Love is understanding
Don't you know that this is true
Love is understanding
It's in everything we do
In this generation
In this loving time
In this generation
We will make the world shine . . .
We were born to love one another
This is something we all need
We were made to love one another
And we must be what we're going to be
And what we have to be is free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
We gotta be free; we gotta be free
- For Pete's Sake by Peter Tork and Joseph Richards, 1967, performed by The Monkees
There is a massive difference between the original Hippies and the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Hippie-crits. It gives a bad rap to the original Hippies when you call the current bunch of grasping, selfish, me first (and last) whiners the same name.
The Hippie-crits slide in their earbuds, crank up Rage Against the Machine, then clutch their smart phones and tweet about the unfairness of capitalism as they bundle up in their Abercrombie & Fitch hoodies and wonder why that MA in Polynesian Literature doesn't allow them to buy the new 500 series Beemer they want.
OWS is the sequel to the tantrums these over aged and over-raged toddlers once threw because they dropped a half-eaten Blow-Pop on the sidewalk. They can't make it better, they don't know how anyone else can make it better, but they're going to scream, stomp and do a perfect imitation of a spoiled two year-old because at heart they are spoiled two year-olds.
The OWS puppets neither like nor understand capitalism. Those two things may go together. They don't have a better idea but their ignorance doesn't stop them from a desire to destroy a system that works.
On the other hand, the Hippies didn't much like capitalism, but they didn't bother anyone else. They just wanted to be left alone and isn't that really the American dream? To be left alone to live your own life as you see fit?
The common Hippie Dream was to start a farm commune, live off the land, barter for other things, smoke a lot of weed, have some polygamous relationships and be left alone. Perhaps it's not my cup of tea, or yours, but their reaction wasn't to aggravate everyone else. It was to keep everyone else from aggravating them.
Then there is another difference. The Hippies didn't ask the government for money. The Hippie-crits want thousands of dollars in student loans forgiven, to be given jobs they can't do at a rate no one can afford and the right to confiscate the wealth of everyone they don't like. They demand the hazy, the crazy and the impossible.
I wasn't being oblivious at the beginning of this piece, by the way. I know Peter Tork was the bassist for The Monkees, the original plastic, made-for-TV band. You see, back then even the poseurs got it - and, honestly, it's a Hell of a pop song - but today's so-called cutting edge revolutionaries of OWS couldn't buy a clue even if they believed in monetary exchange.
Hippies wanted freedom. Hippie-crits want the freedom to depend on everyone else. The Hippie-crits don't get it and probably never will. Their idea of freedom is to enslave others to fulfill their own obligations.
Hippie-crits preach intolerance. Hippies preached understanding.
Hippie-crits preach hate. Hippies preached love.
Hippie-crits will never understand.
As for the Hippies, they did understand:
Love is understanding we gotta be free
We gotta be free, we gotta be free . . .
by Ken Carroll
Don't you know that this is true
Love is understanding
It's in everything we do
In this generation
In this loving time
In this generation
We will make the world shine . . .
We were born to love one another
This is something we all need
We were made to love one another
And we must be what we're going to be
And what we have to be is free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
We gotta be free; we gotta be free
- For Pete's Sake by Peter Tork and Joseph Richards, 1967, performed by The Monkees
There is a massive difference between the original Hippies and the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Hippie-crits. It gives a bad rap to the original Hippies when you call the current bunch of grasping, selfish, me first (and last) whiners the same name.
The Hippie-crits slide in their earbuds, crank up Rage Against the Machine, then clutch their smart phones and tweet about the unfairness of capitalism as they bundle up in their Abercrombie & Fitch hoodies and wonder why that MA in Polynesian Literature doesn't allow them to buy the new 500 series Beemer they want.
OWS is the sequel to the tantrums these over aged and over-raged toddlers once threw because they dropped a half-eaten Blow-Pop on the sidewalk. They can't make it better, they don't know how anyone else can make it better, but they're going to scream, stomp and do a perfect imitation of a spoiled two year-old because at heart they are spoiled two year-olds.
The OWS puppets neither like nor understand capitalism. Those two things may go together. They don't have a better idea but their ignorance doesn't stop them from a desire to destroy a system that works.
On the other hand, the Hippies didn't much like capitalism, but they didn't bother anyone else. They just wanted to be left alone and isn't that really the American dream? To be left alone to live your own life as you see fit?
The common Hippie Dream was to start a farm commune, live off the land, barter for other things, smoke a lot of weed, have some polygamous relationships and be left alone. Perhaps it's not my cup of tea, or yours, but their reaction wasn't to aggravate everyone else. It was to keep everyone else from aggravating them.
Then there is another difference. The Hippies didn't ask the government for money. The Hippie-crits want thousands of dollars in student loans forgiven, to be given jobs they can't do at a rate no one can afford and the right to confiscate the wealth of everyone they don't like. They demand the hazy, the crazy and the impossible.
I wasn't being oblivious at the beginning of this piece, by the way. I know Peter Tork was the bassist for The Monkees, the original plastic, made-for-TV band. You see, back then even the poseurs got it - and, honestly, it's a Hell of a pop song - but today's so-called cutting edge revolutionaries of OWS couldn't buy a clue even if they believed in monetary exchange.
Hippies wanted freedom. Hippie-crits want the freedom to depend on everyone else. The Hippie-crits don't get it and probably never will. Their idea of freedom is to enslave others to fulfill their own obligations.
Hippie-crits preach intolerance. Hippies preached understanding.
Hippie-crits preach hate. Hippies preached love.
Hippie-crits will never understand.
As for the Hippies, they did understand:
Love is understanding we gotta be free
We gotta be free, we gotta be free . . .
by Ken Carroll
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