This generation of kids...

[Pompidou]

If California proves to cause the landslide of marijuana legalization across the country like I think it might, modern hippies will truly be in the right place at the right time. I always admired their pacifist aspects and idealism. I hope they can retain that, and maybe the general style of it all, but hold on to normal hygiene standards. It's the lack of cleanliness that diminishes hippies in my view. I wouldn't want to be one, but they'd be fun to hang around with now and then.

EDIT: If hippies are making a comeback, then there seems to be a cycle going, unless I'm totally off base. Beatniks -> Hippies -> Punks -> Goths/Emos -> Hipsters (pretty much Beatniks v2) ->Hippie v2 (I wonder if the movement will take a different label?). I wonder if a punk resurgence with giant mohawks for all is coming our way in 2020? At least the music will be good.

 

[jamespowers]

If California proves to cause the landslide of marijuana legalization across the country like I think it might, modern hippies will truly be in the right place at the right time. I always admired their pacifist aspects and idealism. I hope they can retain that, and maybe the general style of it all, but hold on to normal hygiene standards. It's the lack of cleanliness that diminishes hippies in my view. I wouldn't want to be one, but they'd be fun to hang around with now and then.

EDIT: If hippies are making a comeback, then there seems to be a cycle going, unless I'm totally off base. Beatniks -> Hippies -> Punks -> Goths/Emos -> Hipsters (pretty much Beatniks v2) ->Hippie v2 (I wonder if the movement will take a different label?). I wonder if a punk resurgence with giant mohawks for all is coming our way in 2020? At least the music will be good.

Legalized dope didn't pass in California---although with the election results here I am quite surprised it didn't.
The fact that hippies out here are hedonist, disingenous, frauds who talk one way and live another is what keeps me from having anything to do with them. They want you to live in a cave but they aren't giving up their Volvo or life in Marin County.

 

[Zamyatin]

I consider myself counter-counterculture, but NOT a reactionary. Hippies have much to offer, but they have to deliver their message in a way that encourages dialogue. Asking people to completely give up on materialism in this society is ridiculous and will result in nothing but derision. No one listens to dirty, inarticulate people, even if they're right. Hippies managed to somehow be dirty, lazy, and vain and supercilious... what upstanding citizen would listen to that?

In terms of the Beats, my favorite will NEVER be able to be co-opted by corporations: William S. Burroughs. It's easy to romanticize and package Kerouac, but there is no way to homogenize the Gentleman Junky. By no conceivable means a role model, but an artist quite worthy of examination.

 

[Widebrim]

Pompidou, I've seen many of those films (I'm a big MST3k fan), and after reading your post, I wonder if there is a simple reason for the way those films paint "society".

Imagine post WWII when 18 year old boys returned to the farm as 20 year old men who had witnessed the savage, brutal aspects of European genocide. Many of them experienced PTSD, called shell shock at the time. Many, like my grandfather, were wounded multiple times and returned to the farm, simple country bumpkins no more.

So I wonder if that "mass militirization" didn't seep in to the overall psyche of the country. I also wonder if the resulting PTSD, and other maladies, didn't require the simplicity of a repressed, disciplined society in order for some men to keep sane.

There was a song that came out just after The Great War titled, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm, After They've Seen Paree?" that kind of addressed the changes experienced by that generation...

Now regarding returning WWII GIs, it may be true that some of them fit into the post-war "disciplined society" (my father appeared to be one of them) but some apparently did not, hence the beginning of the Hell's Angels, and the proliferation of Films Noir that addressed the subject of vets not finding their place in said society.

 

[Tomasso]

Apologies to friends who don't consider anything connected with the arts to be real work.

Isn't it written somwhere that it's unnecessary to apologize to dolts.....

 

[Widebrim]

That depends on where you live. You didn't find 12 year old drug addicts in the 1950s either.:eusa_doh:

One of the most sought-after comic books of the '50s is Harvey Comics Library #1, which contains, "Teen-Age Dope Slaves." Propaganda, yes, but based on some scraps of fact...

 

[Pompidou]

I imagine the movie "Reefer Madness" wasn't created in a vacuum either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The entire marijuana panic of the mid-thirties was the result of one man's obsession -- Henry Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a hard-liner looking for a cause. He wrote the article "Marijuana, Assassin of Youth" for the American Magazine in 1937, and filled it with exaggerated anecdotes drawn from the Hearst press, later expanding it into a book and then using that book as the basis for "Reefer Madness."

There was, in fact, no documented epidemic of marijuana use among American teenagers during the thirties, a conclusion supported by a comprehensive study by a commission appointed by Mayor LaGuardia of New York in 1939. Its use was confined mostly to traveling musicians and migrant agricultural workers in the Southwest. Most Americans had never heard of the drug until Anslinger brought it to their attention.

 

[Foofoogal]

Henry Anslinger- So it is all his fault..
--------------------------------

We have had some interesting threads on Hippies here in the past. Remember the Gilligan/Mary Ann one.

I was a hippie but no way, no how do I want to go back to that. Sitting around like slugs with the munchies is not my idea of fun. I was a teen and very stupid. I cannot believe California currently. To me now it is like OZ or something. I am sure some of it is nice but from the news and propaganda it looks like nothing I would want. Now everyone in Texas do not ride horse or Arkansas people hillbillies so I am sure everyone in California do not fit the image or perceived one anyway.

