How the Counterculture created the Reagan Revolution

[David Horn]

(07-30-2020, 07:04 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: In the counter-culture, the human potential movement, the new age movement, and other fields, it was said by one of its practitioners that we were now going to discover what it fully means to be a human being. It was THAT significant.

For a tiny percentage of the hippies, the counterculture was a true epiphany. Most are still out there somewhere. We have a sizable colony not far from where I live, but that is equally true of the place I was born and grew up. Neither movement have had true lasting impact on the grand scale. Both contribute something of worth.

Eric the Green Wrote:So did this cause Reaganomics? Really? I hardly think so.

It did unleash human self-empowerment, which Reaganoids co-opted and appealed to in a totally fraudulent way. It's not the new culture's fault that many people were fooled by the charming faux-macho actor. But the counter-culture itself was also collectivist and, yes, not so different from the authentic Marxism Einzige describes, except that it correctly realizes that no just, equal, workable society can ever be built unless there's an enlightened spirit among us that reveals to us the miracle and divinity of humanity, and all of life and being, and which liberates us from our own personal reactive fears, greeds and indulgences. Human society will always be composed of flawed human beings. But the dawn of a new society depends on renewal among humans, always and forever. May human potential continue to unfold and transcend more of its flaws. There's something in the air! The revolution's here. And you know it's right. And you know that it's right. We have got to get it together. May the spirit of the sixties be kept alive!

The '60s are now solidly in the rear view mirror. There will always be an echo, but there will not be the sound of trumpets blaring until the next time a spiritual awakening occurs. When it does, it will only touch those open to it -- just like all the previous ones.

[Eric the Green]

(08-02-2020, 06:37 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-30-2020, 07:04 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: In the counter-culture, the human potential movement, the new age movement, and other fields, it was said by one of its practitioners that we were now going to discover what it fully means to be a human being. It was THAT significant.

For a tiny percentage of the hippies, the counterculture was a true epiphany. Most are still out there somewhere. We have a sizable colony not far from where I live, but that is equally true of the place I was born and grew up. Neither movement have had true lasting impact on the grand scale. Both contribute something of worth.

In a larger sense, the spiritual awakening of this era was an epiphany for countless millions, not a tiny percentage. The "colonies," although they show the collectivist side of the culture, was a small part of the counter-culture's larger impact. In the circles I inhabited in those days, the counter-culture affected almost everyone around my age. And I met a great many older people who also had a spiritual awakening at the same time as myself. Whether they dressed outrageously or smoked dope or had lots of sex or not, many of them experienced a life-turning moment. And for a few decades, the new age movement continued the legacy of spiritual practice and alternative thinking. The numbers of spiritual-but-not-religious people and culture-creatives magnified through the late 20th century. The second summer of love in circa 1989-1990 also continued it. These days, the new spirit and the new life has waned under the pressure of crisis and economic stress. But it will reappear, and could still change forever the mentality and spiritual orientation of the nation. And needs to.

Quote:

Eric the Green Wrote:So did this cause Reaganomics? Really? I hardly think so.

It did unleash human self-empowerment, which Reaganoids co-opted and appealed to in a totally fraudulent way. It's not the new culture's fault that many people were fooled by the charming faux-macho actor. But the counter-culture itself was also collectivist and, yes, not so different from the authentic Marxism Einzige describes, except that it correctly realizes that no just, equal, workable society can ever be built unless there's an enlightened spirit among us that reveals to us the miracle and divinity of humanity, and all of life and being, and which liberates us from our own personal reactive fears, greeds and indulgences. Human society will always be composed of flawed human beings. But the dawn of a new society depends on renewal among humans, always and forever. May human potential continue to unfold and transcend more of its flaws. There's something in the air! The revolution's here. And you know it's right. And you know that it's right. We have got to get it together. May the spirit of the sixties be kept alive!

The '60s are now solidly in the rear view mirror. There will always be an echo, but there will not be the sound of trumpets blaring until the next time a spiritual awakening occurs. When it does, it will only touch those open to it -- just like all the previous ones.

Actually, among younger people, it totally transformed their outlook in a way they could never have imagined. The people in the popular social clicks who looked down upon the nerds, and those who were the nerds, joined together and all became semi-hippies. As I mentioned, changes in outlook happened among a lot of older folks too. In this Awakening, worldviews and paradigms changed in ways the people never could have imagined. And I imagine this will happen again next time. Eventually, if our society is to continue, it must adopt the mindset of its Awakenings to a much greater degree. Materialism/physicalism is not a secure foundation.

Among some, the legacy of this Awakening includes less positive aspects, which are more widespread now than ever. The explosion of conspiracy theory thinking is to some extent the outcome of the massive questioning of reason and science during the Awakening. It has been healthy to question the dogmas of science, but we still need scientific tools of thought if we make claims about the phenomenal world of facts. Fantasy and a love of intrigue has sent many minds in the direction of seeking a hidden one-world cabal to blame for everything, without any evidence to back it up. It started with JFK on Nov.22, 1963, and has now resulted in dangerous misinformation about a pandemic of unprecedented scale. So, as society evolves, it must seek the right balance between our human faculties and aspirations. Sloppy discernment and cynical distrust of every institution is not a healthy legacy of the Awakening, sorry for me to say.

