Posted on 09/29/2005 6:19:24 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
"It was the age of selfishness. It was the age of self-indulgence. It was the age of anti-authority. It was an age in which people did all kinds of wrong things."
- Ed Meese III, U.S. Attorney General, Reagan Administration
"It was absolutely exhilarating. It was the greatest time to be alive ever, for sure."
- Charles Kaiser, Author/Historian
I would imagine that the most extreme occurrence of hippidom must have been in what are now the leftist counties on election maps. Coastal urban areas, plus a few odd urban areas of the interior.
Based on history, our current times may be most similar to times such as the 1930s, the 1860s, or even the decades just prior to the 30 Years' War.
RE: "Peoples Park" where they could camp and smoke dope, and copulate and defecate and urinate without restriction.
Some things never change. That "park" still serves the same functions. Of course, I do still like a few restaurants and pubs in Berzerkeley and some of the shops. I lived in Albany and El Cerrito for a few years while still single (part of the 90s). However, glad to have moved to the "boring" Peninsula, albeit, still surrounded by Volvos and John F'n Kerry bumperstickers. Someone needs to hold down this fort, after all! LOL! ...
Those were MY high school years...
I certainly agree that those were the years when social upheaval displaced the post-WWII dreams of suburban utopia... but the music was GREAT! (Disco put an end to that in the '70s)
That's the line I'd draw as well.
Tommie you speak the truth. I was only a glimmer in my grandparents eyes in the 30s, but based on everything I've learned, they were a good time. Maybe not a time of material wealth, but a time of great family life. Thanks for sharing!
"Never again" was only an empty platitude. For "never again" to have become reality, some incredibly drastic things would have been needed and likely, reapplied periodically. Liberal Western society lacks the will and courage to follow though with "never again" to the point where it would be action and not only words.
In hindsight, a rebirth of the old vigilance committes that cleaned up SF during the late 1800s would have worked. But hindsight is 20/20.
Horribly slanted PBS effort. I could only handle a few minutes last nite.
Retch.
Interesting response.
I was all over the map ideologically in the Sixties,"chopping it up"with hard core white supremists as well as black militants.Went to Birch Society meetings and SDS get togethers in the same week.Got high with the hippies and helped break up a Leftist demo at my junior college in 1965.
I was the ultimate seeker.I wanted to sample everything that was happening back then.I became very disillusioned by both the Right and the Left but I think the Left's betrayal hurt me the most.You see,I EXPECTED more out of them.They promised so much and delivered so little.
Even today I am still estranged by many from both political spectrums.I really believe today's liberals are the biggest phonies on the face of the Earth.Yet,while respecting the Capitalist ethic and rejecting socialism,I never found much warmth in the Wall Street big money conservatism that I grew up around.A lot of real cold folks in that mindset.
Lots of Dylan threads lately.I think he is a kindred soul to me.If I love one quote by him it has to be"So let us stop talking falsely now,the hours getting late".
My Sixties philosophy that has lasted till this moment.
How sad. Well, I reckon he's in a better place. God rest his soul.
She's the biggest sell out of all. Something must have broken down in her brain.
What happened was this. The freaks that were already here hid in the shadows until the 1960s. Then, when all the out of staters arrived, there was a strength in their numbers never before seen. And that's all she wrote ...
Saul Alinsky (mentor of Hillary) wrote in his book that radicals needed to go and take over a state. It happened.
Hey, at least the boomers tended to vote for Republicans, unlike the "Greatest Generation" who gave us Democratic majority control from the 1950s to the 1990s.
And of course, REAGAN!
Have you ever been around conservatives or a conservatism that you did like? If so what kind of conservatism do you like or agree with. Generally people do not completely agree with one another, but some issues create such a chasm that they are irreconcilable for parnership or support.
I have seen the left lie constantly for decades as a matter of principle, exactly as the people they agree with most often, the godless communists' and socialists including the religious left.
The warmth you feel from the left is from the pot in which you are being cooked.
The Communists were inhuman. A family friend of ours was a colonel serving on Gen. Patton's staff. He used to tell a story of how he became aware of "Operation Keelhaul," the ugly agreement Roosevelt made with Stalin to forcibly return Russian POW's and other displaced persons to Russia. Hundreds of thousands of these poor souls were rounded up and carted off to the Gulag or worse.
When our friend, Col. Daniels, arrived at an area where the roundup was going on, he heard gunshots. He was horrified to discover the Russian officers cold-bloodedly killing truckloads of Russian refugees. To them it was great sport to shoot innocent civilians.
The Russian officer in charge came up to Col. Daniels in a friendly manner and with a big grin offered to let him shoot some also!
Anyway, music is not an issue. There was some wonderful music written in the 30's, and those ween't good times, either.
I actually think that very few people honestly enjoyed the late 60's-early 70's. It's only the media that is nostalgic, because those were the years of their premier influence (Viet Nam and Watergate). They think if they keep talking about it they will regain their influence.
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