Communes will not work as some people will end up with all the work and others being lazy.

 

[Undertow]

There was a song that came out just after The Great War titled, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm, After They've Seen Paree?" that kind of addressed the changes experienced by that generation...

Now regarding returning WWII GIs, it may be true that some of them fit into the post-war "disciplined society" (my father appeared to be one of them) but some apparently did not, hence the beginning of the Hell's Angels, and the proliferation of Films Noir that addressed the subject of vets not finding their place in said society.

Bing Crosby sang a song titled There Will Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin with those very lyrics. I'm listening to it right now, in fact (synchronicity anyone? lol)

 

[jamespowers]

Henry Anslinger- So it is all his fault..
--------------------------------

We have had some interesting threads on Hippies here in the past. Remember the Gilligan/Mary Ann one.

I was a hippie but no way, no how do I want to go back to that. Sitting around like slugs with the munchies is not my idea of fun. I was a teen and very stupid. I cannot believe California currently. To me now it is like OZ or something. I am sure some of it is nice but from the news and propaganda it looks like nothing I would want. Now everyone in Texas do not ride horse or Arkansas people hillbillies so I am sure everyone in California do not fit the image or perceived one anyway.

Communes will not work as some people will end up with all the work and others being lazy.

Not everyone in California matches the profile but there is obviously a majority in certain metropolitan areas where tourists visit. Its like the Go See a Hippie Fairgrounds in certain areas.
I am glad you came to your senses. Those who didn't still seem to live here and attraqct others though.:eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

One of the most sought-after comic books of the '50s is Harvey Comics Library #1, which contains, "Teen-Age Dope Slaves." Propaganda, yes, but based on some scraps of fact...

There is a reason why it is so sought after---it was rare just like dope use.

 

[Widebrim]

The entire marijuana panic of the mid-thirties was the result of one man's obsession -- Henry Anslinger of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a hard-liner looking for a cause. He wrote the article "Marijuana, Assassin of Youth" for the American Magazine in 1937, and filled it with exaggerated anecdotes drawn from the Hearst press, later expanding it into a book and then using that book as the basis for "Reefer Madness."

There was, in fact, no documented epidemic of marijuana use among American teenagers during the thirties, a conclusion supported by a comprehensive study by a commission appointed by Mayor LaGuardia of New York in 1939. Its use was confined mostly to traveling musicians and migrant agricultural workers in the Southwest. Most Americans had never heard of the drug until Anslinger brought it to their attention.

And the obsession with juvenile delinquency and drug use in the '50s is partly attributed to psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and his book, Seduction of the Innocent, a work which was also responsible for the comic book purge of the mid-50s.

 

[Foofoogal]

Isn't it amazing how people sort of move into what is expected of them.
Mass hysteria can make people do things they normally would never do.
I really think part of the parenting by us was refusing the idea profusely that they are just kids so they are just going to be wild.
I do think part of the knowledge I had as a hippie (hate that term) made me smarter and more diligent.
Like I have stated before I had more problems with other adults than other kids around my kids.

 

[jamespowers]

And the obsession with juvenile delinquency and drug use in the '50s is partly attributed to psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and his book, Seduction of the Innocent, a work which was also responsible for the comic book purge of the mid-50s.

The guy testified for the Defense in the Albert Fish trial. That speaks volumes to me. He got off a child rapist and murderer with those kinds of excuses. Then he made himself look like a defender of children?!
Vincent Price made him look like the jackass he was on the Mike Douglas Show many years ago. Look it up. It is worth a good look and laugh.
I have noticed recently that people who go into his field usually have problems themselves.:fing28:

 

[Undertow]

The guy testified for the Defense in the Albert Fish trial. That speaks volumes to me. He got off a child rapist and murderer with those kinds of excuses.

Well, I don't think that's entirely fair. Albert Fish was quite mad after all. And certainly, Wertham had a point that society would have greatly benefited from the examination of Fish, seeing as he was supposedly gripped by the most known fetishes one person could muster.

On the other hand, Fish got fried. So unless you're against the death penalty, justice was served.

 

[Undertow]

Not to raise the dead or stir the pot, but I read through this article and thought it may have bearing on this thread...

US: New generation infected by narcissism, says psychologist
By: Kate Hagan
The Sydney Morning Herold

Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said a study she conducted of 16,000 university students across the US showed 30 per cent were narcissistic in psychological tests, compared with 15 per cent in 1982. ''They are all 18 and 19-year-olds, so this is clearly a generational shift,'' she said.

 

[Feraud]

Oh no... :eusa_doh:

 

[sheeplady]

Apparently narcissism is not correlated with intelligence:

"Some resulting social trends were a greater interest in fame and wealth, more plastic surgery, and an increase in attention-seeking crimes - for example, 'beating someone up and putting it on YouTube'."

Well, I guess if you're going to beat someone else up, at least now we'll have evidence of the assault. Perhaps a veiled positive?

 

[JimWagner]

Narcissistic Darwinism?