Sigh. I too remember the burn-it-all-down zealots of the 60s and early 70s -- and how they played so perfectly into the hands of who they thought were their polar opposites but who were merely the mirror image of their endlessly discussed philosophy: the pigs, the heat, the Man. I'm watching these protests unfold and quickly devolve, inc…
Sigh. I too remember the burn-it-all-down zealots of the 60s and early 70s -- and how they played so perfectly into the hands of who they thought were their polar opposites but who were merely the mirror image of their endlessly discussed philosophy: the pigs, the heat, the Man. I'm watching these protests unfold and quickly devolve, including on my alma mater campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as the ham-handed response of some of the college presidents (what did Columbia's president THINK would happen when police in riot gear came to break up the first, modest encampment there??) — and shaking my head. Apparently we lose our collective memory right around 50 years, at which point we have to repeat our idiot mistakes. Only with better weapons and communications. I keep thinking of John Lennon's lyrics: "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." God help us.
Sigh. I too remember the burn-it-all-down zealots of the 60s and early 70s -- and how they played so perfectly into the hands of who they thought were their polar opposites but who were merely the mirror image of their endlessly discussed philosophy: the pigs, the heat, the Man. I'm watching these protests unfold and quickly devolve, including on my alma mater campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as the ham-handed response of some of the college presidents (what did Columbia's president THINK would happen when police in riot gear came to break up the first, modest encampment there??) — and shaking my head. Apparently we lose our collective memory right around 50 years, at which point we have to repeat our idiot mistakes. Only with better weapons and communications. I keep thinking of John Lennon's lyrics: "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." God help us.
Lennon was right.
I am haunted by Camus' end of The Plague, "The rats on gone now, but wait another fifty years and they'll be back.
You make one interesting comment after another!
50 years tops, it seems. Or maybe four for magats