There is a problem with the naïve and simplistic idea that the 60’s are worth returning to. For a lot of people I think the fact that whatever Eden was glimpsed at back then, it became clear to many that paradise is beyond the grasp of the world as it was, when it became clear that too many people will continue to choose to remain asleep and in cycles of suffering and violence. Optimism gave way to cynicism; free love gave way to hedonism. Hope was replaced by wanton despair. The sense that “everything must be this way” for now cooled the fires of such bright stars as Morrison, Hendrix and others.
One of the reasons why the 60’s failed is the false hope of free love without consequences. The dangerous but seductive idea that it’s ok to do what you want. See, many folks seeking to rid themselves of the taboos and sins of the status quo, overindulged in those things deemed sinful by the Establishment.
Indeed, Blake said The Road of Excess Leads to the Palace of Wisdom, but once there wisdom is gained at what price? Jesus was quite wise and wound up nailed to a cross. Socrates smarted off and ended up dead. Jim was dead in a bathtub under suspicious circumstances at only 27. Wisdom at what price? In other words be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. Death is probably the ultimate wisdom trip as you finally get to “break on through.” Rock bottom is littered with people who found wisdom this way.
In their embrace of mysticism and Eastern religion, the hippies of the sixties probably glossed over the parts that said desire and the pleasures of the world only lead to more suffering. In Buddhism especially, they emphasize that desire is the cause of all suffering. Overindulgence, then as the satisfaction of base desires has consequences. In Taoism one of the virtues is moderation. True, there are many paths up the mountain and Rimbaud’s systematic derangement of all the senses may yield the palace of wisdom, but in what condition do you wish to arrive at your destination. On the other hand, blind repression of our human nature is another kind of excess. Moderation then might be one of the lessons to derive from the 60s.
Yes, the sixties remain a pivotal era for humanity and the players, while still too recent in their luminosity to be regaled as divine, will no doubt, as time marches on, be seen in a much better light; much like how the founding fathers of this country found post mortem accolades, despite being morally flawed. Those who survived the 60’s and those that didn’t were chosen to be on stage for us at this time, and in the least, chosen to articulate and express a vision of our next evolutionary step.
In a way this catharsis, this assertion of freedom, this revolution itself begun in the 60’s is an important step in the learning process, but it’s important to learn from our mistakes. Some people talk about wanting to go back to the 60’s, but do we really want to go back to body bags from Vietnam. No. Some would say that the situation in Iraq makes these times analogous and I somewhat agree, though the death count now is nothing what it was then. Still every life is important, but the gross carnage that was a result of our misguided domino policy in the 60’s; we have not seen that carnage yet, and I hope we never do. I hope we can get out of there, and the people in this part of the world can learn to use their heads along with their hearts, and loosen the shackles of their oppressive religion enough to live in a world where some moderation and indulgence is OK. Here we have excess of an entirely different nature; and the yet the result is the same; the emotional and physical destruction of the self.
What fueled the vibrancy of that era (the 1960s) and what has seared it into our collective social memory was a confluence of factors including psychedelic drugs and the war in Vietnam as well as a clash between new and old ideas. The dialectic was at work: thesis and antithesis. The next step we need to embrace, than is synthesis.
To treat free love as just an excuse to do whatever you want, is to abuse it and that’s one reason why the sixties failed. There must be responsibility within love. Science is forcing us to throw off the mythologies of old, and in the vacuum between this old paradigm and a new mythology, is I think the dangerous place we find ourselves now. God is dead, so why not do what I want? Because God isn’t dead, he’s just not who you think he is.
