Let the 60's Die, Please!

Not sure if I need say more. Of course, I will. A lot more. Skip down to the video if this bores you.

Maybe too many people who lived through it never critically looked at demonstrations close up and talked to participants. Most of them could not tell you any facts. They were there to be seen, be cool, get laid, and get pot. Not necessarily in that order.

Then again, most people did not live through it (late 60's/early 70's protests). They just got their impressions from glamorous looking footage, and hearsay. I am not among that group. Like now, I couldn't justify taking over a building, blocking roadways, etc. However I did go see what was up in case I could score dope or get lucky. And out of curiosity. It amazed me how hateful people could be while "standing up for peace".

**(On the other hand, the reaction of officials did more to fuel things than one might think. Idiotic response by police and government. Agitators knew that and sometimes did things to their own and framed the cops to make the victim part fly. Later reports bring up the possibility that someone other than guardsmen fired the first shots at Kent State. It was still dumb to deal with these things as they did. So sad that in many ways both sides back then actually hated freedom. Both sides wanted everyone to conform to their mode of behavior. Live and let live was not in the mix)


{photo by Robert Altman, I think. I lifted it but not for commercial purposes. Altman is online]
They did not know how to handle large groups of people showing up to express disapproval of undeclared wars.
It was a very strange and confusing period. The art of being hip was far more confining than one might think. However the lack of disease fears and the general sedation of the peer group made for rather friendly interpersonal relations with complete strangers.

***And as much as it goes against my grain in certain ways, I have to say that the draft and the confusion over why it was done did set the stage for the rest. Once you can legitimize your status as victim, it is easy to suspend reason and values in your retaliation. Of course not everyone had a low draft number, like me.

It is curious that some of the most hip protester types of that era that I knew turned out to be the most aggressive and unprincipled of business people later. Peace, love and screw you. Very greedy. It got them laid and gave them a social circle. It was not a truly idealistic movement as much as it appeared****

***Too bad the WWII people couldn't see the forest for the trees. They often resented their kids for not being poor and having to go fight the Huns or Japs. So they went along out of blind patriotism. They should have been the ones to block the unnecessary, and, in my mind, illegal forced conscription of their sons. Though it may be noted that a huge percentage of soldiers in Viet nam volunteered for the service and for that duty. A skewed statistic because enlistees had a better deal than draftees and more control over duty (not saying much)+++++

+++The ultra active peace and love crowd were also the ones who actually harassed and spit on returning soldiers. That was inexcusable. It was all love as long as you dressed like them, looked like them, parroted their language and lingo and thoughts. But step out of that self proclaimed freedom cult, and wrath be upon you. Most rigidly conformist outfit since the military, but less tolerant. That is where I found the movement to be doltish and hypocritical.+++but the draft and war sucked. No way around that.===

No way I support drafting people for non-defensive wars. I hate the whole concept. I am totally opposed to overseas police actions, nation building, and foreign aid, except to maybe help if a meteor falls on a poor place.

But it is all part of the Great Pretense to think that mass demonstrations are not usually (at the very least 90% of the time) organized and fueled by special interests which aren't part of the stated purpose of the marching mob. There are rare exceptions.
Most of the time skilled agitators and organizers appear from out of town, and even bus people in.

It is what I suspect was the case in Egypt as well. That is pretty much all the Wisconsin hooplah has in common with Cairo. To pretend otherwise is, well, it is to pretend. Not to say Egypt did or did not have a ripe climate. They were and are under a police state which makes us look very free. But comparisons do not truly identify the nature of that being compared. They only illustrate degrees. Anyway, WI teachers have little in common with Egyptian mobs, and Wisconsin has very little in common with Egypt.

My view of Wisconsin's issue is that it is their issue. Jesse Jackson or Sarah Palin or Obama coming in to the fray is nothing but demagoguery. I have my running issue with public employee unions, especially if it is a closed shop or close to it. You don't want in, you shouldn't have to join, and you shouldn't have to pay for protection if you opt out. One reason is that, if elected representatives of the taxpayers set terms of employment, and then tax paid employees decide they don't like it and have a union strike and the state is over a barrel because their laws make them deal with the union, then the tax payers are in effect being subjected to taxation without representation.

Further, it is in the interest of a political party to not only promote the public employee union but add more public jobs and increase the size of government because a unionized public employee voting block is very useful. It is a self serving end at the expense of the lower average payed private sector workers, who pay for all this.

The reason so many states and the feds are deeply in debt is that you cannot keep adding functions to government, and tax paid employees without going out of balance. The people paying for the pensions and health care of government workers cannot afford it themselves. There are so many tax paid jobs which ought not exist to begin with, but that's another story. Who would miss the DEA, for example? Not very many normal citizens.

