Tuesday, December 27, 2005

In anticipation of New Year

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas. I did. went to my Nice's house for dinner. Truekey, stuffing all the trimings, saw some relatives, it was nice. This essay I ran backin the fall, in Septerber, but i run it again because it's focus on the 60's and how that has affected my life is relivant as we approach a new year.

Confessions of a Child of the Sixiteis.



Confessions of a child of the Sixties

I just saw a pretty good show about the 60's. It was on PBS, and it covered a lot of international student events that one doesn't often see, such as the massacre of students in Mexico City in Oct. of 68, and the May '68 in Paris. The old image are still evocative for me. I wonder if these young people today (I sound like a real old foggy) will know or understand what it means to me to see the wild umkept hair of Bob Dylan and hear that sand paper whine screeching out "the Time they are a'Chang'n?" Or to see the jet black hair of Joan Baez and hear the most hauntingly beautiful voice of that decade. Those two images alone encapsulate the whole sixties thing for me. I literally cried at the images of MLK's funeral, Bobbie Kennedy dying on the floor of the kitchen, thousands of people spontaneously lining the tracks on the journey taking his body back to Washington. Scenes of the Police riot in Chicago the summer of '68. It's hard to relate what scenes of that time do to me. I was a child but I sat glued to the TV the whole time and watched the police beat the crap of people just wanting to stop a war (while they alternated with the story of the Russians invading Checoslovokia, it was not wasted on me that hese two events were two versions of the same thing, the iron curten version and our version). They beat reporters, they beat passers by, and all the while the naive crowd of idealistic politicos chanting "the whole world is watching, the whole world is watching." Of, how could I not mention images of Woodstock? While young people revaled in wild abandon, stoned out of their minds, great music, trying to make their dreams concrete in reality and settling for the greatest party the east coast ever saw.

I guess anyone under 35 would be mystified by my attachment to all of this. But in my youth these images said to me "you are part of something, something is happening, your generation is gong to end things that have been wrong for thousands of Years.' I never got to take part in it. I longed to grow up and become a protester and be part. I did join other protest movements, I was a political activist for most of a decade. But I never got to do it in the 60s. I only went to one actual anti-veitnam protest. But somehow, I was part of it. It was my generation, my time, my older siblings so to speak and I was part of it in my heart and I supported them everyday fervently. It was exciting to know that I was part of a history making epoch that change humanity, hopefully for the better, forever.

I think we did change it for the better, also for the worst. I think Dylan was ahead of us all really, because he knew better than to attach himself to an ideology or a party line. So many of us were caught up on that and sold out our dreams, ironically, in the attempt to secure them and to live out their meaning. We sold them out by taking ourselves too seriously. Over the decades one learns to forget, to keep quite, the younger people dot' want to hear it, they can't relate to it. They dont' know what it is. They don't know what my music meant to me. They could never understand why their music sickens me. They could never understand what mine does for me. They don't care, and I don't care. But then I have to hand it to them, its their time. Every new generation must fight its own daemons and define itself against what came before and where it wants to wind up. So I let them have their time. I try not to be the old curmudgeon who railed against my long hair, and just let them have their thing, whatever I think of it.

But it's not so easy because it opens up a long and deep wound that's been there since my conversion to Christ. The ultimate dilemma: I see the show, I know that's who I am. I'm the child of those days. I am the veteran of those Chicago streets, even though I wasn't there physically, I was there in spirit. I am the remnant of that movement. I am the result, the product, the artifact of that time. And that spirit of those days tells me I am my own seeker. I am still looking for myself, and I wont find it in the group. young people can't understand it at all; the kids of today have come full circle, they are creatures of the group; but not me. I will not find myself among the group. I am liberal, will always be liberal. My most sacred basic core values include setting captives free, stopping war, protesting injustice, supporting equality between all people. That's who I am and I can't sell that out.

But I am also a child of God. I found Jesus, I know he's real. I know the power is real. i can't ever deny that, or deny what he did in my life. Whatever psychological theory or psychologizing fad comes along to explain my conversation exoeruebce, however a product of my dopamine one thinks it to be, I know it was real and that it was more than just chemicals in my head, and I can't ever Denny that. But that belief, that relationship, that finding of God is not done in a vacuum. It's a social thing and it comes with a history. I don't always approve of that history. Nevertheless, the history of the social side of the faith I embrace. I can't ignore it set myself apart form it. Therefore, I belong to the church and I have to belong to the church, but that is very probemlatic.

