60's/tales
EIDE491@delphi.com
Thu, 2 May 1996 10:04:32 -0400
Finally, we get the tales! I was beginning to nod off on this
list thinking I was a sophomore at the University of Moscow circa 1965
and, arguing, (silently of course) with the old Stalinist prof. who
hadn't gotten any of late. Ah! But, of course. This fabled period
of time was about tales, myths, lies, dreams and never about gibberish
theory. It was driving down Hiway 1 to Big Sur w/hitchhiker/smoker
dudes telling me why the world was going to end. It was tales of
N.Africa wildness and Tibetan prayer wheels and secret alphabets
of old magicians. It was being on campus and sharing a joint w/Kareem
Abdul Jabbar (aka Lew Alcindor) and biker creeps. It was Judge and
his dreadlocks who we pulled down to the poetry club to read his
stoned lyrics while holding this flower pot with one long green stem
in it. It was the bizarre hippy happenings up in the Santa Cruz
mountains, men from the star Polaris w/strange powers, the pathologies
of endless summers, women w/tatoos on their inner thighs, excellent
hooting and howling at the manipulations of the political types who
tested out their ability to use others to prepare for the big show.
The only one who made it was Tom Hayden and he's a minor official
in a state legislature wondering where Jane went.
The 'political activism' was very strong for several years. Up
to Kent State let us say.
But the political types could not contend w/ the two choatic
fomenting perceptions given birth at that time: to wit, men standing
on moon pointing cameras back at the physical earth- the real thing
not some mystical vision (and every mystic I've read has always tried
to induce said view to induce profound maturity on part of human being.
Such event in the latter half of 20th c. is too choatic for political
types to contend w/ since it draws in the whole freaking universe. And
we know that not one single political theory can claim the absolute, can
not know the creation of the universe and can not explain the properties
that hold it together- ergo, it is a function of personal psychology.
And why would I want YOUR psychology to determine my view of reality?
The other event was the fact that for first time in history a
generation, as its consciousness developed through time, met with
the utter possibility of mass destruction. This induced what Eliade
called 'myth of eternal return' where consciousness, to sustain its
vitality must ritually destroy and reconstruct the world on an annual
basis. That breaks apart and empties the toxins that gather when
contemplating such dire conditions in the world.
All of that gave rise to the temptation to believe that the
species was 'starting over again'. That is the point of entry for
that period of time.
It was coming to terms w/those perceptions that the younger
generation should study since, in my various studies of history/culture,
I have never come up with anything close to those two perception/events.
The only thing that comes close are the various reports of the
fear and adrenelin people felt when 'the hordes are on the rim of
the hills ready to descend.'
Good luck,
Eide