A PBS program on San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love. (Continuing the Boomer theme of the previous post). Started out with utopian pretensions built on the self-proclaimed good will of the Boomer young, aided by chemical enhancement; ended up with chemicals, violence and dirt.
Not unique.
CG Jung used Heraclitus' notion of enantiodromia, of opposites running into one another, to describe how the best of intentions, overdone and unaware of shadow, become the worst of behaviors.
Many Boomers remain entranced by their good intentions and their sense of specialness, a kind of generational Chosen People, regardless of the outcomes of their values and behaviors. Hard to tell noble values from narcissism.
Anecdote. Several years ago I was in a small lighting store in the holy city of Berkeley to help a friend return something. The owner was a greying hippie: same long hair, denim, beads, sandals, etc. The whole thing, except he was close to 60. While my friend and I were waiting for some paperwork, an affluent young couple came in and looked around for a few minutes and then left.
The peace-and-love owner said to us and to anyone else in earshot: "Those yuppie fuckers come in here all the time and just look and never buy anything. They deserve to die."
Summer of luv indeed.
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