"Not if you eliminate the third, fifth, and sixth letters, then it's 'Red's Digest', Comrade."
Posted on 04/20/2015 6:43:40 PM PDT by Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense
Back in the Sixties, there was a popular bumper sticker slogan that read “question authority.” In that dubious era of phony psychedelic bohemians and inane pseudo-revolutionaries, it was one of the few pieces of advice I took seriously. Even today it remains good advice, and perhaps even more so.
Questioning authority lies at the foundation of how and why this country was formed. The War of Independence was the ultimate challenge to an authority that hadn’t only become questionable, but beyond toleration as well. The framework of the Constitution was designed in part to allow both its citizens and its administrators to question the authority of any legislation they thought was outside the bounds of the very Constitution they ratified. The Founders understood well that authority and tyranny often walked hand in hand.
These days, I’m dismayed to see so many Baby Boomers willing to give the powers-that-be so much slack and latitude. Not only does it seem out of character, it seems un-American. Nevertheless, you’ll find that many former anti-establishment types have changed their tune. Challenging the status quo, at one time so fashionable among the Left, is now considered racist, mean-spirited, even treasonous. Just try and criticize the current administration and its policies and see how quickly you’re attacked. Apparently now that many on the Left have found their comfortable niches in government, entertainment, media, and academia, their new slogan must surely be “submit to authority.” How convenient.
The New Left in particular suffers a great burden of irony and hypocrisy. While still pretending to be counter-culture radicals, these poseurs have become part of the national establishment they so militantly opposed back in those days of sit-ins, street marches, and ROTC building takeovers. The rebels of yesterday are the social and political status quo of today.
One need only look at any Leftist who has found some position of authority to realize that their timeworn catchwords like ‘peace,’ ‘ justice,’ ‘equal rights’ and ‘power to the people’ weren’t much more than disingenuous slogans—fashion statements to accessorize their political pretensions. Such words have a hollow ring of banality now. A ruling class is still a ruling class no matter how you try to dress it up. Beneath the posturing, the New Left was nothing more than a rabble of closet statists who never admitted that what they really wanted was to run the world their way, and force the rest of us to conform to their worldview. They remain in denial to this day as to their real purpose and intentions.
Many on the New Left still romanticize the exploits of their generation. Yet the so called “system” they were fighting against is just as arbitrary today as they perceived it to be back then. The only difference is that they’ve become the very people they warned us about.
While we're still waxing nostalgic, let’s end with a lyrical trip down radical lane. Jagger and Richards once lamented, “There’s no place for a street fightin’ man.” Lennon and McCartney challenged, “You say you want a revolution.” And Jim Morrison demanded, “We want the world and we want it now.” Well, as Sixties icon Pete Townshend put it so aptly, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Huu now,what’s that sound ? Everybody knows what’s goin round!
1965 was 50 years ago, how many people who were old enough to be 20 years old back then are doing much of anything, except voting republican and being retired?
I was a long haired redneck in the 60’s. The hippie chicks were so easy it didn’t seem fair at times, but...
Succinct
And these so-called “Anti-War Activists” weren’t anti-war at all, they just thought we were fighting for the wrong side.
Those flower children are today’s blooming idiots.
Well yea, but they are also running the White House and regulatory agencies.
“question authority.”
Once perverts were in charge, that required course was dropped....................
"Not if you eliminate the third, fifth, and sixth letters, then it's 'Red's Digest', Comrade."
But I can't say the same for many of my classmates. They were hippies and never grew up. Many are them are the liberal democRATS of today.
As a child growing up in the north Bay Area in the 60s, I was surrounded by hippies. I couldn’t stand them. They were so phony, pretending to be something they weren’t and no human is. Their legacy can be seen in the New Age mysticism... utterly phony.
I was a long haired hippie 1967. The Summer of Love, indeed. Hippie chicks were God’s gift to a generation of boys facing the Draft.
That paragraph totally nails it
My only disagreement with the paragraph is that they never were nor are they now in denial. They have known all along that they wanted total power over all things and people.
Not so. This boss has digital devices that monitor every aspect of your life. This boss prints money to cheapen your paycheck. This boss is in bed with his competitors so that once your job is gone he can retire overseas. This boss wants to take away your ability to defend yourself, and threatens your job if you don't echo his immoral beliefs.
Same boss, indeed!
They are todays’ Democrat party establishment.
“question authority” aka “ignore the Constitution”
What did they really mean?
Women can kill their own babies and men don’t have to stick around to raise the babies that do survive.
Yup, a bunch of dope smoking, dirty rebel hippies. I didn’t like them then and I hate them now.
I’ll be glad when the older group of my generation dies off.
What comes behind them though is not something I look forward to either.
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