I am old enough to remember but was too young to participate in, much of the 60's. Those who do, invariably in my presence assure me that if "you can remember, you werent' there!" (yes, Rapaire said it first in this thread but it was the first thing went through my excuse for a mind)

Harpgirl, as to why there isn't the same level of protest now as then, there are three main reasons:
1) Elimination of the draft.
2) We look and feel more like winners now.
3) Modern technology, military and civilian.

I agree with Martin Gibson, that enlightened social attitudes, particularly civil rights independent of race and sex, got their momentum rolling (The roots of both of those revolutions emanate from the 40's and 50's however - check out Halberstam's book The Fifties ). The "Love" generation were very photogenic then (particularly in the rain); I recall too much toleration of drugs and a high level of self-righteousness that has tracked a lot of those folk.

The Sixties saw the end of the "big tail" fad of American cars, Bay Of Pigs, the Race To The Moon, the artificial heart, Cuban Missiles, Star Trek, Test Ban Treaty, Twilight Zone, Cleopatra, The Six Day War, Mister Machine, Perry Mason, Allen Sherman, How The West Was Won, King Kong versus Godzilla, Clay versus Liston, The British Invasion, To Kill A Mockingbird.

In the future lay: Gay Liberation, The Yom Kippur War, digital watches, Disco, Pet Rocks, Valley Of The Dolls, Watergate, Paul McCartney & Wings.

If the decade of the 60s were crap, then all the other decades are too!