Ah, the sixties. What more could you want in a movement? Of a time? Anti-establishment, anti-war, peace, love, music, dancing, civil disobedience. I get it. I dig it. But, it's over.
Let's take a little stroll...
I have a friend who happens to be a talented architect. One day he surprised me when he scoffed at my dream to have a colonial Mount Vernon-style home custom-built. It is his opinion that to create a house (or anything for that matter) that is not
of the time is to steal away its integrity.
Mount Vernon was built with the tools and materials that were available in 1735, in a way that was standard procedure for the men who built it. Any attempt to reproduce this in 2009 is to undermine the character, beauty and craftsmanship that was lent to the prototype.
Now, I stand firm in believing that
inspiration does not know time. That which is classic is a magnet pulling from past and future, a mirrored sphere, the heart of the universe. But, to look behind you for something you need right now is to forfeit the innovation and possibility that this day has to offer. Nothing has ever been better than it is right at this very moment, because we already know yesterday, and we've never had better tools at our fingertips than we do today to help us improve our tomorrow.
But, if you try telling this to a man who lived the height of his life in the sixties, he'll stop you and say "You just had to be there, man." And, he's right! I'm sure it was a
hell of a time. Everyone deserves some room to reminisce about their heyday. And for the most part, people not born in time to enjoy the American culture of the sixties are pissed off about it. Jealous, if you will.
But from a POLITICAL standpoint, these hippies need to get over themselves and their way of doing things. It's a new era. Pass the torch.
Now, if you can, Former Citizen, try really hard to re-program your mind to stop mistaking hippies for their iconic pop-culture image that's been scarred into our brains ever since you heard the commercial for
Freedom Rock. Hey Man, is that freedom rock? Well, turn...it...up!
I posit that 85% of the groovy People of the sixties were losers. 10% were right on, but then sold out to Square-merica and eventually became losers as well. The hippies of the sixties have done a great job touting themselves as intellectuals, but intellectuals account for only the remaining 5%. (note: I used the Nation of Islam's
Elijah Muhammad's algorithm to come up with these percentages. Translation: There's no science behind it, so it seems solid to me.)
George Harrison agrees with me. He said "I went to Haight-Ashbury, expecting it to be this brilliant place, and it was just full of horrible, spotty, dropout kids on drugs. It certainly showed me what was really happening in the culture. It wasn't what was I thought of all these groovy people having spiritual awakenings and being artistic. It was like the Bowery, it was like alcoholism, it was like any addiction."
Ok, fine. But even losers can assemble well. Hell, they may be better at assembling than any of us. And, in
their day, street protests and expressing their individuality in the face of a dogmatic America was effective, politically. But, the hippies set an example of protest that no longer works in modern times.
Protesting in the streets, although fun (if I do say so myself), is not effective (unless you're talking mass destruction, city shutdown, and government takeover - but you're gonna have to take off more than one day of work for that).
I know that protests don't work from experience. (Anyone in the market for 13 signs that read "Make love not taxes?") Thing is, I've moved on. Old, retired hippies can't move on. They continue to mistake the absence of a street protest for political apathy and civil opiacity. (word created by me - think audacity, but fill it instead with an opiate.) Look, hippies, nowadays, we can't rely on our hair to do the speaking for us.
I recently read Markos Zuniga's (Founder of the DailyKos) book,
Taking On the System. He discusses this subject:
"This is not an era for street protests. Forty years of organized protests and marches for every conceivable cause - wars, abortion, black pride, gay pride, and so on - have desensitized not just the press but the broader public to the street spectacle. It's the reason no one blinked twice at the millions who hit the streets to protest the Iraq war in 2003."
He continues, "Activists were once hostage to the mass media conglomerates, but they can now create their own media outlets. We can now build campaigns that simply bypass gatekeepers, or campaigns that can damage or destroy them."
He goes on, "Bloggers can exert disproportionate pressure on the media and on politicians. Reporters, pundits, and politicians read blogs, and more important, they care what bloggers say about them because they know other reporters, pundits, and politicians are reading blogs. It's a virtuous circle for the netroots and a source of political powers. The netroots can also bring the force of sheer numbers to bear on a noncompliant politician, reporter, or media outlet. Nobody wants a flood of complaints from thousands of angry activists. And further, bloggers can
raise money, fact check, and help break stories and/or keep them in circulation long enough for the media and political establishment to pick them up.
Consequently, bloggers, though unable to change conventional wisdom on their own, are able to use these proficiencies and resources to persuade the media and political establishment to join them in pushing a particular story or issue."
Well said.
...let me add - don't think for one second that Uncle Sam isn't one step ahead of us. He
knows that the Internet is our tool for freedom. It is the
only free society right now. Help keep his hands off it
here. Well, here's the
article that put the gas in my tank for all this today. Thank you, Jacob, a Former Citizen reader, for sending it in.
One more jab at these hippies:
Joan Baez is a self-admitted square. (How could you be a folk singer in the sixties and NOT be cool? Ask Joan. She'll tell you.) When she announced to the crowd, "Here's YOUR Woodstock!" well, what the hell does
she know about it? I'd rather have Bob Dylan give me a dose of Woodstock, if anyone's going to. Thanks anyway, Joan.
Finally, as far as being a political activist of 2009 goes, well I like what Zuniga had to say about that, too:
"Mobilize. Don't wait for orders - seek out your own fellow troops, join or start networks, and be a catalyst for change. Find creative ways to get the word out, in new and unexpected venues, tailored to your local conditions and audience. Above all, be a leader who seeks out others and creates a partnership of leaders."
Ready, set, go.
Image from Time Life
On days like today (the last Friday of the month) I like to take part in something called Critical Mass.
