their older generation feared. They cut their hair short and wore suits instead of jeans, and wanted to ride Cadillacs instead of the Volkswagen Beetle as they got older. At least they don’t look much different from the older generation.
Nonetheless, on Aug. 15, 1969, the voice of “liberation” rang out to the world in the pouring rain; it was not in vain. The Woodstock generation devised a way to preserve individual creativity from an authoritative and collective-oriented society. The society formulated by the Woodstock generation has since become more diverse and has a greater sense of community. The spirit of Woodstock, which used to call for “liberation,” “freedom,” and “individuality,” is likely to live on forever.