But this doesn't have too much to do with Reaganomics. Conspiracy thinking emerges from all quarters and corners of the political circle.

I'll be reading your great new thread on Qanon soon, David.
http://generational-theory.com/forum/thr...l#pid55735

[Eric the Green]

To say that the counter-culture created the Reagan (counter)-revolution is actually quite an insult to those of us in the counter-culture and student movements living in their epicenter in California at the time. CA Candidate and Governor Ronald Reagan was our declared, most-outspoken and explicit enemy.

But then, members of Generation X often hate Boomers so much, that it gives them pleasure to insult them by pinning their own enemy upon them.

[Einzige]

What the counterculture mostly created were hedonists who eventually found themselves drawn to the economic libertinism of Reagan, to spite the hated GIs and to do unto themselves.

[David Horn]

(08-05-2020, 07:23 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: To say that the counter-culture created the Reagan (counter)-revolution is actually quite an insult to those of us in the counter-culture and student movements living in their epicenter in California at the time. CA Candidate and Governor Ronald Reagan was our declared, most-outspoken and explicit enemy.

But then, members of Generation X often hate Boomers so much, that it gives them pleasure to insult them by pinning their own enemy upon them.

Any time the traditionalists are threatened, they react in force.  It happened during and after the Civil Rights and Anti-war marches, and the counter-culture is no exception. So yes, initial success in all these bred the countervailing forces that opposed and suppressed them.  It takes a true wave to overcome that, and it may finally be happening on race.  The other issues will have to wait for future opportunities to excel.

[David Horn]

(08-05-2020, 07:33 PM)Einzige Wrote: What the counterculture mostly created were hedonists who eventually found themselves drawn to the economic libertinism of Reagan, to spite the hated GIs and to do unto themselves.

You're assuming that the core members of the counter-culture fit that mold.  I suspect that the Reaganites absorbed the hangers-on -- poseurs who like to be where the action is.  That the core was small and the hanger-on community large makes this argument no less valid.

[Eric the Green]

(08-05-2020, 07:33 PM)Einzige Wrote: What the counterculture mostly created were hedonists who eventually found themselves drawn to the economic libertinism of Reagan, to spite the hated GIs and to do unto themselves.

You have the perspective of someone who did not witness the phenomena or take part in it to any degree, unlike myself who did. I know it was more than hedonism, and I have posted links here to prove it.

[pbrower2a]

(08-06-2020, 10:24 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(08-05-2020, 07:33 PM)Einzige Wrote: What the counterculture mostly created were hedonists who eventually found themselves drawn to the economic libertinism of Reagan, to spite the hated GIs and to do unto themselves.

You're assuming that the core members of the counter-culture fit that mold.  I suspect that the Reaganites absorbed the hangers-on -- poseurs who like to be where the action is.  That the core was small and the hanger-on community large makes this argument no less valid.

A plausible explanation.

[Captain Genet]

I wouldn't say that the counterculture created Reagan. Rather, both were parts of the same wave of individualism. The Modernist saeculum ended with two nightmares of extreme collectivism. Counterculture was inspired by revulsion against fascism (which focused on cultural collectivism) and libertarianism by revulsion against Bolshevism (focused on economic collectivism).

[pbrower2a]

Reagan played off traditional conservatives against the Counterculture. He reversed the role of rigid GI's as brittle targets of younger, more idealistic and hedonistic challengers of assumptions of a stagnant culture that reflected itself in such expressions as "easy listening music". Do you remember that awful stuff?  It was instrumental arrangements of pop tunes, advertising jingles, and movie or TV themes into bowdlerized versions that sounded good for thirty seconds and made one want to listen to some honest-to-Brahms orchestral music or to the original pop music. It is easy to take swipes at this sort of music. Lawrence Welk, (how time flies! "Welk" no longer passes my spell-checker!) with his gimmicky orchestrations of pop tunes. Accordion and harpsichord together? He was a portent. Good reason exists for keeping the two apart. It is easy to find once-precious records that GI's had of this bowdlerized music at Goodwill after the original owners have passed on to that great Woolworth's in the sky. (The American version, of course... there is a Woolworth's in Australia, and it is big there, but it has no connection to the old F. W. Woolworth whose successor is Footlocker).

The 1960's counterculture itself became a brittle target for younger iconoclasts and for older people taking rearguard defenses of their "square" assumptions.

[David Horn]

(03-12-2021, 06:18 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: I wouldn't say that the counterculture created Reagan. Rather, both were parts of the same wave of individualism. The Modernist saeculum ended with two nightmares of extreme collectivism. Counterculture was inspired by revulsion against fascism (which focused on cultural collectivism) and libertarianism by revulsion against Bolshevism (focused on economic collectivism).

Nothing changes without a reason first and trigger second.  Yes, the international swing toward the extremes certainly provided the reason, and the trigger(s) came later when the old model simply failed to function.  That's what is occurring now as well, though the reasons are dramatically different.