Astonishing Grudges
I caught a couple clips of one of the Republican presidential debates yesterday on the news. One of the bits was John McCain making a snide attack on Hillary Clinton about "she wants to spend a million dollars on a Woodstock museum." and he's sure it was a great cultural event, but he couldn't attend, he was tied up at the time.
Now, I'm not sure what to make of his making a joke about being a POW, it was both funny and kind of creepy. But what I noticed more was that STILL, STILL, 40 years later, one of the most common animating forces of the Republicans is a hatred of the 60s and hippies and the cultural revolution that happened then.
Dude. 40 years ago. Just like they still blame "stab in the back" liberals for "losing" another war we couldn't win, in Vietnam. So much of what they do seems to be motivated not out of any desire to make things better or anything, but out of sheer hatred of things that happened 40 years ago.
But I guess that's not unique, the rest of the Boomers are doing much of the same, but the other way, look at all the movies and memorials and yes, museums, to things like Woodstock. It's like they're all desperate to convince themselves they still matter by looking back at the times when they were young and justify their whole lives by what happened then. Instead of moving on and justifying their lives by doing things now. Does this mean when people my age take over, we're going to be busy re-fighting the 80s and 90s again or something?
(I'm not even going to start on the South Will Rise Again loons)
Now, I'm not sure what to make of his making a joke about being a POW, it was both funny and kind of creepy. But what I noticed more was that STILL, STILL, 40 years later, one of the most common animating forces of the Republicans is a hatred of the 60s and hippies and the cultural revolution that happened then.
Dude. 40 years ago. Just like they still blame "stab in the back" liberals for "losing" another war we couldn't win, in Vietnam. So much of what they do seems to be motivated not out of any desire to make things better or anything, but out of sheer hatred of things that happened 40 years ago.
But I guess that's not unique, the rest of the Boomers are doing much of the same, but the other way, look at all the movies and memorials and yes, museums, to things like Woodstock. It's like they're all desperate to convince themselves they still matter by looking back at the times when they were young and justify their whole lives by what happened then. Instead of moving on and justifying their lives by doing things now. Does this mean when people my age take over, we're going to be busy re-fighting the 80s and 90s again or something?
(I'm not even going to start on the South Will Rise Again loons)