You both have points about the righteousness of anyone claiming "the
sixties _were_ this or that" but I think the issue here is that everone's
sixties was obviously different. I resent hearing anyone claim it was all
sex and drugs and I resent anyone claiming it was all politics. What
bothers those of us on one end of that spectrum, if it can be called that,
is the denial part. I don't deny that the counter-culture was a big part of
that time. I don't deny that a lot of ideas came out of the music, the
drugs, the opening up of consciousness, and alternatives. But neither do I
want anyone denying that for a lot of us, politics was the factor which
made the sixties meaningful.
>For us drugs, music and sex WERE defining parts of that time. My
>whole conciousness was shaped by large doses of mind altering drugs,
>alchohol, wild music and yes even ORGIES. (egads!)
For you. Cool. not for me. You were always there, and _always_ part of the
scene, but so was I. That's all - it wasn't all one or the other, which
seems to be the focus of someone wanting to write, say a 3 page paper about
"the music". Sometimes, we overlapped and shared common ground and
interests. I don't know where the sixties would have been for me without
the music. And granted, any look back tends to find the more "colorful"
and god knows, the street people, the Freaks, the Motherfuckers are a lot
more colorful than a whole bunch of students. and that's what people see
and remember, I think.
And Maggie? You made some really good points and you're right about a lot
of stuff that didn't occur to me - like what it was like growing up during
the Reagan years and hearing all that anti-drug,w ell, babble. (I never
understood
how "just say no" could be taken seriously, I have to admit.)
Andi