So if we had won (or never started) the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement had failed (blacks were kept in their place so as to never think of becoming President), JFK hadn’t been killed, and so on that caused wholesale distrust in government and institutions that had failed the people they were supposed to serve, hippies would never have existed to become yuppies and we would all be basking in the glow of vast government surpluses right now. Time to fire up the time machine, Alice…
A new film is gaining traction among tea-party followers for suggesting that the collapse of the US financial system has roots dating back 40 years to the Summer of Love.
“Generation Zero,” a film set to premiere in March, examines what producer David Bossie says is a “historic perspective on a generational change” that led to the September 2008 bank collapse.
Bossie says generational narcissism, as represented by the 1969 Woodstock Festival, is responsible for the excessive spending, mortgage crisis, and recklessness on Wall Street.
“The people who were at Woodstock turned into the yuppies of the ’80s and the junk bond traders of the ’90s and the Wall Street executives of the 2000s,” he says. “They went from Woodstock to driving a Jaguar.”
How does attending a peace, love and music festival make you a narcissist? I have often joked around about hippy boomers selling out and making fortunes (right, Dave?
), but to blame economic collapse on woodstock narcissists is just unadulterated bollocks. This is just another tenuous dig at liberals by intellectually bereft conservatives.
Well there was a “wonder of me” thread in mid-60′s to mid-70′s coming of age crowd. That is a true thing.
Giving the top .5% all of the benefits in the economy is also a great way to crash the economy.
# 4 Eric,
“So the Reagan revolution was due to people who attended Woodstock?”
No silly, the Reagan revolution was due to Alzheimers!
What other American revolution do you know of the that country is way worse off 30ys later?
The true mark of the teabaggers is simple ignorance, selfishness and racism.
Teabaggers are simply the Klan in better clothes.
No, the Great American Collapse started with Reagan, De-Regulation, Reaganomics, The Chicago School – Milton Friedman, Tax Cuts for the Rich (remember in the “Glorious 50′s the top tax bracket was 91% – that’s what Elvis paid !), and the GREED IS GOOD 80′s, the “Rust Belt” attack on manufacturing and labor, outsourcing, etc, etc, etc !!! And of course the Republicans WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION OF THE ONCE-GREAT COUNTRY !!!
Lady Liberty Weeps !!!
So… let’s see… it’s the Hippie culture’s fault that people who once supported hippie values turned completely against them, became capitalists and ruined our economy… rrrriiiight…
Typical Conservative attitude: They Blamed Obama for the economical mess even before he got elected, then blamed the Clinton Administration, THEN blamed the Carter Administration and now the Hippies.
All the while pretending that George W. Bush’s, George H. Bush’s and Reagan’s terms never happened/everything then was nothing but unicorns and rainbows.
Actually, I think they got this only half right. It was the kids, who’s families could afford to set them up in Ivy League colleges, to escape the Vietnam War draft (like Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush). Who ended up becoming the unscrupulous grads put in charge of so many things that got fouled up. You name it, finance, health care, etc.
I’m not against anyone for avoiding the war, out of principle. But they should have done the honest thing, and declare themselves CO. Rather than hiding behind a college deferment. And getting a degree for something they just didn’t care about, in the process. Then becoming doctors, and lawyers, and such. With no more ethics, than a fly in the air. What happened after 1970s, was we had a glut of grads with hardly any moral standard, for the careers they basically fell into. So they either did a lousy job of it. And/or did everything they could to cover up the fact that they had no talent for the job.
Don’t blame just the Woodstock hippies.
How did I get into this?
Nothing new about right-wing rednecks being afraid of rock’n roll. Just another Republikan making money off his native audience.
I’ve always thought that a major factor in the creation of hippie nation was air raid drills and nuclear bomb shelters. Force a generation to spend their grade school years periodically hiding under their desks at school contemplating global nuclear warfare and you’ll create a paranoid bunch of anti-war demonstrators looking to save the earth from insanely greedy Masters of War.
I was a hippie, born in ’52 – now I’m a wage slave supporting the banks and war mongers by paying my taxes.
So, Woodstock caused the financial meltdown and Glenn Beck is the 2nd coming of Christ.
Now that that’s settled, can we get back to watching sports and drinking booze?
I was born in late 1950. When I was in high school, the Space Race against the Russians was the important thing–a goal.
