[MD] Hippies

[Ant McWatt]

Ant McWatt stated February 1st:

>“The hippy movement erected signposts for all to see. Some warn us of 
>impending danger, others direct us towards richer, more fulfilling lives, 
>but most show us the road to freedom. Freedom is the paramount virtue in 
>this system. Freedom to do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you, and 
>to
>be open to new experiences. This engenders an attitude that allows for 
>maximum
>personal growth.”
>
>(http://hippy.com/hippyway.htm)
>
>The above analysis sounds to me more like an anti-thesis to the repressive
>ideology of the Soviet regimes (that we both don’t want to see back again). 
>However, when I hear about America and Communists, it always makes me think 
>of
>another repressive ideology that I hope never to see again: namely McCarthy 
>and
>his witch hunts and the resulting cultural “stink” that encouraged free 
>thinking
>people like Robert Pirsig to leave the States in the 1950s.  Now had 
>McCarthy
>and his RIGHT-WING colleagues completely prevailed, I also doubt “that you 
>and I
>would be having this conversation today”.

Platt replied February 2nd:

Regarding Hippies I need not quote to you Pirsig’s analysis of why their
revolution failed.. And I know of no one on the right or left that doesn’t 
want
peace. The question is "At what price?" Which leads me to ask what you think 
we
ought to do about Iran?

Ant McWatt comments:

Platt,

Firstly, see Arlo’s excellent post from February 5th about contrarians 
regarding what Pirsig states about Hippies.  Anyway, that’s a good question 
about Iran.  I think that modern Iran needs to be encouraged towards a 
Dynamic liberal culture as soon as possible (though not necessarily a 
Haight-Ashbury liberal culture!).  I think the best way to encourage the 
Iranian government towards this is to provide them with greater economic 
benefits for developing liberal policies.  Invading the country is going to 
be counter-productive in this goal because (as Ham mentioned to you) 
democracy and freedom are not something that can be imposed externally by 
force.  (I really hope the present misadventure in Iraq and an over reliance 
on oil has taught the Allied forces an important lesson in this respect by 
now).

Thinking out of the box, in the longer term, a closer political and economic 
integration with Iran’s neighbours or even the European Union could possibly 
be an option.  Whatever the EU’s other faults, it has kept power away from 
religious extremists and enabled peace between previously hostile countries 
since the Second World War.  In this regard, it will therefore be 
interesting to see how the application to join the EU from Turkey (where 
Islam is the primary religion) turns out.

By the way, F.S.C. Northrop examines at length the issue of how to reconcile 
different cultures and values in the context of nuclear proliferation in his 
1952 text “The Taming of the Nations” (published by Ox Bow Press).  The 1986 
preface to the book states:

“A prophetic title of one chapter is ‘The Resurgence of Islam’.  Decades 
later, and in some cases too late, have Western policy makers begun to be 
sensitive to the nature of Islamic entities: the vital religious passions 
that define seemingly minute and mundane actions, the fusion of church and 
state… as in the case of China, the comments on Islam should not be seen as 
deterministic prophecies but as analysis of the main elements of the 
entities of politics.  After all, even Islamic leaders can be insensitive to 
the living law, as was the case in the foundations of Bangladesh.”

Maybe you might want to have a look at the above text at some point.  As far 
as I know, it’s still available from Amazon.com.

Best wishes,

Anthony


“It’s just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. 
  No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, 
between fear and love.  The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on 
your door, buy guns, close yourself off.  The eyes of love instead see all 
of us as one.”  (Bill Hicks, 1992)


“‘Hippies’ (as the bohemians before them, and the brujo, and even the 
reformationists way back), are the ones who, as Pirsig says, are ‘the really 
creative people - the artists, composers, revolutionaries and the like.’…  
What the Middle East needs is more hippies, more contrarians who advocate a 
freedom from static social and intellectual controls, a true free society 
and not the proposed ‘monoculture’ being advocated by right-wing elements 
across the globe, where if you don’t blindly and obediently support your 
government, you are an ‘enemy of freedom.’”

(Arlo, February 5th 2005)

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