1969

It's 1969 ok/war across the USA/another year for me-n-you/another year with nothing to do/
Another year for me and you/another year with nothing to do.

Last year I was 21 - didn't have a lot of fun. Now I'm going to be 22, oh my, boo hoo. 

-- 1969, Iggy Pop and The Stooges. 

You can click this vid and play as a soundtrack while you're reading the following - i'll do my best to avoid multi-syllable words. 

​These are remarkable times. If you can stop being horrified for just two minutes, it's fascinating. When threats are made to annihilate a culture, you've gotta wonder whose culture is in the process of being annihilated. 

I consider myself a thoughtful person. Not necessarily a political person. Voting is something I do. But the present circumstances have made it necessary to have an opinion.

Because it's like nothing in my memory. 

When were we this divided? When was there this much violence in the streets? Is it really unprecedented? 

I go back to the dawn of my memory - 1969 - and arguably the times that created all of our present times.

We think we know the 60s, but do we really? When I was a kid, hippies, acid, free love and Viet Nam felt like a hangover we were trying to shake. But preconceptions can be a thick calluses that deaden us to true knowledge and feeling. 

These are the things banging around my skull as I'm driving down to the Montclair Book Center where my daughter works. I was bringing them a sandwich from Belgiovine's Deli. I handed off lunch, and wandering the aisles I spotted "The Great Ideas Today - 1969" (pictured above.)  

Belgiovine's Italian Deli - proof that what makes America Great, is our history of immigration.

The Great Ideas Today has essays about the state of ideas (predictably) circa 1969 - and in particular the state of higher education. There's an article that I can't wait to read called "Technology and Values" with the intriguing subhead - technology and social change. "In a larger sense, technology has been criticized as promoting a materialistic attitude and threatening man's spiritual values."

A youthful version of our old friend Noam Chomsky has an article about the function of the University in a Time of Crisis.

It has tons  tons of great pix, and a summarizing article by a guy named Mortimer Adler (with a name like Mortimer, he's gotta be a philosopher, right?) where he asks 7 questions. (lightly edited for the attention-challenged people of today like myself.) 

1. By what standard can we judge the relative merits of different times, societies and cultures? 
2. What should goverment do, in shaping the political, economic and social institutes of a society, to safeguard and facilitate the pursuit of happiness for all its people? 
3. In what way does the culture of a society encourage or discourage the individual to make a good life for themselves? 
4. Is this a good time to be alive? 
5. Is the USA at the forefront of the 21st century revolution? 
6. Is ours a sick society? Curable or incurable? 
7. Do we need a moral and educational revolution? 

By my calculation, someone who was a freshman in college in 1969 now in their 70's. I would love to hear from anyone that remembers these times, and how they possibly relate to now - to paraphrase Barbara Tuchman, a not-so-distant mirror. Feel free to reach out to me via message or post in the comments. I thank you for your attention. 

Peace to you and yours. 

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