blame/60s

EIDE491@delphi.com
Tue, 4 Jun 1996 21:55:01 -0400

J.Apfel says some appropriate things about 'blame'. I don't
think it's 'blame'. I think its accountability. I don't want
my kids to go down some of the dead end avenues I went down. Even
though Leary had some interesting ideas I think he should be held
accountable for passing out tabs to young people and telling them
that if they swallow it they will be infinately wise. This is
the sort of quakery you find in demented eras.
The radical critique of that time never found the ability
to contradict itself- never had that courage even though the
radical/activists had some of the best sensibility. As a result
it was left to the conservatives to do it (Limbaugh simply took
every assumption of the 60's and denied its validity- very clever
of him- Abby Hoffman would have been proud I think.)
The younger generation don't need self-flagellation from
they greybeard 60's crowd. They need honesty. If you don't have
honesty then you simply capture them in another form of myth
that programs them just as profoundly as the programming that went
on in 50's educational system. I am waiting the day they get
enraged at the programming that took place from the 60's onward.
The 'counter-culture' was/is caught in the classsic programming
mode of cults/communities of addiction but that is their problem.
I simply don't want their programming to become an institution
of some sort.
The other point worth raising is that the dope/sex/amplified
music/pleasure dominance etc. created 'heroes' out of mere
entertainers. Entertainers as heroes?! Good lord- the culture
will get so sick of its putrid self it will itch for a war.
And, appropriately, the most popular President of recent
times is Raygun himself. The arch entertainer and twin brother
to Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
Good luck
Eide
eide491@delphi.com