City Lights, having been made a “historic landmark” by the city, is now Establishment, to some extent.
And I speculate that today, they are discussing Trump’s “treason” by meeting with Vladimir Putin. They are preaching about the patriotic duty of all citizens to accept at face value the stories told by our intelligence agencies. They support former CIA Director Brennan in his calls for a coup.
How far we have come.
To me, I thought many good things were starting in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. It was not unreasonable to want to be a non-conformist. It was not unreasonable for homosexuals to demand the right to fuck each other however they chose to, and to write about it.
But something went wrong somewhere. The people who were preaching freedom from censorship are now demanding it. The people who shouted out “Question Authority” are now demanding rote submission to it. The people who wanted everyone to have the right to think for themselves, and to live their lives as they saw fit are now lecturing us unceasingly about EVERYTHING. MY GOD IS THAT A FUCKING STRAW!!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!
The people who were fun, who wanted to live open and expressive lives, have now shrunk into small holes, and are doing their level best to pull the rest of us in there. No thank you.
I remain a conservative hippy. I see things my own way. Freedom is a necessity to realize our purpose here on earth. Some order and common sense is necessary to live in freedom.
And if you are shrieking at me, and telling me how to live my life, you have nothing in common with the best of the counter-culture, which was actually once a thing, before becoming monolithic, gray, and really really fucking boring, when not violent in roughly the same way, and with the same degree of prejudice, the KKK was with regard to blacks. Then, they are scary, but still boring. Do not look there for anything original, generative, or life affirming.