To boldly go where we have gone before! to the 1960s and back...

 


I love Star Trek.  Firstly, being made in the mid 60s, it offered up a hopeful view of the future in a decade that witnessed more than four assassinations of prominent national figures.  I know, I appear to be fascinated by this decade, and yes, to a certain extent I admit to this.  It was one of those watershed moments in American history.  Beginning with Kennedy's murder in 1964, the whole decade just started to go to the dogs.  

For some, the sixties represented freedom.  As a child growing up in suburbia, I was sheltered from much of the craziness happening just 8 miles away in Topanga Canyon--southern california's equivalent of Haight Ashbury.  But, later on, I began to grow some awareness of the leftovers of the sixties--for me it was the wearing of Levis and platform shoes when I was 12, and the floppy hats with tie dyed t shirts.  This was the time of the Watergate hearings--a time for the loss of innocence for an entire culture.  American innocence and arrogance was DOA.

And yet, for me, the sixties always represented Hippies.  The Summer of Luv.  Irresponsible 
young people who dissed their parents for a fashion statement (and that was questionable at best).  It was also represented by discord, discontent, and 

disestablishment.  And yet, one cannot help but remember this unfortunate decade like the above gathering-- young people trashing their cerebral spinal fluid with such wholesome things as LSD, Peyote, and psychedelic mushrooms.  Mind expansion my ass.  I think that many of them followed Tim Leary, in having their collective brains shot from a cannon into the upper atmosphere.

I often think of this ridiculous cultural atmosphere with trepidation--how could such heights coexist and contrast with such dregs?  It's true that not every decade is so very very violent and yet so ridiculous in terms of fashion and debauchery.  




Lest we forget, that this was also the era of the Civil Rights Movement, and Women's Liberation, and the Civil Rights Act, it wasn't all bad. But then we must also remember those deaths I alluded to above, of which JFK was just one.  And, yet again, one cannot forget that these were the same people who gave us Adam West as Batman.  Holy Ketchup Batman!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hey!! Its Cpt. Lingerie! The "yahoo" John Wilkes Booth: psychopath, murderer, and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. ONE

Image
t. Well, not precisely spicy, but perhaps  controversial, and most definitely irreverent ADVISORY: This entry is about one of the sacred moments in American history--the murder of President Lincoln.  If you're at all familiar with the style of this blog, then you already know I have an odd sense of humor.  It is NOT my intention to make light of this tragedy. Just so you know, Dear Reader.... Can you tell from the title of this entry that I don't like Booth?  Well, I don't.  He was a delusional prick.  In this week's title, I used the term "yahoo.:Here's how Jonathan Swift defined a "yahoo."  It was a name used in Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels , to describe the lowest form of life in that universe (they looked like primitive men): They are prodigiously nimble from their infancy. However, I once caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to make it quiet; but the little imp fell a squalling,...
Read more

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing": propaganda and the 2024 election. Yeah, I'm gonna write about him again.

Image
HERE'S ANOTHER WARNING, DEAR READER, I'M COMMENTING ON CURRENT POLITICAL EVENTS THIS WEEK.  PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU ARE BORED BY MY RANTS AGAINST A CERTAIN PERSON.   Every Person has their own opinion, and what follows is a collection of my thoughts and opinions. So, if you'll forgive me for vomiting my political views all over this page,    THANKS!! OK, if you've come this far, shall we begin? “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” ― William Shakespeare, Macbeth You've got to hand it to ole Will (or the Earl of Oxford), he sure knows how to weave a spell with words.  To tell you the truth, I w...
Read more

'Do You Deny then, Mr. Chivington, that you're a vicious psycho hose beast?' No sir, Mr. Congressman sir, I swear I didn't know there was anyone there! The tragic massacre at Sand Creek, 1864.

Image
What images come to your mind, when you dream of the American West, Dear Reader? Something like this? I know that this is one of the more recognized fantasies about the western experience.  Hopefully by now, we all know that this depiction is COMPLETE bulls*&t. THERE WERE ALREADY PEOPLE THERE, FOLKS. When I think of the American western experience, I always have these images in my head: For my druthers, I prefer pictures like the above.  Images that compel impressions of space and wild beauty. Buffalo, coupled (of course) with that endless sky.  Whenever I think about the American West, I think poetically.  I think tectonically.  It's impossible to gage this landscape against the span of a single human life.  But, that is essentially what we have to do here, isn't it Dear Reader? We must create condensed sketches of larger events, even if those happenings are tragic in nature.    Which brings us to Sand Creek. The events surrounding the M...
Read more