The Hippies were Right.

The hippies were right, not to put to strong a point on it, or reject your perspective. In so far as the hippies believed in compassion, civil liberty with social justice and that our society is not the haven of democracy and freedom- fighting the forces of evil so that we may globalize our wonderful ideals, the hippies were right. So where did everything go wrong? There are several reasons that are intertwined and make understanding complex and difficult. So a simple dichotomy should help for now.

            Imagine two leaders of two societies both vying for the same resources. One recognizes that the earth is a complex system and that xe must work to understand and use its resources responsibly- lest they use everything and the environment is unable to provide the necessary sustenance the next harvest/gathering/feeding/sustaining/living. The other leader is far less contemplative. What xe sees is an abundance of resources waiting to be taken; this could be for compassionate familial (or other selective solidarity) reasons, or simply selfish hedonism. Now what’s going to happen? The society that wants to take all the resources is going to do it. The society trying to plan for sustainability and the general future has a much more significant obstacle now- fending off the fools. All the systems (institutions) and historical backing are on the side of the fools. ‘Food is good, and we are fully able to take it, so why not? (Why not is likely not to cross the fools mind as an actual question- more as a way of dismissing opposing views).

            Now the contemplative society is left at an impasse. They must communicate to an opposing society who dismisses them for their disagreement (Think colorblindness- it’s racist to talk about race). Here the hippies went wrong. They thought that purity of morality and insight would be enough to incite their cause. It wasn’t.

“Far from bigotry of a David Duke, this was slick and systemic racism, the kind that had worked to marginalize not only jimmy Jackson and other black coaches, but millions of black job applicants across the nation in any number of professions for decades, ever since the passage of civil rights laws” (Wise, 162).

The kind of battle the hippies waged was against history, against precedent. And while they showed (here and throughout, other than hippies specific folly, I have been including those who share the hippies ideals in ‘hippies’) that precedent is malleable, this showed that oppression evolves. For every minute you’re not winning, they are- for every moment racism isn’t being torn down it is building. This is a difficult idea to consolidate with the American ideal- everyone is equal and open to opportunity. Regardless, if you believe in compassion, civil liberty, and social justice you are not winning. More people need to understand this.

Moral Minority

‘It wasn’t the job of people of color to fix us; it was our job. It was on us to practice that “personal responsibility” about which we so readily preach to people of color. It was time for self-help’ (Wise, 148).

Even though it’s a pleasant thought, that we can conquer our demons and make the world a better place, it is oversimplified, difficult and unfair to expect ‘us’ to conquer the same type of problem ‘they’ can’t. Let me explain- the problem with expecting people of color to simply be better and get out of their own situation is the historical context and the social stigma that has carried through, not to mention the institutionalized racism. However, the people trying to fight these injustices are on the wrong end of this battle as well, regardless of skin color. Talking about racism is racist and thus the minority status and social stigma falls on a civil organization battling media giants and bureaucratic institutions like academia and government who are attempting to hold the status quo. The status quo in America is libertarian, every man for himself, except when it comes to institutional oppression. This ideology, which has been ingrained by primary education and first-hand experience for generations, serves to keep people religiously committed to ideas and practices that they do not understand, deepening their emotional commitment on issues that they rarely if ever have experience in. Stratifying the general public is the basic idea of racial hegemony. What I’m saying is that no one who is trying to help should be turned away, and no one should feel that this is supposed to be easy. We are all fighting the society that raised us.