AtDTDA 32: Fantasia on a Fantasia of Thomas Tallis Pt. 1

[Page]

It appears that I am older than many of you. My parents were good liberals, 
but by no stretch of the imagination hippies. I got to be the hippie in my 
family tree. I split for the West Coast--you can guess where--in 1966. But 
my experiences are nothing like Robin's.

As a designated hippie--I never called myself one, just another label some 
people used to replace others--I would like to respond to your good post. No 
one I ever knew spat on, or would have accepted anyone spitting on, a 
soldier returning from VN. Most of my fellow hippies felt a deep sadness for 
the soldiers who had to fight an egregious war with no patriotic purpose. 
The soldiers were sold a bill of goods. Perhaps a very few deserved the kind 
of contempt spitting demonstrates, though the only name that comes to mind 
is Lt. William Calley.

Put three people who are convinced they have a common goal or a set of goals 
in a room, and withing 30 minutes you will have a set of rules, a hierarchy, 
and the implied leader. That, or at least one of the three will bail.

Many hippies did not directly address political issues. The Grateful Dead 
explicitly excluded themselves from the political realm, and they 
unintenionally recruited more hippies than just about anyone else. The 
foolishness of the political hippies (including me) was to think we could 
topple the government from the top down. Most of the people I know who want 
to effect real change, and who are to a greater or lesser extent still 
hippies (now in their 50s to 70s), are on school boards, are county 
commissioners, some are in state government, and some have run for Congress 
and the Senate. One of the best human beings I know is a judge.

It is too bad you have such a dark view of hippies, but you have solid 
reasons for your opinions. And I agree with no small part of what you wrote. 
Hippies could be arrogant--if you haven't taken LSD you aren't fully human; 
childish--immediate gratification; and immature leeches--you say you want a 
revolution, as long as you have a trust fund.

Peace, love, and Pynchon

Page




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <grladams at teleport.com>
To: <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>; "p-list" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 7:53 AM
Subject: RE: AtDTDA 32: Fantasia on a Fantasia of Thomas Tallis Pt. 1


> This is, in all respect, just a post about what hippy means to me, and not
> about the community in which Robin grew up and shared much joy. Many life
> situations shared by country people and hippies might have been the same. 
> I
> just can't shake the perjoritive of hippy. Hmm. Maybe I should look at 
> that.
>
> The word hippy never brought me a positive feeling to me, overall. And 
> when
> I think of who Tallis had in mind, hippy was far from it. I kind of 
> thought
> about people who woke up early, worked hard as a member of a small rural
> community. A school teacher mother who walked 5 miles through rain and
> snow, to a one-room school house to teach in rural West Virginia. People
> who lifted and carried heavy loads from barn to truck... I have been
> listening to pop country music this week from the early 70's and some of
> the lyrics, "here in topeka, the rain is a droppin' the faucet's a 
> drippin'
> and the kids are a-bawlin'". Now Loretta was singing about the contrast
> between the glitz and glam of the hollywood elites and the country people.
> But hippies, at least at the time, was a perjoritive word for other self
> centered peoples interpreted by country people, well it wasn't good to be 
> a
> hippy to everyone.
>
> My impression of hippiedom was that in it's attempt to cancel out rules 
> and
> open up the mind, just as many rules and laws of being a proper hippie
> emerged.
>
> My folks lived on the other side of the country and in the 60s, during the
> Vietnam war, always only had thought of the act of being a soldier as a
> noble task of some kind. Anti war protests was one thing, but spitting on
> soldiers when they came back rubbed people like that the wrong way. Kinda
> unfortunately soured it for any good hippies that were out there. The
> manson kids, the scene at Altamont, etc etc, removed any last vestiges of
> positive ideas about hippies for people like my parents, and by extension,
> probably me too. But maybe I need to look into my navel here on this.
>
> But there probably were hippies who helped their communities, raised
> chickens, lifted loads, fixed trucks. And, there might have been self
> centred country people.
>
> So, just food for thought on the value of the word hippy..
>
> Jill
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and application
> hosting - http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting
>
>
>
>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 269.23.11/1422 - Release Date: 08/05/2008 
5:24 PM