◆ SpookStack

i cae wr, ee eee erie he ne et ee at gla ut waren ER ee eee sere mmgegre: ar aur een aan ue ed . ee a Alef a wit as ee cleims that despite the com.untation, Jerry feels it failed. Nonetheless, the two serve as adequate syribols of the differences within Yippee. Not surprisingly, they feuded most of the week in EEN. ee lh ee te ban than cenntant Anbnta ot Sees Tene oe oe oO oe a ed ee ee Old the movement,” Abbie writes with Guuwiiieristic C€adgeraulion. “derry wants to show the clenched fist. I want to show the clenched fist and the smile, He wants a gun. 1 want the gun and the flower.”” This is a key debate within the AL coment and i'm sorry Abbie doesn’t take it . rer /owhoat the gigi can Co, but we've hardly exjvared the possibilities of the flower eid the smile. The Pentagon spends billions of dollars each year on research. But what does it know nes wee woeomeaint in Commentary by Dave Dellinger *- un Abhie Hoffman and the Jippac pucuulenon accurately when he writes: “Side by side with the fun and games. the tan an plerty. are some of the most creative and neoant inswts into how to make a megningful (as : 4 revatution in an affluent - wl thn Viet th . Gut din do Often denicu Liciis Ly more narrowly political members of the Left. But it also obscures the problem, which becomes evident if one reverses the order of the sentence: Side by side with the creative insights are the ego-tripping, the futusics and the bullshit-whicnh in the end get in the way of making a revolution. s bhai ace. The truth is that the Yippies are essentially comics—in the glorious tradition of comics who have sharpened people’s insights into the hypocrisy and - pretentiousness of established values and institutions. But they do not offer a way out of the present society, with its organized selfishness and cruelty, its centers of military, economic and political power. Their role is essentially preparatory. Despite their talk about creating a counter-culture, t., have nut done so. Consequently their revolution is largely rhetorical, like the sloganeering | ef the Taft whi-k they correctly criticize. They have failed to create a counter-culture that leads out of the present morass because they have failed to peeotr a war af life that synthesizes freedom and ieopuyubibILLy, balisdacluGh and sacrilice, ndiviuua fulfilment and social solidarity. This failure is not surprising, since no other group in this country has done so either, But like the a re wm ss eon hy Mp ya SETA ES Se TB SST EE CLD WRT TO TT Ae See mee oe aT net . : tim oe = early, flavc s [ez of rebelliousness, not a revolutionary way of life that exemplifies the true values of frec men. And to the extent that they boast of their irresponsibility—and worse live up to otha dent oven help set our faces in the right direction. Jeger 1s accurate as a reporter Dub falls us as a socin] critic when he writes approvingly: ‘Abbie says—I don’t like the concept of a movement built on sacrifice, dedication, responsibility, anger, frustration and guilt.... No wonder the traditionalists of the Old and New Left put Abbie down. They are talking about children being nepaimed in Vietnam, Abbie is talking about getting laid.” It is Yippie adventurism to suggest that there is any way of getting rid of the repressive institutions of this society without immense sacrifice, dedicstion and responsibility. It is a nonecquitior to imply that a movement characterized by these qualities has to be caught up in sexual! frustration and guilt. We may have to cope with the politica! frustration of not being able to put an end to the napalming of children, but certainly not the frustration of not getting laid. To suggest that in order toe get laid you have to become a Yippie—and stop thinking about the children in™ Vietnam, to boot~is on par with the ads that imply you can’t get laid unless you buy the right cigarette, nerfume or wardrobe. The Yippie’s culture turns out to be distressingly like the mirror-image of the culture he thought he was rejecting—and it doesn’t Raa 7" Aton a the commodity culture by Yippies and politicos alike rests only partly on the fraudulence of the commodities it provides; it rests as well on the frocteatinne of a way of life which concentrates on one’s own satisfactions without noticing that children ere beirig napalmed in Vietnam, bitten by rats on the other side of town, and dying of malnutrition in Georgia and Venezuela. — _ re tr er oe 3 ene Ys weeewhed fm nm cientlar ine cippie Tunas NUNS Geugit OT G Attias dilemma in other areas. as well. Work is rejected because it has been prostituted in our 9to 5 culture © in which most people either hate their work or should hate it, because of! the authoritarian context ; in which it takes place and the irrelevant or socially ’ destructive purposes for which it is organized. But purposeful work is a necessary part of all human - fulfillment, so a culture based on idleness and drugs , soon becomes as boring as the culture it sought to replace. Besides, there are thousands of tasks to be- performed, not to perpetuate the old order but to build the new one, and no way to perform them sxcept through hard work.. The Media are condemned for their dishonest advertising, but time and again Yippies will make spectacular statements that bring discredit on the movement or confuse - their own followers in order to advertise themselves through a headine or a spot on the news. Where the pitch is an obvious put-on or put-lown is one thing, (such as the announcement that they were going to leyitate the Pentagon) but others have gotten kids . who took them seriously into unnecessary trouble others the Yippies must be seen as representing an. ~ they weren't prepared for.3¢.0.0...:/00.0 7“ - March/April 1969-0 7B