With the Woodstock anniversary and the new Ang Lee film “Taking Woodstock” in the news, that whole “movement” is once again being discussed.
I was too young to really experience the hippy movement. And yes, I wish I had. Oh, I don’t mean that I would have dropped out and joined a commune, but I would have liked to have been there. I did go to college in Iowa in the 1970s, which is about when the 60s reached Iowa, so I got a taste, but to have actually been to Woodstock or Haight-Ashbury…. that would have been something.
I realize that as a “movement” it was flawed — perhaps overly idealistic, a little naïve, lacking the follow-through to change the world, but the concepts were just fine: Peace, love, music, inner spiritual exploration, anti-authoritarianism, cultural diversity… and a little pot.
So I’m a bit surprised by the depth of vicious hatred for hippies (and all things hippy) I sometimes see out there.
What particularly caught my attention was a “review” at Breitbart’s Big Hollywood (yeah, I know, I shouldn’t go there) of Ang Lee’s film by John Nolte: ‘Taking Woodstock’: Mythologizing the Worst Generation. I haven’t seen the film, and I have no idea if it’s any good, but the review wasn’t so much about the film…
In the late 1960s there were young people in college and starting families, young people far from home fighting and dying for the sovereignty of our allies in Vietnam, young people just starting to see results from their brave and noble fight for Civil Rights, and then there were the dirty, filthy hippies – the most spoiled, narcissistic, ungrateful species in the history of mankind – whose legacy of drug addiction, STDs, the misery of single motherhood and 2 million left dead on the Killing Fields of Cambodia, still reverberates forty years on.
Wow. Now that’s some hatred. (Check out the comments section for even more.)
There’s a lot more of it out there around the web. Some of it seems to be directed against the anti-war movement (that I did participate in somewhat — I was a draft counselor in college) and some seems to just generally be an unreasoning hatred for all things related to hippy culture (the music, the long hair, the lack of bras, the pot, the way they talk, their relaxed attitude, their tie-dying and beads, their lack of body shame, their narcissistic lack of capitalist greed…)
Hmmm…. It’s re-awakened the nostalgia for something I never experienced. Now I’m trying to decide whether to drop $50 on: Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut
What do you think?
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead
Dylan
I appreciate the post itself and while the comments have been interesting, to say the least, I have to say the following. Out of context, incoherent comments with links (some broken) which point to out of context, ranting, incoherent, badly sourced and broken media tend to reinforce a certain, shall we say, stereotype about the people who have vested interest in the issues surrounding prohibition. Ok, I know, this site is called drug war rant but the articles aren’t really off puttingly ranty.
Anyway, it’s really easy to lay blame on or exonerate the hippies completely – or the wider encompassing generation that contained them – for the decisions of the recent past but the future belongs to those who can coherently, passionately and proactively address the situational system. And these people are of all ages, types and creeds. It’s not just a democrat/republican thing. Or capitalist vrs. whatever. It’s the writers, the politicians, the reporters, the advocates, the community organizers, the farmers, the industrialists, the futurists, the venture capitalists, the professionals, the technicians, the media savvy and the business people and entrepreneurs who are not only involved in the issues but can articulate what they are as well as articulate and prove potential, reasonable and viable solutions to “outsiders.” And I’m still one of those despite years of interest in the issues.
The thing is, until it’s figured out by the majority that they don’t have to agree with someone else 100% of the time on all existing issues and that despite some deep seated disagreements and even resentment they can still work together, the abuses to everyday people will go on.