clickThis picture is from a 1967 article in Look Magazine titled "The Generation Gap" by John Poppy. It was brought on by the ever increasing and violent street demonstrations against the Vietnam War and police crackdowns on demonstrators who felt it was their duty and right to take to the streets of Hollywood and West Hollywood and voice their disapproval.
The 60's was a mixture of contradictions and wonderment. Incredible music, drugs, social change, and a whole host of other dynamics that altered America and the rest of the world. I was not just some doped up pop singer that went around causing trouble. I was very serious about my quest to become spiritually enlightened, as were countless others.
It is far easier now to pass judgement on the use of drugs to find God than it was in 1967. All that we did at that time had purpose and meaning to us in our search for a better world. Better than the one our parents had helped to build. We clashed with every moral wall set up by older people and were determined to knock them down and erect something better and wiser.
We could not, and would not, accept the assassination of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King (1968) and Robert Kennedy (1968) at face value. We knew there was, and still is, more to those stories than we were ever told. We believed that the war in Vietnam was an example of people who had lost their way and were now dead set on forcing us to fall in line, which we did not.
The government of the United States lied to the nation about The Gulf Of Tonkin, much the same way as President Bush and Dick Cheney, lied about Iraq. This kind of course reality was what we faced in the 60's, and our decision was to take to the streets of America, and utterly refuse to permit it without a fight.
It would do some of you a lot of good today to be as committed as we were then. "He Who Will Not Question Authority Will Be It's Victim." We, as a nation, are now victims of our own weakness and self seeking. More than anything else the 60's was a time to learn. We lifted ourselves above the status quo and stayed there, willing if necessary, to be jailed, beaten, and even killed, Kent State (1970).
The fact that many of us became victims of our own enthusiasm is only clear now in hindsight. Even though, I still believe that what we did had to be done, and was done, by children from the 1960's. Make Love Not War was more that a clever slogan. We did make love and not war. We loved the world and each other with music and art and we changed it.
Our fight was with those who doggedly kept up the lie about Vietnam and their bull crap morality. We understood morality to be something more than talking about patriotism while killing people in Asia. Morality meant far more to us than discussions about out of wedlock sex. It seems clear to me, that we as a people, and a nation, have once again slid back into talking about morality while blowing up a country and it's people for the same kind of reasons that we fought in Vietnam.
The 60's in so many ways is the text book lesson against the war in Iraq. The rhetoric about what will happen if we leave is identical to what was repeated over and over from 1965 to 1974 regarding Vietnam. If I never do anything worthwhile in my life again, I will always remember and cherish the children of the 60's, and know that I was one of them.
You never cease to amaze me, you have an incredible talent.
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It's evident as ever that I was born into the wrong generation.My Generation, my generation, generation is dead. They don't go to the streets, they go to the *stores*. They don't strike out for a better world--they go shopping for new shoes. They don't get *angry*, they get Blackberrys. Yes, its digital pacifiers and recreational nulification, all for my lonely little f**ked up generation.
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Where there is life there is hope and once again it could be Make Love not War but that would take commitment and action. It would mean we would all need to leave retail therapy, drug use and over-eating and re-connect with our family and neighbors in an honest heart felt loving way.
ReplyDeleteOne step at a time we can over-come this cold technical corporate world we live in, but who is willing? If all we have is materialism then we have nothing! Was it Bob Dylan who sang "If you have nothing, you have nothing to lose"? If even one light shines, the world is a little brighter....CT
Bobby, what month or issue number is the Look Magazine?
ReplyDeleteI was sitting in group with a room full of young recovering addicts this week, one of my 18 year old client's was sharing how he was doing things differently in his life, taking care of his responsibilities, and doing things right. He mentioned that he had gone down and registered as appropriate for the draft. Dummy me, went into shock, and asked what in the hell he was talking about. The group informed me that this is the law. I told them I was blissfully unaware of this fact, as the word "draft" gives me nightmares. I looked at this sweet gentle soul and cringed. I couldn't even imagine the destruction of him as a person, as we all know damned well that not only do they die, lose limbs, and suffer all kinds of dreadful conditions, they lose all concept of the innocence we all take for granted. And why them and not us? Oh, because I'm a 50 year old female. Personally, I'd rather give up my life, than have him give up his. And for what? Because Mr. Bush has a point to make? And this is the law? How do I protect my homeland from that fucking madness?
ReplyDeleteThanks for being you.
Terri
And a few years later, the Who sang "We won't get fooled again." But that was a lie, because we let ourselves be fooled over and over again. God, I'm weary.
ReplyDeleteLook Magazine Feb 21, 1967
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