Great list, Kevin! *accidentally fires nuclear submarine... not a missile, the whole nuclear submarine! What a typo!*
The official messages from the government can always be looked at cynically-- I know I find it hard to do anything else these days. But I don't believe the Beatles were trying to send a message to control the youth (or cleverly packaged to have that affect). I think they were honestly communicating what they felt, whether it was politically correct or not (PC wasn't in their vocabulary then, thank goodness).
In my view, for that small part of history, people really did believe that if you loved hard enough, if you gave your soul to the cause, you could make a difference. I don't see why that attempt at change should be less laudible just because it didn't involve violence. I think many people (such as myself) saw it as an enlightened alternative.
Of course now we have lots of what I call New Age Noodlesh*t which grew out of this, where people say, "Send your wishes into the universe, and they will come back to you!" While there's a certain amount of truth in recognizing your goals, generally people need to be a little more active than "wishing" to have their goals come about. But that was all new thinking (in the West anyway) in the sixties, so I can't blame anyone who was trying it out for the first time. And we got some great songs out of it that are still pick-me-ups to this day. I believe a great deal of the Beatles' popularity is because they
were positive.
This world hurls negative energy at us all the time. People enjoy a little relief. But the Beatles wised up politically as they got older, and I expect their fans will, too. Life isn't simple, and if often isn't kind. But it doesn't have to be a complete misery, even if things are not the way we'd like them. You need both: the grim reality and the comic relief. At least, I think so.
