Posted on 02/24/2007 9:52:29 PM PST by An American in Turkiye
Warning! A roving band of Hippie Icons may soon be coming to a city near you!
It all started on a sunkist Saturday at Wild Adventure theme park, here in Valdosta, Georgia. Concerts are a regular here, and I've seen some great bands: Foreigner, Styx, REO Speedwagon.
Before I begin, let me just say that I am 35 years old. Never really saw the hippie movement. Read about it, saw the footage of Woodstock, etc. But I never really experienced it. And for that, I think God.
It was an outdoor event, with families lining lawn chairs up, loading the kids up with popcorn and burgers, and settling in for a good show. Although not my generation, I have always loved classic rock. And by classic rock, I mean Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc.
I expected to see decent, hard working people in the crowd, like I had seen at the other concerts. This was not to be the case.
As if the pictures and videos I've seen of Woodstock came alive, it was now. But there was no beauty. Fat, bloated hippies, hurrying their hippie wives, streamed onto the field. Most men had hair down to the small of their backs, their wives the same. Grey was the common, and lots of it. When I looked at their faces, long, cavernous wrinkles bore into their flesh. So deep you could shove an envelope into it and it would stay. A pungent and distinct aroma wafted around, like a camper that has not showered in a few days. And the looks on their faces. The look of pure intolerance, of pure selfishness, of pure hatred.
I should have left with my fiancé right then and there.
Country Joe McDonald walked out first. I have heard some of his music, and honestly, not that big of a fan. He attempted some humor, and then broke out into "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag". If you are not in the know, it's an anti-Vietnam song. The crowd went wild. I looked at my fiancé and said "Do they not realize that this was 30 years ago?" It was like they were reliving their past protests all over again.
What happened next was unbelievable. He has a new song, ripe with criticism about Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. The vulgarities flew with every venomous breath he took. Mind you, there were little kids all over the place, but their (grandparents) laughed and lauded every vile insult thrown at the President.
The concert went on, with performances by Melanie, Iron Butterfly, and the Animals. All night long, slogans like " we can all live in peace", "we're all brothers", and "make love, not war" was shouted at the crowd. But interestingly, I saw otherwise.
All night long, security for the bands made their way through the crowd, screaming at people to stop videotaping the show. I mean, getting in their face, finger pointing, yelling. All the while, the bands kept spouting about how evil capitalism is, how imperialistic we are, etc. But after each performance, we were told to "go to the white tent to purchase tonights video, and buy a few tee shirts to support the cause." Hypocrisy at its best.
The people in the crowd were amazing. Hippies know that smoking pot leads to the munchies, but apparently the never cared. Most people had tie-dye shirts on their bloated, beer gut bellies. After reading "make love" one too many times on these walking pregnant lava lamps, I almost threw up thinking about what it actually might look like.
Sorry for the long rave, but my point is this: the hippie generation caused a lot of damage to this nation. It is evident that deep down, they hate this country. They loathe capitalism, unless it keeps them from making a buck. They think it's OK to spew profanities in front of kids, as long as it bashes Republicans. And the amount of trash that was left on the ground from them was disgusting.
But hey! Someone else will clean it up for them. They are too busy lecturing us on Global Warming!
ping efg ping
Summary: Bunch of grey-haired, pony-tailed, smelly old hippies trying to recapture their "glory" days of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. Losers.
If you can get over the hairy legs and BO, hippy chicks are easy.
I assume that explains a lot about the foggy patches in my mental archives.
During the 60s, hippies helped defeat America in a war. Now they're working to condemn a new generation of Americans to defeat. Only, if they succeed this time, it will be much much worse.
The hippies at Woodstock weren't "peace and love" either. Generations X and Y got a bad rap at the 1999 Woodstock event.
The hippies burned down the food booth in 1969 too (and you can hear "Wavy Gravy" mention of it "if there's some of you who still think capitalism is a good idea you might want to help him out..." (paraphrased).
And Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers blackmailed the promoters to give them $10,000 and booth space at the original event or else face untold problems "from the underground community".
Peace and love my ass. just a bunch of stinkin' commies.
Yes, but their personal history tends to make them impossible to get over...at least with the current state of modern medicine!
Jerry Rubin went from Yippie to Yuppie. He went from being a revolutionary and an agitator who met with Che Guavera to investing in the stock market. From being in the Chicago 7 to Wall Street.
Doesn't mean that he wasn't a crumb who did bad things to this country.
Ok, this is probably the kick-me-off FR post here, but I really don't see why conservatives think that we hate this country. We love this country - we're half of this country. Almost everything important that the world has done for the last half century has come out of this country. I think that the reason why FReepers and others think that we hate this country is that we acknowledge that much of what is wrong with the world has come out of this country, and Russia/China, within the last half century.
But we love what this country could be. I am an Eagle Scout. I love the flag - I have put many old flags to rest, including, one one amazing occasion, a 50x75' flag. I love the history of this country - democracy/republicanism is the default system of government due almost solely to us.
I'm involved in research at one of the ten best hospitals/biomedical research centers in the country. We're actually the top center in the country, in the world, for fetal surgery. And we're in San Francisco. Pretty much everybody here is pro-choice, pro-ES research, anti-war, well, anyway, typical Democrats.
But we're all doing it because we don't want people to die. Ever. If this war would save lives in the long run, we'd be for it. But it won't. Maybe one of the primary differences between the two camps is that we think that Iraqi civilians have just as much of a right to live as do US civilians. I actually saw somebody say, on FR, that we should have killed on the order of 600,000 Iraqi civilians - and he got nothing but positive replies in return. Why? Did the owner of a bodega in Baghdad deserve to die more than one on Church St in Manhattan on 9/11? Is there really any difference between an American and an Iraqi 5-year-old girl?
4 years of an obviously failed strategy is too much. Change tactics radically, or stop. Those are the only realistic choices.
All we have ever wanted is to let people live their lives in peace. And that includes God-fearing American Christians. We don't hate heterosexuals. We don't hate religion.
This has been your friendly 24 year old hippy with hair down to his middle back, who lives 5 minutes away from Haight-Ashbury,
I don't think they'll have too much success. You see, unlike the hippies, my generation has felt the effects of the Free Love Generation. Waht with divorce, moral ambiguity, the resulting instability, rapid increase of mental illness as children take on the role of parent...etc. My generation does not have time for hippie stupidity or the leisure time to waltz around Woodstock trying to tune out the world around us. Some of us are doing the job our parents should be doing.
" The hippies at Woodstock weren't "peace and love" either "
I was soon to become a senior in high school ( in 1969 ) and hitched rides from CT to upstate NY and the festival with a buddy . We'd ordered tickets , but by the time we got to the site it had become FREE .
I would say that the vast majority of people there - hippies or otherwise , were peaceful and full of love for their brothers and sisters who were at the festival . People shared food , water , dry blankets , etc. with total strangers and there were very few incidents during the 3 days . Remember , there were around half a million young people there . Nobody was murdered or raped as far as I know . What major US city with a 500,000 population and only a modicum of police security could - even in 1969 - boast those stats ?
Sure there were a--holes in attendance , including Abbie Hoffman who , thankfully , got booted off the stage by The Who's Pete Townshend .
Yeah, the terror attacks in this country have increased significantly since 9/11, haven't they?
Jeesh - talk about someone having their head up their ass!
Welcome to FR. I have news for you. We are not at war with Iraqi civillians. The insurgents come from other countries.
Al Qaeda does not fly a flag or wear a uniform so in that regard they "are" civilians but their troops are at war with Iraqi civilians. They kill more Iraqis in their attacks than US troops.
This is not the same war as the war against Saddam's Iraq. Saddam is out of power and will not return.
We waged war in Germany for 50 years after WWII. The Cold War was fought until the Berlin Wall came down.
Are you attending UCSF or Berkeley?
Cheers!
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