long time passing
The CBC Archives has a collection of television clips from the 60's documenting hippie culture. They've got Joni Mitchell in her pre-fame era and a bunch of people in robes talking about how groovy the future is going to be. Paraphrasing Lou Gottlieb:
Little did they know that the withering of the soul would become compulsory and people would become the new machines...
Before you sink back into your cubicle-coma, check out John and Yoko's Montreal Bed-In.
[via waxy.org]
We're going to have what you may call 'compulsory leisure'... the hippies constitute the first wave of the technologically unemployable... those people who have had jobs, and a voice has come to them and said 'this job can be better done by a machine'. When this happens to you, you're in the process of dropping out whether you know it or not, because the soul is withering...
Little did they know that the withering of the soul would become compulsory and people would become the new machines...
Before you sink back into your cubicle-coma, check out John and Yoko's Montreal Bed-In.
[via waxy.org]
1 Comments:
"Tune in, turn on, drop out". Ok... so they've decided they're not going to get a normal job - but they don't have any problem asking people who do have jobs for spare change. To me that implies they still buy into the system... they just want to be on the other side of the coin from the 'suits'. For all of the talk of cosmic consciousness and such, the 'Age of Aquarius' can't happen, because if it did there wouldn't be anyone who was still working and could still give spare change to the hippies.
Drugs have become almost compulsory in hippie culture... I don't smoke pot, and it's been a real social handicap in certain crowds ever since the US government declared its 'war on drugs'... if you don't smoke, people think you might be a narc. There's a lot of talk about getting back to nature, but in practice they're just getting back to this one plant.
All of that said, I admire the ones who *really* want to drop out, who find a piece of land somewhere and grow their own food and get off the grid, though it's something that gets harder and harder to do as populations rise. But in our neighborhood we've got community gardens, volunteer organizations, recycling programs... there are ways to live a more 'natural' and conscious and waste-free life even in the city.
They had/have their faults, but the hippie 'live and let live' attitude is something I admire and think Americans could use a hell of a lot more of right now.
It's like the great saint Elvis Costello said:
"What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?"
Peace :)
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