The Sixties called for a lot of change. Schools were integrated, students gained rights and women did too. Political candidates had come along with radical ideas and big changes had begun to take place. But in 1962, the world was introduced to the Port Huron Statement. Written by Tom Hadden and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the manifesto set out to change both American society and government. But change would not come because the American ideals were stronger than the ideas made to change them. The Port Huron Statement was a beautiful dream but completely impractical in the world during the Sixties.
The Port Huron Statement attacked many aspects of the American government and society to insinuate change, but one of the principles they fought for already existed. They fought for "human independence." The SDS was looking for a society that didn't "reduce human being[s] to the status of things." In the Port Huron Statement, Hadden and others claimed that our system of government made the public "inherently incapable of directing [their] own affairs." They even referred to the Constitution as a "doctrine of human incompetence." The Statement also says that "as a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by 2 central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life." The SDS claims that the government does not give the public enough power and that is why they are unable to govern themselves. The SDS is claiming that the public is not involved with the "shar[ing] in social decisions". Not involved? What is voting and elections? The individual is very much involved with change at local and national levels. The Port Huron Statement also says "opposing views should be organized so as to illuminate choices- This, too, exists in the form of political parties and debates.
