A place for me to pour out my rants without clogging the inboxes of my friends and family. Also a place to give info on myself and Mary, our family news and events.
Utopia or Dystopia?
Published on June 23, 2007 By Rightwinger In History
Man, I have to vent to someone.....I was just watching the Today Show, and they did a whole big thing on The Summer of Love. Praising how great it was...the music, the clothes, the attitudes. Groovy, man. Like, far out. Yeeeeaaahhh, maaaaan....

They interviewed "experts" like some 60s historian (a liberal academician, natch) and "perennial hippie" Wavy Gravy....who has to be 70 years old and still dresses like a clown on bad acid.
What a shame to be a ridiculous, frivolous oddity; stuck in a time warp like that, simply refusing to give it up and move on with the rest of the world. He also seemed to have forgotten to comb his (thinning, gray) hair. Thing about people like him, I bet they make a real good living, you know, doing interviews that hark back to the good old days of the 1960s...relating how they utterly rejected the greed, materialism and Capitalism of their parents and country. Yeah...I bet they turn a good buck doing that.

At least Today did have the integrity to acknowledge the fact that the great "Haight-Ashbury Experience", a "Utopian" movement and "revolt against Eisenhower conservatism" that "changed the world", and which was "enhanced by free love and psychedelic drugs", soured rather quickly, with "rampant drug abuse" and violence in the overcrowded streets.
In other words, Timothy Leary disciples were reaping what they sowed. What amazes me...well, not really...is how quickly their "Utopia" collapsed. When you remove discipline and order and stigmatize them, along with basic morality, ambition and worth (conservatism), all of which are what they did, that's what you get. So many of them still don't grasp what went wrong. Or perhaps they do, and just don't want to admit the errors of their vision. Typical liberal thinking; if it clearly doesn't work, just keep doing it, and maybe it will.
People need to stop glorifying the chaos of liberal ideals; to challenge and refute the myths.

They had Jefferson Starship on, too, and the lead guitar was played by the original guy, from Jefferson Airplane....whatever his name is. They asked him what he remembered of the 60s....after the usual har-dee-har cracks about "if you were there, you don't remember it", he said, and I quote directly, that he calls it "the Golden Age of 'Eff-ing'.....it was like the 72 virgins of the bombers today....but they weren't virgins..." har-har. At that point the smiles of the interviewers kind of faltered a little, and they went to the song. Idiot.
Saturday morning, live network TV, and here's this pan-fried old geezer with long gray hair and with his John Lennon glasses and stupid Che Guevara beret, and with the red star on his t-shirt, spouting obscene stuff like that. Shows you the kind of irresponsible people and mentality the great ole "Haight-Ashbury Experience" produced.

I was born in the Summer of Love....early September, 1967, when the "Tune-in, Turn-on, Drop-out" hippies and Flower Children in The Haight were just beginning to eat their own; and I'm so glad I missed out. Now, am I just being crotchety and thin-skinned, or am I right in this line of thought?


Comments
on Jun 23, 2007
I watched a (like, 4 hour, haha) documentary on hippies on the History channel the other day.

I really have no political commentary since I didn't live through it.

But since I watched that cool documentary I totally understand all the references in your article. Go me! Haha.
on Jun 23, 2007
watched a (like, 4 hour, haha) documentary on hippies on the History channel the other day.


I'm sorry....how terrible for you. Are you okay now?

I really have no political commentary since I didn't live through it.


I didn't either, but I was close enough to it in time to remember the kind of people it involved and the impression they left on me.
When I was a kid in the early 70s, our neighbor's youngest son was a leftover hippie, and he was always hanging around with his friends. Very nice, but irresponsible people; always stoned and....I guess "unkempt in appearance" would be the diplomatic way of putting it. Some of them smelled.

But since I watched that cool documentary I totally understand all the references in your article. Go me! Haha.


Glad you got it. Groovy, man!
on Jun 23, 2007
RW: Well, I don't know how biased the documentary I watched was, but it seemed to reflect a lot of the sentiments that you've expressed here.

I was surprised to learn that LSD was initially viewed as this wonderful thing that was not harmful at all. Parents raising children in communes actually gave LSD to their children.

on Jun 23, 2007
RW: Well, I don't know how biased the documentary I watched was, but it seemed to reflect a lot of the sentiments that you've expressed here.
---Tex

Wow---really? Surprising. Usually, documentaries like that skimp on the bad consequences and glorify the ideals that eventually generated them. "If it feels good, do it"; "It's your thing, do what you wanna do".....
Drug addiction and drug-related deaths...STD epidemics....moral breakdown....but hey---Tune in, Turn on, Drop out, right?

I was surprised to learn that LSD was initially viewed as this wonderful thing that was not harmful at all. Parents raising children in communes actually gave LSD to their children.
--Tex

This was because parents in communes were hippies.

LSD was actually hailed by many respected academics---Leary was one---as the next step in human development; opening the mind and all that. But...LSD was originally created by the evil CIA---an organization which the hippies absolutely loathed---as a drug to be used for interrogation of spies.
One of the greatest symbols and tools of their philosophy was a creation of their most hated enemy. How's that for ironic?