American Consequences - March 2019

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

giving the same multiple-choice exam for 45 years.) We were searching for “cosmic truths.” Although we weren’t searching very hard, judging by the cosmic truths we found... I am he as you are he as you are me And we are all together We were seeking “cosmic unity.” One of the times when I took LSD, I had just become one with the entire universe when the landlord knocked on the door of my off- campus apartment. The rent on the entire universe was two months overdue. And we were looking for personal insights. For all I know, I had some. But I don’t believe they were any more profound than the lyrics in the previously quoted Beatles song “I Am the Walrus” – which many years of drug-free adult experience indicate I am not. (Although I am tending more toward the 4,400-pound weight of a mature male Odobenus rosmarus than I was when I was 19, plus whiskers and thanks to a partial plate and orthopedic shoes, tusks and flippers.) Anyway, when it comes to self-analysis, drugs are a one-man birthday party. You don’t get any presents you didn’t bring. Goo goo g’joob But the ‘60s drug culture did produce some great music. Unless you make the mistake of asking Alexa to actually play some of it. What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of pot? What a shitty band!

When it comes to self-analysis, drugs are a one-man birthday party. You don't get any presents you didn't bring.

And turning on, tuning in, and dropping out unleashed a great wave of personal creativity – macramé plant hangers, posters for rock concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium with psychedelic lettering that was illegible unless you were too stoned to read, the cover art for the White Album, and hippie chick embroidery on jean jackets. These are comparable to the sculpture of Donatello, the illuminated manuscript of the Book of Kells, the painting of Caravaggio, and the couture of Coco Channel... if you’re on PCP. So what can the 21st-century drug culture learn from the drug culture of the 1960s? Again... I refer the reader to the first sentence. However, while doing some background reading, I did come across one helpful hint. In 2015, Cambridge University Press published a volume in its “Cambridge Essential Histories” series called American Hippies , by W.J. Rorabaugh. Rorabaugh quotes Yale law professor and counter- culture advocate Charles Reich, author of the 1970 best-selling panegyric to the ‘60s, The Greening of America . Says Reich, “No one can take himself seriously in bell bottoms.”

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March 2019

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