I don't always like the church. I sometimes spend a great deal of my time laughing at large segments of the church. I am sometimes embarrassed by large segments of the chruch.Not so much because so many Christians supported right wing causes, since there are also a lot of left wing Christians, but because as a true faith I should be seeking reconciliation with these guys. I should figure that our mutual faith is more important and should bring us together more than my half and baked and dimly conceived value system sets us apart. But sometimes I can't do that. Sometimes that value system is awfully clear to me. The conservatives were so frightened by the sixties. Those who were set in fear by that decade see no distinctions between any of the elements that mark that time. Beetle hair cuts just lead inexorably to orgies in the streets. The Turtles song "so Happy Together" leads with utter finality to the nations current drug problem, such that any aspects of the sixties scares the pants off of them and must be attributed to Satan. These are the guys who play records backwards to hear those evil hidden satanic messages like "we go GA lm NOC." How diabolic can you get!

These guys are all over the church. These guys think they own Christianity, and anyone who doesn't toe their party line is just hood wincked by Satan. Most of the time I try to treat them with benign neglect, but how can I really ignore them when, if they had their way, they would crush out of existence ever vestige, not only of the time I hold so dear (my youth) but also the values, the very core meaning that that time holds for me? How can I Ignore them when they hate and fear everything I'm about? Somehow I have faith that Christ really does unite us, but it's hard sometimes to get through an election while I watch otherwise intelligent rational fellow Christians turn beautiful organizations into right-wing political groups; I really do know that they don't want to hear any counter views. I see them build fenses around their doctrines so that their pet interpritations of doctrine become sacred and one dare not disagree.

Eventually it begins to ware on my actual faith. I start to consider alternatives. Then, after so much argument and dispute about religious matters, I just think "what's it all for?" I have been tempted to chuck the Nicene creed. I defiantly think "If I had to follow the OT, say Jesus hadn't come before this century, I would rather be a pagan." But what I do? I try to retreat to rationality and faith. I say, "what is the real source of my discomfort with OT, with Nicene creed?" I rethink the doubt and consider the options within a framework of keeping the faith. I realize most of the time its an emotional reaction, not a doctrinal crisis, but a theological crisis nonetheless. But the stark contrast is always there; I am a child of the sixties and so much of the church will always be the anti-Semites. On the other hand I know there is something good about that. Something about being able to see through the mistakes, the over stamtetns, the sentimentalities of youth.

Once I met a cult leader who was trying to impress me enough to get me into his cult. He told me "I am the ideals of your youth." I told him, "then you really are a fool." He took his groupies and left the place immediately. Whale I can't renounce the values, I understand that the way they played out in terms of emotion and sentiment was largely a problem with being young. For example, I'm glad the left take over rally. I want more restraint on capitalism, but I really don't want a worker's state. I think the system we have now could be so fine if people cared about clearing up the abuses of power. The kind of radical weather underground stuff I admired in Junior high was just insanity. While no singer has ever come along to truly replace Joan Baez and no song writer could replace Dylan, the subsequent generations have had their guys, some of them have been great; one of them is even a Dylan.

So finally I guess I have to just realize that this is just one of those irresolvable tensions that I'm going to have to live with. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time; right to be marked forever without he curse of the 60s. But while we have changed the world for the better, in many ways, I can understand why the more convective elements in the church are so afford of it. After all, that same movement that spawned liberation movements of all stripes changed the values of the country such that Americans and first world people will never look at sin the same way again. The church is forced re define sin, and to ponder problems of reconciliation with sinners in new ways. No generation before ours understood itself as made up of sensual individuals. Sentuanlity was a curse and something to keep quite. I don't think people will ever see it that way again. That is both good and bad. Good because God made us to be sensual people, and no where in his word does he say that's bad. But it is bad by soncqeunce because people not only want to throw off the surplus guilt of feeling sinful for having sexual urges, but also throw off the concept of sin and just do as they please.

The Sixties was like the garden of Eden all over again. If you eat this fruit, you will know good from evil, and knowing means you will experience both good and evil, you learn fits hand what's its all about; starting with estagement form God, and culminating in estrangement from each other, and from nature and the world around you, and even from the motive force of your being (labor becomes a curse). The first couple ate it, and so did we (although I guess we smoked it). Both times, all hell broke loose. I can understand why such a large segment of the church wants to go back to the good old days when kids were named things like Beaver, Wally, and Lumpy, and no problem of youth was so great that a good apology to Miss Launders wouldn't fix everything. I guess I'll just take this dilemma to the grave with me. It's my Mark of Cain form our own little fall in the sixties.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good post. I certainly can relate to your frustation when trying to justify a a non-literal viewpoint of the Bible to conservatives. Perhaps rather cowardly, I have always kept my mouth shut in church, not telling anyone about my non-fundamental views, and it is something that really bothers me.
I would like to encourage you though to continue to try to be reconciliatory and to be charitable to your conservative bretheren. I think it is important to remember that while we may have some very justifiable objections to the views and manners held by conservatives, Im sure that some of our own views and manners are justifiably lamented by conservatives. For example, and you already covered this, the sixties brought both good (egalitarian/civil rights) and bad(sin concept/new [worse] sexual outlooks). We can all too easily overlook our own faults and only see the plank in the other eye (this goes for everyone).
As for how you go about dealings with conservatives...that is a bit more difficult. I can see your dilema. For the most part I tend to think that it isn't a big deal, and so I don't care (let them think what they want)...but everytime an issue comes up that highlights these differences than I do feel bad. Particularly around political issues like yourself.

