What would the world be like today if Kennedy had not been assassinated?

What would the world be like today if the assassination 40 years ago had not happened? Will there be a hippie movement? Will there be so many violent movies and various interactive violent games? Or, will there be the "9. 1 1" incident and the chaotic pattern of the world after that?

The death of the 46-year-old Harvard graduate and later president of the United States seems to be of great significance, and it seems to have changed the whole history. Perhaps this statement is exaggerated, but it is not too much. At least this incident has changed the track of cultural development in the United States and the world. According to American novelist Charles McCully, the assassination in Dallas left a "wound that is difficult to heal" for one third of Americans. If we regard the world as a whole and everything as interrelated, then Kennedy's death is like the first domino.

"Beauty will shock people."

After Kennedy's death, Americans found the world desolate and strange. The mainstream culture and the political ideas it represents have also become suspicious, and people are more inclined to be cynical and skeptical. The famous folk group "Simon and garfinkel" sang this emotion in the song "America" of 1967: "... she said that the man in the twill coat is a spy/I said, be careful/it's really a camera under his bow".

The love for irony and absurdity has also become the cultural feature of the post-Kennedy era, and the passion for conspiracy theories has also become the core of "morbid humor" of comedy satirists such as Lenny Bruce and Mott Salle. As the United States sinks deeper and deeper into the quagmire of the Vietnam War that Kennedy may try to avoid, cultural consumers become more willing to directly describe violence in movies and TV. At this point, the famous Zeprud film has far-reaching influence. This is a 26-second, 8-millimeter "family movie", which tells the whole process of Kennedy being shot in the head by Abraham Proude, the owner of Dallas clothing store. Now you can even buy Zeproudt's movies, videos or DVDs.

The climax scene of Bonnie and Clyde is obviously influenced by Zeprude's films. At that time, Clyde and Bonnie's bodies seemed to be dancing to the rhythm of the gunshot. In the process of death, for a moment, the body is no longer a body, it becomes something and presents some ugly aesthetics. As the surrealist André Breton once declared publicly: "Beauty will be shocking, otherwise it is not beauty". This ugly aesthetic is fully displayed not only in Bonnie and Clyde, but also in other movies like straw dogs, Taxi Driver, Zoom in, Crash, and All-Metal Jacket. Oliver stone's assassination of Kennedy made people understand how mysterious and complicated this incident was in modern American history.

"Times have changed"

In fact, not only movies, but also most "novels" that do not emphasize historical facts have a special liking for the Kennedy incident. One of the most famous is don delillo's Libra, but the protagonist is not Kennedy, but a fictional description of the experience of the assassin Harvey Oswald. The recently published nonfiction book The Triangle of Death, written by Bradley O 'Neill and L·E· Seymour, blamed Kennedy's death on the joint efforts of the South Vietnamese government controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency, the French global drug consortium and the New Orleans mafia. What's more, it seems to affect a person's sex life. In Woody Allen's 1977 movie "annie hall", the hero finds himself unable to have sex with his wife, and he can't get rid of his own confusion, that is, the US government systematically deceived the public on Kennedy's assassination.

Kennedy's death also had a great impact on rock musicians. From 65438 to 0963, Bob Dylan released the record "Times Changed" at the fastest speed, expressing his reaction to this event. Important musicians from phil ochs, "Damen" to "Bird" all responded to this event in their works. Eric Anderson, a folk singer, said, "Kennedy represents something full of hope and charm, a bird that casts a huge shadow and makes you feel safe. That bird was hit in mid-air. The air is full of feathers. We are now exposed to dazzling sunshine and hatred. Brought ugliness and completely changed morality. The wrong thing happened, and the wrong thing is happening. You don't know what will happen next. You only knew it would happen.