Well? Where the eff are they? They were once all over the frickin place. Doing drugs, having group sex, living on the road. But I have a sneaking suspicion, given we know how most if not all those self-absorbed assholes turned out, that the whole time Moon and Morning Honey Dew were living the life, Western Union wires from Mom and Pop were the only thing standing between them and mass assimilation. And of course, Charles Manson didnt help their cause either. By the time LAPD was combing thru the Tate-LaBianca residences in August 1969, astute gold investors should have known the ship was turning. Slowly, but it was turning. As the movement died, the hippies slowly matriculated into LAWKI (Life As We Know It). Again, slowly at first, but then with exponential speed. A few got PhDs in Computer Science at Berkeley, got good jobs, and traded in their VW vans for Beemers. And then their junk status peers noticed, and they went off to get advanced degrees and conquer the world they'd thought they set straight. HELLO INFLATION!!!
Now enter Ronald Reagan stage right. And bingo. Of Course Tricky Dick filled in the first few bingo squares by getting us off the gold standard, but Reagan, de-regulation, and deficit spending set off a secular 25 year bull market from hell. Instead of fucking in open fields, the hippies had fun in mountainside homes, yachts, and cocaine-laden discoteques.
They got on the Grid in a major way. And the grid was ever increasing in intensity and consumption. You had to run like Carl Lewis just to stand still. The homes, the private schools, the Euro vacation, waxing for the wife, then expensive divorce for the wife who breifly lived with Bruno the personal trainer, charity balls, Range Rovers and Lexus's. It never stopped. Until it did.
So now the generation who once appeared to hold a moral compass above everyone else, in the end, became the most corrupted generation since the Romans. And their kids were like disgusting extensions of themselves. Porshes at 16, incessant bullying, cheerleader Darwinism, Ritalin, Xstasy. I'll stop here.
Now, the Worst Generation could (dis)gracefully exit stage left of their scorched earth policy. But you see, they can't. 2008 wiped out perhaps what was the biggest cocktail party converation topic of the last 15 years: The 401(k). So they need to keep showing up at work shuffling papers and screaming into phones. And there are a whole bunch of next-genners who just want them to get the hell out of the way so they can take the positions, salaries, and security the hipsters had when they were the next-genners age. They obviously can't lead. They will never follow. So they need to get the fuck out of the way!
Why so hard on the hippies? You ought not be so judgmental of those who helped shape our generation--or rather the socio-politics of the united states. Just think about the protests, the fact that someone stood up for what they believed. And frankly who cares that they grew up and got white color jobs and made some serious jack? Are they supposed to be homeless and full of ideas until their dying days?
ReplyDeleteFrankly I think you are hiding behind your own words. If you were as liberal and ground breaking as you want to seem you would be doing things like the hippies did--or perhaps taking other actions that match and flow with modern times. But you would be taking actions not criticizing a previous generation that used their voice to be a vehicle for change.
Why not analyze the fact that our current generation is dead and can easily be run over based on their apathy instead of picking on a group that faced the issues of their day? Sure they grew up and to some degree became more complacent--but the burden always falls on the youth of a nation, a generation to take action and the elder members to support them or disagree with them from afar. do you expect 60 year old protesters out on the streets, or do you think they should be behind the scenes making things happen?
My point is they accomplished so much (in their eyes) yet more than undid it in the later greed-filled years with debt, mcmansions, deregulation, and bandwagon-ery. In addition, most scoff today at the idea of rising up and making a stink. As the old saying goes, one's general dislike for civil unrest is in direct opposite proportion to their walletbook. And a lot of them will end up homelss in their dying days thanks to their unending support of policies that proved to be their own undoing. Houses 200k under water, college kids with Ivy ed. and no jobs. 401k cut in half. Corporate 250k/yr jobs outsourced to Malaysia. Say hi to George.
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