Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Wednesday, July 25. 2007

Rethinking the Summer of Love

It is 40 years since the silly and juvenile 1967 "Summer of Love." Cinnamon Stillwell remembers it. Quote: 

Among '60s disciples, it's an article of faith that everything that came out of that summer was a boon to American society. This has certainly been the impression conveyed through popular culture. Rarely are the more pernicious offshoots of the social and political experiment known as the Summer of Love referenced in the glowing and groovy portrayals seen on PBS and the History Channel.

But in its haste to dispense with all tradition that came before, the Summer of Love generation threw out much of the good along with the bad. The attempt to live in a manner that is essentially unsustainable led to a proliferation of divorce, drug use, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and all the perils and problems associated therewith. Too many people left their families, became addicts, and in some cases, lost their lives.

When all social boundaries are tossed aside and self-fulfillment becomes one's raison d'etre, society breaks down and, with it, all sense of morality. Seen in this light, the Summer of Love starts to seem more like the Summer of Folly.

Exactly. Read her whole piece.

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:34 | Comments (5) | Trackback (1)

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The Hippie Fad
"Imagine all the people living for today..." Fortunately, the Beatles didn't live that way. If they had, we would not have their music.Regarding our post on Rethinking the Summer of Love, let me remind you youngsters out there that the hippie fa
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This is the detritus left by the "Bummer Generation" who did all they could to undo what the "Greatest Generation" sacrificed to give us.

It is amazing the article was produced by someone who grew up in Marin County, Ca., ground zero for Nancy Pelosi.
#1 Habu on 2007-07-25 16:48 (Reply)
I can recall sitting in a bean bag chair in an apartment in Gainesville, Florida, smoking a joint and thinking how highly ritualized the entire drug sub culture had become in such a short time. This was a reflection at that moment 40+ years ago.
Going forward the entire acquisition, sorting stems and seeds, or if it was really good having to cut it up because it was so sticky is still a ritual, often passed on from the Bummer Generation to their kids...so their kids will think their folks are kool and the folks don't have to "hide" their stash. I'll bet most people on this blog know Bummers that did or do this very thing today. All done in secrecy from "The Greatest Generation" that weren't attuned to their kids drug usage .. so it was easy, but it was generational across the board and changed how society interacted.
Gone were games like playing bridge with the neighbors, now the neighbors might be narcs so you never bothered to meet them.
Those who never outgrew drug usage still know the paranoia and still conduct their lives in a shadow world that we now know with NO agrument supports terrorists.
You can bet the farm that the liberal left continues to be awash in pot , coke, smack, schrooms,XTC, you name it....I wonder how they feel about supporting terrorists ...oops how silly of me, they support them anyway with or without drugs.
#2 Habu on 2007-07-25 17:14 (Reply)
As we have seen with Cindy Sheehan, too many of the graduates of '67 are out there again trying to regain their relevance through protest of a new war. Now, as then, they know nothing. They do manage, however to rile up the ignorant into more protests and other unsightly shenanigans. Attention whores, all.
#3 Wolf Flywheel (Link) on 2007-07-25 17:20 (Reply)
We've got an old biker/hippie friend named Frenchy. Back then, he and his wife had a daughter born to them. She was delivered in a tipi and her name is Arrow. Arrow grew up, converted to Mormonism and is now a housewife. Karma will get you every time ;)
#4 Teri Pittman on 2007-07-25 21:19 (Reply)
BLZSo, War is Good?!

It's pretty extreme to blame such a long list of woes on the 1960s and the Summer of Love, the main message of which was to Open Your Mind and Determine Your Own Path. And to question those things, people and ideas that should be questioned.

That's a much more noble and desirable state of humanity than the nation of sheep we have become in the last couple decades. Of course not ALL the ideas that bloomed were good ones, but that’s part of the point: Find out yourself. Learn. Take control AND responsibility for your own decisions, don’t leave it up to others. And don’t blame others – or some nebulous notion of a failed social movement – for your own actions.

In any case - the facts don't support the claim. "Ultra-Liberal" Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. States in the Bible Belt are generally at the other end of the spectrum. (So, who REALLY takes their commitments more seriously?)

And it's more than a little ironic that under the old mores, the author would probably still have to ask her husband for permission to voice her opinion publicly.

Additionally, it's kind of interesting that those who condemn the graduates of 1967 as "knowing nothing" seem proponents of just that -- knowing nothing. This see-no- evil, hear-no- evil approach just leads to the worst kind of blind allegiance. Make that blind, deaf and dumb allegiance.

---
#5 toolow66 on 2007-08-07 14:30 (Reply)

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