4TheRcrd Mag.

“[During the Hippie Movement]…You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

(Hunter S Thompson 1971)

What were the 60’s like? I’m a bit to young to understand exactly what was happening. From all the sources I’ve experienced, whether reading literature on the 1960’s or speaking to people that lived during that time, the answer is unclear. Most people think of the 60’s as a time of youth, love and a fight for peace. With a little research you can see that the 60’s were not filled merely with drug addled long hairs as mainstream media seems to dictate, but with a youth engaged in informed intellectual activism. Seeing the political motion that such a critical mass of human beings can have, the governing bodies in North America were frightened. They went so far as to arrest individuals and on very horrific occasions even kill protestors. When Hunter S Thompson’s metaphorical wave (the hippie movement,) “finally broke and rolled back,” what exactly happened? When did the majority of North American people become ok with the rule of an oppressive, falsely democratic society?

It’s clear that capitalism is a very attractive notion to people. The apathetic citizen needs not look farther than American idol to escape the fact that the government is stealing publicly owned interest and selling them to the highest bidder. When did we agree that being stepped on, by the people we voted for, is acceptable? By all accounts and purposes George W. Bush, in my ever so humble and youthful opinion, should be considered a war criminal and a traitor to America. It is clear now that he knew about the September 11 attacks and did little in the way of preventing them. Whether or not he staged the terrorist attack is something I will leave up to the conspiracy theorists, which I am certainly not affiliated with. On that note, area 51 was a downed experimental jet, the alien bodies were charred human remains and why would anyone think an alien species would be bipedal and in the shape of a humanoid? Humans are an egocentric species.

I digress… The 60’s meant something. The 60’s showed us, that people (in mass quantities) are more powerful than bombs, guns and dictators. When the hippie movement left us, it also left the government with time to organize strategies to disable the organization and uprising of a countries people. One of the main ways to do this is to control the media and entertainers. One example is the musical group the Dixie Chicks. They spoke out against the administration of the USA and faced extreme criticism for it. However, to reinforce the new movement we are apart of, they rose again as successful entertainers with a political message. We can speak up and the reason we will be heard is because we are a generation of self-educating human beings that dare to turn the television off (if only occasionally) and question what we see on mainstream news.

I write this article on the evening before an important peace rally. There will be a gathering of people against war at the Vancouver Art Gallery tomorrow, March 15^th, at 12 noon. I will be in attendance, on input mode and not lecturing, to learn all I can. Like the cartoon, GI Joe, so ironically stated, “knowledge is half the battle.” I wonder what the other half is? I’m going with non-violent action. I urge all people of the world and all people attending the gathering to be passionate and learn as much as they can from their peers, but to maintain a non-violent attitude towards change. “All We Need is Love,” (the Beatles) may not be entirely true to all of us, but love is certainly more important to positive change than fear, hate, and aggression. RAF

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