"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
25 February 2006Fatuous Flashback 22Child of the Sixties? The calendar says yes, but the reality says no:
[W]e traded one form of conformity for another: you can't tell me that a tie-dyed T-shirt is qualitatively any different from, say, a late-Eighties power tie. My connection to the counterculture, such as it was, turned out to be tenuous at best. The sort of sexual freedom espoused by the likes of Stephen Stills never came within a hundred miles of me. I paid no more than lip service to the era's unfettered (and largely unreasoning) leftishness. And "All you need is love" was never more than a Beatles single to me — and not as good a single as "Lady Madonna", either.
Part of this disjuncture was a matter of personal chronology. There was some questionable belief that I was some sort of smart kid, a notion I hadn't done anything to dispel by finishing six years of grade school in three years. Bad mistake. And, of course, it could only get worse. Being on the younger end of this particular cohort anyway, I was permanently out of step with my ostensible peer group, and they had better things to do than to waste time trying to bring me up to speed. After a few years of this, the dull olive drab of the Army didn't look so bad, and at least I would fit in, however clumsily. So perhaps I am not a true child of the Sixties. There are no faded posters from the Fillmore on the wall, no sheets of blotter acid hidden in the desk, no vague memories of the rear compartment of a VW Microbus. (I learned to drive in a Microbus, but I was sitting in the front at the time.) Still, I didn't come away emptyhanded. I continue to believe in questioning authority, especially if there's a possibility that authority is going to question me. I continue to listen to the music of the Sixties, the one artifact of the Sixties with demonstrable staying power. (Probably because it was the first to sell out to the Establishment, I suspect.) (From Vent #281, 15 February 2002.) Posted at 7:30 AM to Greatest HitsSo perhaps I am not a true child of the Sixties. I would say that's pretty well demonstrated by this: There was some questionable belief that I was some sort of smart kid, a notion I hadn't done anything to dispel by finishing six years of grade school in three years. To be a true child of the Sixties you should have dropped out of third grade. Posted by: McGehee at 9:03 AM on 25 February 2006I continue to believe in questioning authority... Believe it or not, I think I got that from my Catholic, politically conservative mother. And not in the form of reaction, either -- entirely by example. Posted by: McGehee at 9:05 AM on 25 February 2006I truly regret my own "questioning authority" issues. I sort of admire folks who can just submit and shut up. I wish I could; I am bruised and battered from all that questioning. I can't help but see a pinhead when I see an authority figure... and I AM AUTHORITY FIGURE... FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. Posted by: Dr. Jan at 11:31 AM on 25 February 2006There are many varieties of authority...and some of them are good for nothing but questioning. Entirely too many "authority figures" rely upon coercion or intimidation, because their authority isn't founded on knowledge or expertise. Gee, I just dismissed all political authority with prejudice, didn't I? Well, it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch. Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at 12:29 PM on 25 February 2006Ahh, yes, sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Mostly some drugs, a lot of music and very little sex. I am glad I have kept my skepticism, and lost my liberalism. Now I don't believe either "side." Posted by: Jeffro at 10:50 PM on 26 February 2006 |