Pamela wanted to watch her "50 Years with Peter, Paul and Mary" DVD this evening. I don't know about you, but I don't think anyone can just watch Peter, Paul and Mary. As I watched the true meaning of their long and illustrious career became evident and I was shamed into writing this blog. They were more than a social conscience. They were ambassadors of change and hope.
As I listened and watched I relived those days in my mind. There was a bitter-sweetness to the memory. While most "younger" generations tend to be rebellious to identify themselves apart from their parents and the previous generation, unlike any generation before or since I have to say that we shook the gates of hell. What happened?
I think the reality was presented to me at Trinity College, University of Dublin when I was doing graduate studies even though it didn't become clear to me until later. Unlike the USA, other countries have communist parties and think nothing of it. We had a small band of communist students and I knew a few personally. What didn't strike me until later was that they wore jeans and t-shirts with slogans until the day of graduation. After that it was the three-piece grey suit with waistcoat.
Without getting into a long philosophical discussion or sociological study, I would venture to say that at graduation they were no longer free to express themselves and were expected to present themselves to their first post-graduation employer as the person they dreaded, hated and feared to become.
How many of us, in my generation, continued the fight? We thought we were going to change the world, but like the TCD communists, we were put in the position of survival. The corporate and political powers that dominate and define our society and dominate our lives had won. I know that is my own story. As I sit here writing with my sholder length hair, ear-ring and casual attire I realize that I can be myself now because I'm retired and I don't have to present myself in a socially acceptable manner as defined by the religious/political/corporate establishment we hated. And there will be younger people who will say that I'm just a crazy old man but who, deep down inside, envy me because they would like to be who they really are. Etant precede essence. Every young generation attempts to be the rebel until it finds itself sucked into the misery and reality of “adult life” - the existence which we finally accept as “the norm”. And the corporate, religious and political powers sit and smile. They've won again.
In my generation - those of us who were young adults in the 60s - we struggled against bigotry, racism, hatred and war. These were the things of our parents not because our parents were bad people, far from it, but because they had been taught by the "establishment" (that was our term for the corporate-religious-political power that tells people what they are to like, believe and , think). Whether we lost the struggle or we conceded because, like the Communist students at TCD, we were forced to strike our colors to survive, we did make an impact.
What caused a wave of almost unbearable fear to sweep over me as I listened to an aging Peter, Paul and Mary sing "Where have all the flowers gone?" was the reality that today bigotry, racism, hatred and everything we fought and struggled against 50 years ago is now being worn like a badge of honor. A political party proudly makes bigotry, racism and hatred the foundation of its political platform. And what is more frightening is that they not only win elections but control our Congress.
Fifty years ago we sang "we shall overcome" bigotry and hatred. We loved what America had represented to the world - freedom, peace, opportunity.
Have all of my generation - those of us born during and just after WWII - forgotten what it was like? Even if you didn't get to go to the largest protest rally the world has ever known in Washington DC in 1969, I bet most of you would have loved to have gone. Have we so totally sold our souls to the political and corporate establishment that we can't remember? Damn it, we were the generation that were going to make the world right. You can be totally conservative but that, by definition, doesn't mean that you must accept bigotry, hatred, racism, etc. I know you, like me, are old, have arthritis that hurts like hell or maybe a heart condition . . . or both. But we're not dead yet. Give the f***** establishment the finger like you did 50 years ago and show our grandchildren that there is still hope for a peaceful, loving and healthy future.
As I listened and watched I relived those days in my mind. There was a bitter-sweetness to the memory. While most "younger" generations tend to be rebellious to identify themselves apart from their parents and the previous generation, unlike any generation before or since I have to say that we shook the gates of hell. What happened?
I think the reality was presented to me at Trinity College, University of Dublin when I was doing graduate studies even though it didn't become clear to me until later. Unlike the USA, other countries have communist parties and think nothing of it. We had a small band of communist students and I knew a few personally. What didn't strike me until later was that they wore jeans and t-shirts with slogans until the day of graduation. After that it was the three-piece grey suit with waistcoat.
Without getting into a long philosophical discussion or sociological study, I would venture to say that at graduation they were no longer free to express themselves and were expected to present themselves to their first post-graduation employer as the person they dreaded, hated and feared to become.
How many of us, in my generation, continued the fight? We thought we were going to change the world, but like the TCD communists, we were put in the position of survival. The corporate and political powers that dominate and define our society and dominate our lives had won. I know that is my own story. As I sit here writing with my sholder length hair, ear-ring and casual attire I realize that I can be myself now because I'm retired and I don't have to present myself in a socially acceptable manner as defined by the religious/political/corporate establishment we hated. And there will be younger people who will say that I'm just a crazy old man but who, deep down inside, envy me because they would like to be who they really are. Etant precede essence. Every young generation attempts to be the rebel until it finds itself sucked into the misery and reality of “adult life” - the existence which we finally accept as “the norm”. And the corporate, religious and political powers sit and smile. They've won again.
In my generation - those of us who were young adults in the 60s - we struggled against bigotry, racism, hatred and war. These were the things of our parents not because our parents were bad people, far from it, but because they had been taught by the "establishment" (that was our term for the corporate-religious-political power that tells people what they are to like, believe and , think). Whether we lost the struggle or we conceded because, like the Communist students at TCD, we were forced to strike our colors to survive, we did make an impact.
What caused a wave of almost unbearable fear to sweep over me as I listened to an aging Peter, Paul and Mary sing "Where have all the flowers gone?" was the reality that today bigotry, racism, hatred and everything we fought and struggled against 50 years ago is now being worn like a badge of honor. A political party proudly makes bigotry, racism and hatred the foundation of its political platform. And what is more frightening is that they not only win elections but control our Congress.
Fifty years ago we sang "we shall overcome" bigotry and hatred. We loved what America had represented to the world - freedom, peace, opportunity.
Have all of my generation - those of us born during and just after WWII - forgotten what it was like? Even if you didn't get to go to the largest protest rally the world has ever known in Washington DC in 1969, I bet most of you would have loved to have gone. Have we so totally sold our souls to the political and corporate establishment that we can't remember? Damn it, we were the generation that were going to make the world right. You can be totally conservative but that, by definition, doesn't mean that you must accept bigotry, hatred, racism, etc. I know you, like me, are old, have arthritis that hurts like hell or maybe a heart condition . . . or both. But we're not dead yet. Give the f***** establishment the finger like you did 50 years ago and show our grandchildren that there is still hope for a peaceful, loving and healthy future. 
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