The Dream Is Over

Brent Sendayen
Week 10
Section 3

In the Servitors of Empire article "The Dream is Over: Lenono and the Death of the Asian American Movement", the author argues that importance of Lennon's assassination as a major turning point in social movements of the post-Vietnam period of history. Though I believe this was a significant moment, I have doubts that his death was as significant as the author claims. I cannot make claims about the cultural environment surrounding his death as I was not alive at the time. From a purely historical standpoint, December 8, 1980 appears to be yet another time point, lost in a plethora of other significant events and movements of the period. Among these were economic fallout during the Carter administration and the rise of the "New Right" in the late 70s. The sudden death of a counterculture icon, though tragic, was primarily symbolic of the slow death of decades-long social movements and the rise of trickle-down economics as the political pendulum inevitably swung the other way. Possible CIA involvement in Lennon's life and death, however, leaves open the possibility of the government catalyzing change in political atmosphere. How involved were US agencies, exactly, in the transition of the minds of the public?

Lennon's glasses from 12/08/1980