Let's bridge a generational gap, Berniacs. Many, if not most, of you are about the age I was in my most revolutionary period: circa 1966 to 1971, my college years at San Jose State (the Berkeley of the South Bay in my decidedly deluded imagination).
Here I am, in my 1970 yoga-and-meditation-dude guise. If I look more than a little messianic, that's because I was. I thought I was well on my way to grokking the deepest secrets of the cosmos.
Guess what... (as the old saying goes, you've got two guesses, and the first one doesn't count).
That didn't happen.
But in no way do I regret my 20-something idealism. My search for the truth about rock-bottom reality led me in many wonderful directions during the years between these photos.
Older, and admittedly only questionably wiser, I still feel like I've learned a few things that you Sanders-crazed "Bernie or Bust" supporters might benefit from hearing.
Before I was messianic about attaining cosmic consciousness (without psychedelics; I'd already achieved this via LSD), I was messianic about us Flower Children irrevocably changing the world. For the better, naturally.
I marched in the streets, protesting the Vietnam War. I chanted "shut it down, shut it down" during student strikes at San Jose State. I blissed out with other hippies at San Francisco Be-In's. We thought that our generation was going to change the direction of history.
Peace. Love. Understanding. The Age of Aquarius was dawning. Well, this didn't happen either.
However, I firmly believe that my Baby Boomer generation brought a lot of much-needed progress to this country and the world -- just as Bernie Sanders' movement has. Idealism doesn't have to result in an ideal outcome to be well worth pursuing.
I know this is going to sound trite and obvious to Millennials who form the core of Bernie's most committed revolutionaries, but I'm going to offer up some old man advice anyway:
(1) Pat yourself on the back for pushing the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton decidedly leftward. Then, put your hands together and clap for Clinton when she accepts the presidential nomination Thursday. It's perfectly possible to do both things while remaining true to your principles.
(2) Simply consider -- I'm not asking you to believe this, just to consider it -- that the person you will be tomorrow is going to look at the person you are today not quite as a stranger, but kind of like a friend whose behavior puzzles you, and you have to ask: "Dude, what were you thinking when you did that stuff?"
(3) So because us idealistic Baby Boomers (I'm 67) have experienced more tomorrow's than you idealistic Millennials, we're more familiar with how our fervently-held passions and beliefs have evolved over the years. Not always, but usually, this makes us a bit less rigid about our current passions and beliefs -- political or otherwise -- because we know this too shall (likely) pass.
(Of all the blog posts I've written, one of my favorite titles is "I've become the person I warned myself about.")
Young Berniacs, I admire your zeal to stand firm for a vision of what this country could and should be. You don't want to compromise your ideals. You are deeply reluctant to vote for Hillary Clinton, who you consider to be highly flawed in comparison with Bernie Sanders, the candidate you view as almost perfectly embodying your idealistic vision.
I'm just suggesting that, from my Baby Boomer perspective, all revolutions take an unpredictable meandering course.
Because life itself does. Nature abhors straight lines. Likewise, no one can predict how a cause will unfold, how it will get from here to there, just as no one can predict how their own life will change between today and tomorrow.
Like you, I get disappointed when my idea of what should happen doesn't comport with what does happen. However, I've learned that it isn't defeatist to accept reality as it is. Rather, it is... realistic.
Believe me, it isn't a disaster that Hllary Clinton is the Democratic nominee for president rather than Bernie Sanders. It is a setback for you, an unwanted detour on the road toward a better future that is continually being constructed.
Since there is no reliable roadmap in life for what comes next, try to accept that this political disappointment in no way stops progress toward the sort of world Sanders has so eloquently called for -- in the same way that the quite-abrupt end to the Flower Child era didn't stop the drive to peace, love, and understanding.
(I was at the Altamont Free Concert in late 1969; it was supposed to be a "Woodstock West," but turned out ugly, a harbinger of the fading days of flower power.)
You have to decide how you're going to vote in November, now that you can't vote for Bernie Sanders. I recommend gritting your teeth, hopefully with a smile, and voting for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. They are way more in tune with your ideals than Donald Trump and Mike Pence are. And they're the reality you have to deal with.
Remember: you don't always get what you want. Which is OK. Also, unavoidable. So says some voices of experience.
LYRICS
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she was gonna meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need
But I went down to the demonstration
To get your fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need
I went down to the Chelsea drugstore
To get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy
And man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavor, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was "dead"
I said to him
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You get what you need
You get what you need, yeah, oh baby
I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need 0h yeah
Same rules apply. You can't always get what you think is right.
Posted by: JT | July 26, 2016 at 06:32 PM