L'Envoi

On September 4th, San Francisco will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. How ironic that a generation founded on love should have descended into one of the bitterest generations of all time.

Oh, not all of them of course. But certain Aged Hippies have grown up to become disenchanted that the Utopia they so ardently fought for never materialized.

And they’re taking it out on the rest of us.

Distraught and disillusioned, they have descended into the angry, middle aged curmudgeons they accused their parents of being. “Never trust anyone over 30.” How right they turned out to be.

Ever notice how everything thee and me do is wrong? We eat the wrong foods, drive the wrong cars, and are generally destroying planet earth just by getting up in the morning. We know all this because Aged Hippies never tire of telling us so.

They go to city council meetings and shout their distain for America and Americans. Especially, the dreaded “locals.” People who farm or live in small towns aren’t sophisticated or worldly enough for them. Did you know grapes kill salmon? People who go to church are laughable. Married couples, so passé.

They don’t want fields for children to play on—or full sized gyms for games. They demand “passive parks” with victory gardens—communal, of course.

Dare we mention the sin of being a mother and raising children at home?

When they were fighting the good fight back in the 60’s, many hippies somehow lost sight of America’s promise of meritocracy—of economic betterment for any one—no matter how humble her origins.

In another ironic twist, the generation, raised on Catcher in The Rye, where phoniness was the sine qua non of evil--became the phoniest generation of them all.

Those who said people over 30 lied, are still telling one lie after another.

“Tell it like it is.” They wailed.

“You can have it all.” Really? You can be single, raise children and have a satisfying job. Oh? There will be no consequences for “If it feels good do it.”—or “doing your own thing.” Right.

They tossed out 2500 years of Western civilization and asserted that they alone understood human nature.

They told us feelings were more important than character. That character could be gained without cost—without suffering—without sacrifice—without overcoming pain. They had all the answers.

Alas. They didn’t even know the questions.

Today, they are consumed with guilt—though they’ll never admit it. They never thought there would be a price to be paid for the excesses of their youth. Free sex and drugs? Hey. It’s about “Free expression”, “repression” and “mind expansion.”

It sounded good at the time. Once they became parents themselves, however, they saw how deceitful and corrupt that gig was. Eliminating delayed gratification has understandable appeal. They refused to be come adults.

It is true that they have been successful in universities. There they can exploit those less powerful and perpetuate myths that America is evil and founded on the principles of exploitation of the masses, subjugation of women; oppression of the poor; genocide; gender bias and racial prejudice. Making children feel guilty for something their ancestors did is the coin of their realm.

When powerful males take advantage of a weaker working class--it is exploitation.

When powerful professors take advantage of weaker students—it’s education.

Immature thinkers, they go for simple solutions which have unintended consequences which are often racist and almost always elitist.

Wanting to end racism (it is ending, actually thanks to our kids intermarrying), they support paternalistic policies towards minorities, which reek of white superiority.

(If your skin is black or brown, we’ll admit you. If it is yellow, sorry. We have too many—and remember, “we” decide--meritocracy has no place).

They outlaw diesel engines—fair enough—but then those engines get sold to third world countries. Let them deal with the bad air.

Corn is good for ethanol. Forget raising food prices for the poor.

Wanting to be “sensitive” to immigrants, they don’t demand they learn English—condemning them to a lower rung on the economic latter.

Making divorce “faultless”, they’ve scarred countless children forever.

Humiliating women who want to mother has sewn discord in millions of families. Theirs is the only road to salvation.

They champion Macro issues, World Hunger, the world wide Aids epidemic, homelessness, and of course the environment and Global Warming.

Question one aspect of Global Warming and you are persona non gratis. Who doesn’t want to solve each of these problems? But if you don’t do what they say—you are part of the problem. Fixing pot holes isn’t grand enough. Nor ending local flooding.

The American dream is anathema. Forget a man’s home and one’s castle. They will tell where to build, what color to paint your house, what size it can be, how you should heat it, how much water you can use, what your kids should be taught, what you should drive, where you should work, where you should buy your food, what you can plant—the list never ends.

Mostly they are ungrateful. America is the envy of the world. We are the freest people in the history of the planet. Americans are good people. Eventually, they get it right.

It’s not that America can’t do better. We’ve much work to do. But “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child.” Here’s hoping these flower children grow up, one day and experience some sense of gratitude. They’re wearing us down. If only they knew, that we all have more than we ever deserved. Peace!