-Mike

Anonymous said...

Actually, I should clarify the last part. I should say I feel that people are allowed to use their religious beliefs to guide their political action. After all a religious persons religious beliefs tend to be the core of what they are (for example, Im sure your religous beliefs and experiences account partly for your more left leanings).
I do think that conservatives tend to take an all or nothing approach to politics which is faulty (ie: I feel Abortion is wrong, so now I must back republicans on everything including the war). But for the most part, their political alignment is made in a rational(although perhaps naive and misinformed) manner. You shouldn't compare it to their biblical interpretation. I find many conservatives feel that the left means anti-religious, and who is to blame them for thinking that when some more outspoken liberals are rather certainly anti-religous in their tone. When conservative think of the term liberal, they think of hollywood, bill maher, the View, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, etc. Im not saying that that is fair or right, but hey, everyone nowadays seems to want to force everyone into more & more polar camps.
On a final note, Im sure you already know this well so this is just a reminder, realize that most people come to their views for a reason. A fundmental individual has probably been told his entire life that a certain way is the only way a christian "should" think and be. Hes probably also been told that to think otherwise is bad. So when I see people with conservative views, it makes sense to me, and I can understand where they are coming from.
Im sorry for that long apologetic for conservatives. Aint it kind of funny. I tend to get sick of their antics sometimes, yet Im always willing to defend them on a moments notice. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

Well, that was an interesting read. I guess I should applaud you for you magnanimous attitude toward conservatives. However, let me take a moment here to correct a couple misassumptions you've made. 1)Conservatives are far more "thinking" that you give them credit for. It just so happens that we must vote as a block (liberals too) whether we are in agreement on all the issues of our party or not. We must prioritize the issues and vote accordingly.

2)It's patronizing to say that a fundamental individual has been told how to think and be. COME ON! Why don't you just come out and say "We liberals are smarter than you". You ought to understand that many conservatives arrive at their political outlook through much thoughtful reflection and intelligent debate. So in your charity toward your conservative bretheren don't be so patronizing.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

2)It's patronizing to say that a fundamental individual has been told how to think and be. COME ON! Why don't you just come out and say "We liberals are smarter than you". You ought to understand that many conservatives arrive at their political outlook through much thoughtful reflection and intelligent debate. So in your charity toward your conservative bretheren don't be so patronizing.

>>>nice to hear from one of the many anon's who post here. I thought I was tounge in cheek revealing my pregudices which would be transparent to the reader, so transparent that it would be obvious that I'm aware of them as short comings.

If not, I apologize for offending. Some of my best freinds are conservatives. But I wouldn't let one marry my daughter. (that's a joke)

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

Interesting reflections. I think I'm a conservative by just about anyone's standards ;-) except my husband's who is much more right wing than I'll ever be...but I could relate to so much of what you wrote, my friend. Those of us who came of age in that era (I graduated from high school in '68) will never quite leave it behind. Like you, Joan B. and Bob D. still take me to certain places...and feelings. I did my first public speaking (speech class) with a record of "The Times They Are a' Changin;" as a prop. I got a B. Who knew I'd some day make my living standing in front of people every Sunday? I even used that song again, about six months ago, in a sermon. I feel we are in another one of those times when everything is changing. Some for better, and much--not. We shall see. My current egalitarian beliefs can be traced to conversations held in the sixties and seventies about "women's lib." I did not consider myslef one...far from it...but the pondering of ideas was good for me. I became a different person. I just didn't realize that for a long time.

(((((((meta)))))))

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

thanks for contributing Dorcas, I enjoyed your views.

Kevin Rosero said...

Hi Metacrock, and thanks for your comment at my blog. Seriously, just yesterday I spent a good deal of time reading and reflecting on this post about the Sixties and all the ones above (up to today's post on Anne Frank), and thinking about making my first comment on your blog; I started reading it many months ago. But I was born after the Sixties, and my thoughts on philosophy and theology are a bit underexercised right now, so I could find nothing substantive to contribute.

I do want to say that these have been fascinating posts; that my politics and my thoughts on God are somewhat similar; but that I get a lot from your ability to think it all out and describe it intellectually. And concerning Jesus mythicism, I doubt we have any serious disagreements. I look forward to speaking more.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

Hey good to hear from you. We probalby wont disagree on Doherty. I'm hopiong we can compare notes and sharpen our arguments.

You link to a lot of people I know, such as JP Holding and Bede and the CADRE (I started the CADRE you know).

Thanks for droping by. I'll be in touch.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

btw Kevin I would never have known of your blog or the link to mine but I was looking at where exotic vixtiors come from and a guy from Australia found my blog from your link, that's how i found your blog.