The Hippies Were Right

Conservative columnist Rod Dreher must feel like he lost a bet and had to eat a plate of worms. He's become so incensed by George W. Bush and his insane and tragic war in Iraq that he's now admitting that the hippies were right all along. His long-held personal beliefs have crumbled, and now he must admit the awful truth. Don't blow a gasket, Rod, just get in line behind everyone else who has finally come to their senses.

Of course, the hippies were right. There's never been a good reason for waging war, unless your name is Rothschild or Rockefeller. That this is becoming clear to some folks only now is a testament to the general stupidity of the right wing, but there you go. Fear plus testosterone plus things that go boom is a lethal combination that our leaders have only been too happy to mix and match throughout history to keep us divided and conquered, and to keep their pockets full. We fall for it until family members come home in a body bag, and only then does the clamoring begin. Where will it all end?

War isn't the only thing that hippies were right about. In the early 70's, a rag-tag band of reprobates procured a small boat and sailed out into the Pacific to protest nuclear testing. Not being experienced sailors, they missed their mark by a wide margin, but they returned to a hero's welcome. A movement was spawned, and an era of bearing witness to atrocity was born. Not all hippies spent their time sleeping on couches, taking copious amounts of acid, and nodding endlessly to those dreadful Grateful Dead tapes. Many had the foresight to see a ravaged, used-up planet at the end of the rainbow, and had the determination to do something about it.

The fact that they were able to raise a considerable amount of awareness and change some corporate behavior without resorting to violence is a testament to the validity of the core beliefs of the hippie movement. It's a shame that those beliefs were later papered over by disco, cocaine, and six-digit salaries, but change is inevitable, and especially when social engineering becomes institutionalized. It's no wonder that the next generation reacted to this watering down with feral-like punk anger. It was naive to think that the pro-active sociopaths among us would just fade into the woodwork at the sight of hippie rock stars storming the White House with President Jimmy Carter. They lost the battle, but they certainly did not lose the war.

My grandfather once told me that there were only three things you have to know in this life- water runs downhill, payday is Friday, and the boss is a prick. He was right, but with the caveat that the boss is anyone who can influence your thoughts to further their own nefarious purposes, and that they come in all colors of the rainbow. My only advice is to kill your TV while you still can.