Some bad ideas refuse to disappear. For an exceptional specimen, we can turn to the notion that rebellions occur mainly when a sudden downturn intercepts a curve of rising expectations. The gap between what people expect and what they receive, goes the argument, impels people to attack. At least since Tocqueville, the idea has come into play as explanation of revolutions, rebellions, and movements of protest. Luther Carpenter applies it to the student-worker movement—or, more exactly, the great workers’ strike of mid-May 1968.
The University as power or counter-power? May 1968 and the emergence of a new learning subject