Posted on October 16, 2011 in
Quotes
Yesterday, during the Occupy Tampa general assembly, I found myself struggling to hear the crowd as right behind me a drum circle continued to pound away while the group discussed action. People from around the area yelled for them to stop, which they didn’t, continuing on with a relentless drone of drumming, a crowd of dancers wearing long flowing flowery skirts, dirty graying dreadlocks, and carrying signs for pot legalization.
None of which really bothers me. All of which sets me off.
I remarked to my girlfriend āI hate fucking Hippies.ā She asked me to clarify, herself a pantheist, pothead, naturist, and somewhat in line with what you might refer to as ‘hippy’.
Most of them looked to be Hippies. Not just Hippies, but Baby Boomers. The whole scene played out exactly as I view that post-war generation. Loud and self-absorbed, demonstrating without doing anything, craving attention while the new activists ā anarcho-punks, college reds, unionists, libertarians, the apolitical – struggled with risking arrest, building the message and the movement, getting shit done. During our march they pushed through the crowd, breaking up chants as people lost their own voices trying to shout over the drums. There was no attempt to lead the group by keeping rhythm, just walking along making noise for whatever reason.
My whole view of the Baby Boomers came to a head with the economic meltdown. See, the Baby Boomers will tell you over and over about how they changed the world, how they almost won, how they ended the Vietnam War and spread peace and fought nuclear weapons, etc. Theyāll talk about environmental achievements, and how great the music was.
What they donāt tell you is how they nurtured their self-importance until it blossomed in to hyper partisanship. They donāt talk about how theyāre the ones fucking us right now. They donāt talk about how Social Security is more important to them than anything, just like cheap education used to be. They don’t talk about about being the ones that put us in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and continued the spread of the US hegemony. They donāt talk about how theyāre the ones holding alternative energy back, the ones who coasted by on their parents (a generation who, for all their faults, can say that they survived the worst and defended the defenseless when needed,) and shifted all their failures on to their older kids.
They donāt tell you how afraid they are of us.
They donāt really understand egalitarianism or a fair economy. They donāt understand direct democracy, donāt understand unity.
They donāt understand anything but getting their own way. I hate Hippies because theyāre most selfish of the Boomers, who are the most selfish of all generations.
