Posted on 07/18/2008 5:09:54 AM PDT by foutsc
The hippie generation taught us to laugh at the parents and grandparents who defeated America's enemies, bought us our first car and paid for our college. The hippies brought us social acceptance of drug use which spawned death and wrecked families; sexual freedom that imprisons human dignity; a sneering condescension for the squirrel that hoards his nuts against a hard winter. The hippie generation has defied the wisdom of the ages by redefining family, gender, and marriage. They even tried killing off God! How stupid is all of mankind that came before them! We are now suffering the rotten fruits of their pot smoking, sex crazed self-indulgence. G.K. Chesterton was a great thinker of the 19th and early 20th century. He spoke of the thought that kills all thoughts; and that's what these aging hippies, ensconced in their Hollywood studios, ivory towers of academe, and marbled halls of governance are trying to do: Kill our old fashioned thoughts. Kill our thoughts of loving and serving God, self-reliance, patriotism, morality. His words still apply today:
Don't let them stop your thoughts.The peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought.
It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a skeptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should anything go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?"
The young sceptic says, "I have a right to think for myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says, "I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all." There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.
The generation that brought you the Hippie generation struggled hard for what they had. They wanted more for us. I would say that they willingly over gave to the next generation except that the destructive entitlement idea was the venom that FDR and his ilk injected into the American system of government. Yes, we are reaping the damage he started.
Well said and right on target. ~S
I would add that it’s not all the hippies that are the problem, just the ones that never grew up and got a life. The old hippies are just the most visible.
I agree that most Americans have just had it too easy since the Second World War and many have come to believe they are entitled to this or that. Many have become spoiled brats, or worse, but are not and never have been hippies.
The anti-establishment hippies of the 60’s are now the establishment.
Don’t know where you got your info, but the “hippie generation” was a minority and not capable of the things you credit them with. Also, you might want to research the Beatnik generation who actually introduced a LOT of the concepts the hippies are commonly credited with.
“Hippie Generation” is a metaphor. The 60’s did indeed usher in the things I mention. Of course, drugs, homosexuality, “free love,” etc, all existed before that time. In fact they existed in biblical times. I am slamming the arrogance of Bill Clinton’s generation in thinking they can deny the wisdom of the ages, make up new definitions for age-old concepts, and just expect everyone to fall in line. Like Papa foutsc used to say, “Just because they say it don’t make it so.”
Much as I hate to say this, a LOT of us at FR (me included) are from "Bill Clinton's" generation.
Just like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson don't speak for or represent all black Americans, Bill Clinton and the hippies don't represent all of us from that generation. As I stated, the hippies were a minority. The rest of us worked and paid taxes, we joined the service and defended our country in Vietnam (willingly or otherwise); we were too busy trying to find our own way in the world and make meaningful contributions to pay a lot of attention to the hippies. What your post suggests is that the clowns are the most important part of the circus - they aren't and never have been. They're an amusing sideshow that provide the animals and other performers with a break - that's what the hippies of "Bill Clinton's" generation did. It was the media and the "Gen X" and "Gen Y" folks who romanticized the hippies and made them mainstream. At the time, they were just an amusing sideshow and distraction. When you tar everyone with the same brush, you include the 2.5+ million of us who went to 'Nam, who joined the space program, who researched and developed new technologies that allow you to publish your thoughts to a worldwide audience, etc. We weren't all hippies and your hasty generalizations to assume that they represent us all expose your naivete'.
Once again, it’s a metaphor. If you’re not a hippie then you’re not part of the hippie generation and it’s not directed at you. If you believe in and support traditional values, it’s not directed at you. I have friends from that era who were conservative at the time and I also have friends who were hippies, some still are. It’s just a thought piece. I enjoy finding old quotes or pieces of writing that apply to what’s happening today and sharing it with others. I’m sorry I offended you.
LBJ...Another president from Texas.
LBJ born 1908... Brought us the "Great Society", Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to Education, and the War on Poverty.
Wouldn’t you like to know what really went on behind the scenes with LBJ?
The hippies were not a standalone generation unto themselves, they were and, unfortunately, remain part of the baby boom generation which has no choice about claiming Bubba. If you wanted to address your comments about hippies, that's fine. However, you broadened the scope by including "Bill Clinton's generation", which includes a lot more people than just Bill Clinton or hippies.
Frankly, I don't care if you want to slam hippies, they've earned every drop of bad press they've gotten and more. As for being offended, I wasn't and no apology is needed. I just wanted to make sure that I understood where you were coming from. FR does have a contingent that works from a base of ignorance and loves to slam baby boomers. That's what prompted my response.
If you want to slam hippies, though, go for it; I'm with ya!! I have no particular love for them, either!! As for my generation, we made our share of mistakes as has every generation. Ignorance and urban mythology tend to exaggerate those mistakes into something more than is really there.
While hippies were certainly a vocal minority of the Boomers, I can and do trace many of society’s ills to the Boomers, hippie or otherwise. I’m 39, and I loathe the boomers. Hippie or not, they are self-indulgent, narcissistic and have accomplished little as a generation. Unless you count screwing my generation over.
Gross generalization? Of course. Out of 70 million Boomers, I’m sure some are fine people. But in my experience, the media portrait is more or less on target.
Tell ya what, raven. Print off a copy of this thread and save it for the next thirty years. By that time, your children and grandchildren will be telling you what a waste of space and skin YOUR generation was.
Friend, I don’t have to wait 30 years. It’s been happening all my life and I’ve no expectation that it won’t continue the rest of my life.
When I was in high school and college, the boomers coming into power couldn’t rip into “Gen X” enough for being “slackers” and so forth. The kids coming up now, that I have to manage, have a strange and inexplicable bond with the boomers and can’t for the life of them understand their immediate predecessors. Kids between, say 22 and 26 are a very odd breed, and have nothing but contempt for my generation. And there are lots more of them then there are/were of us.
Welcome to MY world!
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