We won the space race in 1969 (the USA got to the Moon, but the Russians didn’t of course), then did little or nothing with our “win.” Because we “won,” astronauts haven’t been back to the Moon since 1972. No national goals since, except for “greed is good” in the 90s and 2000s.
Mike D has it right in a very sarcastic way. Glen Beck and his cronies are the bullying Scott Farkus Antichrist Committee, with the ignorant Teabaggers as their fawning toadies.
Dr Dodd said “It also means that if you want to rebel against the man you must be a conservative.”
Okay, Reverend Doddy-o. You’re a real hep cat.
#16 Cursor_ wins the”
“best detailed explanation based on facts” award.
#20 Jägermeister wins the: “best one line explanation that is a fact” award.
#40 floyd wins the: “i can’t believe your still so naive as to believe that tired old space race cover story” award.
-as for the article, its just another BS “designed” distraction, -a cover story to build upon.. -no doubt, if needed, a “tea-bagger” will be the next patzi playing a leading role in some exciting and dramatic domestic terror plot that leaks like a sieve, played out in the news to titillate pre-programmed, brain-dead mass’s need for baseless tabloid entertainment. -blah, blah, blah.
-plenty of declassified docs to back up this very tired old game.
What’s that old saying..? “a finger pointing forward has three pointing back….”
-as for me, i agree with what Uncle Dave inferred in the first line..the only way to “win” is not to play.
(BTW: Uncle Dave, haven’t you heard? -we have had working Time Control for several years now.
[like everything else, it's quite simple. -as long as your mind isn't in a box. -and surprise! -rotating electromagnetic fields play a key role. (viva la Torsion physics!)] -be careful what you wish for.)
It’s amazing in this day and age everyone still thinks these are all “real” war games.
-silly Hoomans..
-s
—-
(oh yeah, anyone who takes the time to dig into our history would plainly see that this was all scripted with the final draft hitting “the press” somewhere in the mid-late 1800′s, making any blame-game arguments/debates pointless and a waste of time. (the first draft was around the 11-1200′s, the second was around the 1600′s)
-curiously, i have found that “downfalls” going back 1000′s of years seem to correlate or line up with Solar inimums
more often than not, -beating the odds of “random chance” quite handsomely.
I have a theory about this, however i feel if i voiced it, i may end being fitted for a second straight jacket..
-another day perhaps. :O
-s
Revising 20th century history, the latest 21st century pastime.
Sad, they don’t teach the book 1984 in school anymore.
The real reason for the economic mess is not hippies but…(wait for it)… the Interstate Highway System. Started in the fifties, mostly built in the sixties and seventies, and basically finished in the eighties in time to influence Gordon Gekko. It all fits.
I blame it all on the Roaring 20′s with that crazy jazz music and the lose morals of those flappers. That was the beginning of our narcissistic tendencies!
FTA – Charles Krauthammer, Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris
These guys are about neo-conservatism, not the TEA Party Movement. The fact they can sit there with a straight face and preach
“fiscal restraint” is just hilarious.
#24, You are confusing the religious right with the TEA Party Movement. This movement grew out of disdain for the GOP and the Dems.
#32, Mike D has it right in a very sarcastic way. Glen Beck and his cronies are the bullying Scott Farkus Antichrist Committee, with the ignorant Teabaggers as their fawning toadies.
Beck and his cronies are not TEA Partiers. They are trying to co-op that movement for their own agenda. Don’t be fooled.
They know they aren’t very popular right now and stand to lose quite a bit if the TEA Party continues to grow. What better way to sabotage it then to get everyone believing they are associated with it? Misery loves company.
jcj7161…..a free man yet? dump her?
While it is a bit exaggerated,the reason I am not so quick to dismiss the “hippies caused the economic crash” theme of this column is that I can still vividly recall the absurd “revolutionary” posturing of many of my fellow undergraduates at the relatively Conservative Penn State University (1969 to 1973). The Rev. Jeremiah Wright would have fit in very well on campus. Thankfully, audio/video equipment was relatively rare and expensive at that time, so you are spared the embarrassment/gross-out of hearing how stupid your mother/father/aunt/uncle sounded. (As proof. they thought “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by the Iron Butterfly was great music. I invite you to find it on YouTube.)