The true way to understand something is through understanding its
mechanism. It is to see what drives something and how it takes place.
It is to understand it from inside out; as opposed to typical Western
practice of judging by appearance.
The people who judge by appearances fail to see the spirit, the
feeling, that guides things. Onion magazine in its coverage of
Woodstock says that all that happened was that a bunch of people got
laid. That's not all that happened and that's not what was special
about it; what was special about it was the feeling of love and warmth
and camaraderie and shared power that permeated the place. A person
who judges by appearances fails to see this, fails to notice this, and
thus fails to understand what is happening when people have beautiful
experiences. And it is of beautiful experiences that people, as a
result of such manner of thinking, are being robbed.
The slander against the hippies has been that they were narcissists.
One would not say so if one were to examine their beliefs. Their
behavior was totally rational in light of what they believed. Their
generation believed that the essence of universe was love, and that
through the sharing of love among each other they experienced the
divine. It is a completely rational, completely justifiable, action in
response to their belief - the belief that follows directly from
Biblical statement "God is love," from all the Bhakti Yoga teachings
that Hindu gurus brought from India, from Plato, from quantum
mechanics, and from the efforts of thousands of poets and filmmakers
and philosophers who brought to bear the same concept.
Thomas Moore bought into the slander. He accepted the lie that what was
going on was narcissism, then tried to say that the best way to handle
narcissism is to fulfil it and move beyond it. Kenneth Wilbur has
likewise perpetuated the same slander. Both these authors, though
undoubtedly well-intentioned, failed to examine what they were writing
about and ended up perpetuating a lie - a lie that failed utterly to
understand what was actually going on, including the intellectual and
spiritual underpinnings of 1960s. I repeat, and I say it without any
hesitation: The behavior of the hippies followed directly from the
beliefs that they had - beliefs that can be dated to the Bible, to
Bhakti Yoga, to Plato, to modern physics, and to any number of artists
and poets and shamans who were inspired by whiffs of the same thing.
When I went to college, the propaganda was that hippies did not have a
correct view of reality and therefore suffered the consequences. It may
very well be that they had an incorrect view of reality; but let us not
place them in that category alone. Let us also say that Apostle John,
Plato, Hindu gurus and quantum physicists who made statements that can
be reasonably interpreted the way in which hippies did, also had an
incorrect view of reality. And that it was these beliefs that are
responsible for the 60s.
I get tired of people attacking the hippies. The hippies were one of
the most pure-hearted, most sincere, most benign, most generous groups
of people to have ever lived in America. They were pure of intent; they
were pure of spirit. They believed the perennial spiritual wisdom,
which appeared at the same time to find justification in the findings
of quantum physics and general relativity. And they suffered for their
conviction the fate of violence, ostracism, abuse, misrepresentation,
drafting and slander.
The American cultural habit is to judge by appearances, not essences.
The ethic of "if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it is a
duck" makes it impossible for people to see a hunter pretending to be
a duck in order to make ducks think him one of them. That allows them,
for example, to group all criminals in the same category, even though
some may be brilliant but chemically imbalanced young people who do
drugs to self-medicate and others may be child molesters and hardened
killers. And so it is that this ethic of superficial analysis allows
people to come up with superficial judgements, such as that hippies
were suffering from a generational personality disorder, while failing
entirely to examine what beliefs shaped the climate they lived in and
what they were thinking - analysis that would reveal the truth at a
much deeper level and perhaps give one some empathy and appreciation
for the people that one is attacking.
I have examined these beliefs. I've read the books hippies read; I've
loved women who participated in the hippie movement or were children of
hippies. I say that their behavior was perfectly rational in light of
their belief system - and that the cause was not narcissism or anything
similar, but belief, conveyed through Christianity, through Hindu
gurus, through Plato and through art of the Western civilization, that
God is love and that love is therefore the most im****tant thing in the
world.
A friend of mine, about my age, named Kevin, has lived for several
years the hippie lifestyle. His mother, who had been a part of the 60s,
called him a poser. What she failed to consider is that he, like other
people in my generation who listen to 60s music and wear long hair and
write music and attend Rainbow gatherings, did what he did not because
of anything it made him feel about himself, but rather as a result of
sincere appreciation of 60s art and ideals. To live the 60s spirit 40
years later, when it is not a part of a mass movement, means that one's
essence - one's heart - is close to the spirit of the 60s; and the
responsible stance for a person who's been the part of the movement is
not to attack him for having thoughts similar to ones that one has had
in the past, but rather to recognize a kindred spirit and help it to
grow.
One should be flattered that one's children have ideals that one has
once had. One should be flattered that, in a time where both the Left
and the Right tried to destroy the legacy of the 60s, one's child
refused to go with the propaganda and instead embraced the ideals that
once animated one's generation. This is a stance that is both
responsible and compassionate; to own the ideas of one's youth and help
one's youngster see them - live them - and then see them through to
their logical consummation. This way, one perpetuates one's spirit
through generations and does not let it die with oneself.
Ilya Shambat
http://www.geocities.com/drr0cket
http://www.geocities.com/ilya_shambat2000/poems.htm
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