Every time I see marchers and chanters with placards for causes which are rather high class, or unnecessary, it leaves me cold. "I don't like what they are voting on so I am going to repeat after the guy with the megaphone and make a sign that attacks the person who is the figurehead of it all". "Maybe I'll make him look like Hitler. That's always a succinct point in the debate. I'll draw a picture of him being lynched. That's pretty cool." ---I saw signs with both those things in pics of the Wisconsin festival. Many, in fact. But I don't actually think they don't have that right. It is odd that those who support them got so riled when there were Obama-made-into-Hitler posters in protests against his policies. Either we all get the same rights or we don't.

{another aside, How come Jesse showed up and didn't decry their lack of diversity? Bunch of well to do (relative to me) white folks there complaining that the recession may hurt them, too.]

Better yet, why don't we get our friends, kids, babies, and dogs out where people drive with their children, and carry signs with pictures of fetuses and complain about abortion. Never mind that some people do not want to have to explain to their five year old girl what that means. Be sure to line a street which they have to use so they can't avoid you. (still mad about that happening in Greensboro with little K in the back seat all curious. I cut dangerously close to those dolts hanging over the curb)

Oh, but it is all for a good, self righteous cause, and we've been brainwashed into believing that mob action is democracy and the way to deal with everything.

I don't buy it. But I have quit jobs that were abusive. I was in a union and found it useless. If you read the contract, the majority of it only has to do with keeping the union and its administrators fat and powerful. To pretend it is an idealistic fair minded organization there to protect the poor worker (or employee) is generally an erroneous thing to do.

Somehow the whole approach plays into the problem. The government-business partnership model is nothing but corrupt from the get go, and somehow, we've structured life so that the bigger the company, the stronger the plantation mentality. There is enough of the market and nature there to provide a good standard of living, but it is not quite right. Something is way off.

The answer is not forcing everyone to turn over the fruits of their labors to some modern day priests, which politicians have become, to decide how the holy powers think it ought be used. I've not formulated the answer I think best, but I know taking another's property, time or else by force is not it.

So, just about everyone in the picture as promoted in public information outlets is wrong. That is all I can say. The best, most reasonable companies I've known were small companies started by people who could not handle working for a larger bureaucracy, so the saved up, quit, and went into competition. And they thrived. It was only my own problems that caused me to leave those places. The companies were merit based in their internal policies, and treated employees with respect, like adults. No little "write-up" forms, or written reprimands for trivial nonsense. Just did not work that way.

No workers wanted a union to even think of approaching those places. The workers would have done more to chase them away than the management. One place had a union guy working there because it provided a loophole for certain jobs. He'd have done better being non-union, but he was brainwashed. The union told him how to vote in elections and what to think. But he had no desire to go work elsewhere, in a closed shop.

Exactly where the overall system ought to change, in the big picture, I am not sure. There are many small things. The corporate structure changes baffle me most. That feudal culture that permeates all is rather valueless and people violate their own sense of right and wrong all the time to keep even menial jobs.

The argument of "if you don't think this is right then what is?" doesn't change the fact that it is wrong. That is like saying, "If we want to pay the piper we have to steal from Dad's wallet. Oh, you don't like that? Well if we don't get it that way, then how? Ha! you can't answer, therefore the Dad idea is obviously right".

Maybe the little things can be whittled at first. The Big Pretense permeates all. I recall jobs which were best done with the attitude that these were grown people signing on the dotted line. I knew they were in over their head, didn't truly know what they were doing, and that they'd suffer for it. Quite often I found ways to kill the deal. Other times I took the stance that it is not my job to make their choices. They were doing what they did because they thought that is how everyone does. It is a fine line between knowing that the other is going in with their eyes closed, so they are easily deceived by lies of omission, and taking responsibility for the actions of others.

One big mistake was the advent of payment selling, buying everything on time. People came to believe it was normal to buy whatever anyone would finance, whether directly or on a card. No wonder, as a country, (and apparently as a world) we allowed ourselves to go so heavily into debt. We forgot that things have a price and that to trade you have to hold up your end of the bargain. Sometimes it means you get the cheaper car, or keep the old one awhile. Maybe you get by with one less shirt. Maybe you make sandwiches rather than buy them ready made somewhere, etc.

From demonstrations to international "benevolence" to the way schools are run and business is conducted, the Big Pretense has warped all of it, and, in the long run, it is not really as much fun. To dissolve that spell, people have to lose the addiction to self righteous anger and envy, among other things. It is tough, on any level. I get sucked in by it, too. But I am working on it because I know better. The envy aspect and thinking your good fortune equals my bad breaks are not part of my problem though. That seems like a healthy start. I sucker for the dearth of imagination when it comes to recognizing the fact that no matter what, opportunities abound.

No amount of marching, unless a reasonable overthrow is imminent, will address the real issues. Certainly this longing to be in a 60's demonstration won't result in any substantive advancement of freedom and joy.