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4
or the shooting down of his brother.
You weren't a teen, filled with vital
hopes and dreams, seeing the funeral
processions of Martín Luther or Medgar
Evers.
Your children were.
Your news wasn't filled, when you
were growing up, with headlines scream–
ing: "America's cities are burning," or
bombings, riots and huge demonstrations·
against war.
It
is today.
There was little chance, when
you
went to college, that you could be shot
while crossing the campus green.
It
could happen to your sons or daughters
tomorrow.
Today the world is different -
incredibly, enormously different. Today,
you must recognize the stark fact that
human annihilation is a very real possi–
bility. Accidental war could bring
it
about; accidental poisoning could bring
it
about; biological or chemica1 war
could bring it about.
Change Necessary- And Now!
If
your eyes are open you can see that
dramatic, complete
change
is needed.
ToTAL change. And you can see it
MUST
BE
NOW!
You can recognize a
complete
change
is necessary in the whole concept of
business and industry - that the world
needs desperately to be busy in the man–
ufacture of plowshares instead of
spears, beautifuJ homes and buildings
instead of bombs, bullets and nerve gas.
You can see
total cha1zge
is necessary
in the pollution-producing methods of
traosportation, and the entire structure
of city living. You can see total
change is necessary in the "cbamber-of–
commerce growth-fo r -the -sake-of–
growth" attitude of an ever-soaring
"GNP' ' resulting in the pollution of the
environment.
You can recognize the need for
change - NOW. But you can see no
change, now. Instead, you see the same
tired old principies at work which were
the · fundamental, root
cattse
that pro–
duced the world all around you, just
"like it is."
And so can teen-agers.
They see the
agonizing need for change. And, tragi–
cally, they too see that no lasting change
is forthcoming.
Sorne of the most exciting conversa-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
tions among teens are those which
probe the cause of the evils of society.
There are those long "rap sessions"
about the establishment, "Agnew's rhet–
oric," "Nixon's War," the student
groups, "pot," the rock festivals, and
the crassness of parents.
Tbis concern with the "establishment"
has been the catalyst for a new subcul–
ture. They are variously called the
"Hippie Generation," the "Now People,"
the "Happy People" - and an ad
inlinitum of other press-publicized
names, including "The Jesus People."
Today's Teen-Age Tyranny
This new subculture has developed
its own standard of physiognomy, vocab–
ulary and religious expression.
Ask a teen-agcr what it's all about
and he may answer like this: "I think
each person must decide those things
for himself."
"l
thi nk you should do
your own thing - y'know, have your
own bag -
I
mean ... it's
yofl,
isn't it,
and, like,
YOU
have to be you, and
decide for
yott,
right ?"
Like, wrong.
Parrots repeat meaningless, simple
words endlessly. And students who sit
at the feet of "new" moralists have
learned their nowhere diches well.
"Y'gotta do your own thi ng, y'know ... ?
Like mindless machinery groaning its
tiresome tune, America's youth repeats
its sneering rejection rhetoric.
The looks of barely concealed outrage
from middle America directed toward a
Volkswagen van full of long-hairs is as
downright satisfying to the hip set as
wolf whistles for the gal in the yellow
bikini. They
like
to be objects of
abnormality - since everything their
elders call "norma l" is to t hem
"anathema."
Somehow, gals, you just HAVE to
have long, straight hair, hanging
straight clown. You've got to be
like
tbat endless number of burnt-faced
blondes with that long l1air that jounces
and bounces so loosely to the wild
sounds of the "Health Department
Approved" ( if it's not yet a new
"rock" g roup, it probably soon will
be!) Why those hanging shawls, and
long purse handles or leather bags with
fringes? Like, it's part of the
rmifot·m.
Why scraggly sideburns, wispy mus-
March 1971
taches aod long bair? Like, it's
mine,
ain't it?
Haven't you ever looked at the pic–
tures of your own money? Or don't you
remember the busts of all those com–
posers whose music you straight guys
seem to dig, and you called them all
" long hairs"? And, besides, didn't
Christ
have long hair? And didn't
Wild Bill Hickock, and Buffalo Bill
Cody, and most all the early founders
of the nation? So what's the big deal
about
hair
anyhow? What difference
does it rnake?
The Rejection Syndrome
Today it's "hip" to reject. A scathing
sneer, a helpless, quick laugh at the
tired oid huog-up establishment is
heady wine for the ego. Deliberately
mottled rags, chlorox-treated jeans,
sandals (mostly in summer only),
sloppy, baggy, "put-on" clothes are a
prideful, glitteriug uniform beside the
"straight'' establishment with its nowhere
scene.
The hair, hanging purses, huge
scarves, and put-on red, white and blue
are all part of the big scene, and it's
labelled: "We reject society."
And it's worth rejecting, all right.
Any society whicb could be so utterly
insane as to bring mankind to the brink
of li teral cosmocide has
got
to be a soci–
ety
worth rejecting. Any civilization
which so entangled itself in the pursuit
of worldly, materialistic goals that it
looked around in decades-late bewilder–
ment at its own impending annihila–
tion has got to be a civilization worth
plenty of rejection.
So we see youngsters sneering at the
uniform of the "straight'' scene, while
they stand in their own uniform. We
see youngsters who are turning off from
the world and turning on to new things
- drugs, sex and whatever is bizarre.
Sorne of them even say, "turn on with
Jesus." They say Christ had long hair.
They say,
"!
mard1 because Christ over–
turned the money tables." They say,
"I
demonstrate because Christ talked pretty
straight to the Pharisees." They say,
"Sure, 1 come head to head with the
authorities because Jesus did." In final–
ity, they say: "Jesus was the first
hippie."
Recently at the Tournament of Roses