Thursday, November 14, 2013

Suppose they gave a revolution and nobody came?



So whatever happened to the !!@# revolution anyway? A more interesting question ... whatever happened to the revolutionaries? Here's a short answer ...

New Left: The Weather Underground, the Yippies and various factions and mutations. Viewed Amerika as the hegemony of a Capitalist elite, wanted to replace the system with some variety of Socialism. Can now be found in colleges and public radio stations.

Counterculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog crowd, the Hog Farm and other non-insane communes, various rockers, artists, videographers, etc. The ancestors of DIY culture, deeply influenced by Emerson. Instead of changing the system, tried to create alternative system. Some actually did – and are still out there.

Hippies: Latter-day emulators of Rousseau’s Noble Savage who pursued experience for experience’s sake via drugs, sex, rock and roll and old school buses. Believed in changing the system, in theory, but were too stoned to do anything. Survived on spare change from the system. Can now be found in homeless shelters.

Animal House Hedonists: Never believed in that revolution stuff, but believed in rejection of American Puritanism and any restraint of the narcissistic self. The self-centered pleasure principle embraced consumer culture (without moral obligations). In the 1980s, these cats took over. American popular culture returned to the worship of money, status and shiny things. With a vengeance.

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