(While mainstream America pondered dissent - HUAC was going full blast)

I suppose just how naive our state of media was in 1960 is probably evidenced by this exchange during an April 1960 episode of Open Mind, a Sunday panel discussion program that focused on key issues in our society at the time. This particular episode focused on the state of Dissent in America.

Eric F. Goldman: “Is there any genuine dissent in America today, any really effective eyebrow lifting, any authentic heresy? And next to that question always comes the second one, if there is dissent what is the really important form of it? Is it present day American Liberalism, is it the radical Rightism represented by people like William Buckley or Senator Barry Goldwater, is it Beatnikism? Is it something we haven’t recognized and given due importance at all?”

Comforting to know even in 1960 there was a Radical Right, fronted by William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. Although one imagines what Buckley would have to say about our very own Tea Party. The idea that much of the then-current state of dissent in America wasn't really deemed genuine begs the question about the Civil Rights Movement or the Red Scare - I certainly don't see anything fake about that.

But then, 1960 was a whole lot different than even 1964 of 1965. If anything, Dissent in 1960 was about to explode.