Re: Todd Gitlin Book <quasi-review>
Andrew Herman (ah7301r@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU)
Mon, 11 Mar 1996 14:57:02 -0600
Jon Epstein wrote:
>
> >And so on... about how students at Berkeley not only have no idea what the
> >'60s was all about there, but many black students don't believe there ever
> >was [sic] racial segregation. Gitlin plays Ginsburg reading _Howl_ in one of
> >his big intro soc classes and says that you could see in students' eyes the
> >sentiment "What the hell is *this*? What is he going on about?"
>
> Well, I have to say, as a "generationX" sociologist, that
> I understand perfectly how Gitlin's students might feel.
> I too tired of hearing about the sixties. I was there, although
> I was young (born 1960), and spent the better part of my adolescence
> wounded, angry, and stoned, reeling in the sixites aftermath.
> My high school cohort has the highest percentage of drug users
> and suicides in recent memory. We also
> were the first market for Heavy Metal, slasher films, Narcotics Anonymous
> and AIDS awareness progams. It might have been cool for
> Gitlin, but it sure as hell wasn't for us.
>
> Incidently, the voice my peers turned to for guidance (at RJ Reynolds
> high school in Winston Salem NC) was none other than
> Hunter S. Thompson who seemed, to us, to offer a perfectly
> reasonable answer to the mediocrity of our
> social and cultural situation. "I'd never
> advocate the use of drugs, violence or insanity to anyone," he told us,
> "but they've always worked for me."
>
> Funny how it didn't work out so great for many of my friends who are
> now dead, in prison, or totally wrapped up in twelve step programs,
> envengelical churches, drug addiction, sexual escapades, or therapy.
> "Ho ho ho" P.J. O'Rourke once said,"many dead!"
>
> Me? I went straight and became a sociologist with
> a very serious libertatrian streak. Government and politics both suck,
> but I vote anyway because you never know.
>
> "When the going get's weird, the weird turn pro."
> Hunter Thompson said that as well.
>
> I've seen the best minds of my generation locked into
> psychiatric hospitals by their parents who thought
> that Ginsberg was talking to them. I guess they weren't listening
>
> Jon "will work for tenure" Epstein
>
> Jonathon S. Epstein "I realize
> Department of Sociology I hold the key
> Wake Forest University to freedom, I
> Winston Salem, N.C. 27109 cannot let my
> (910)-759-5447 life be ruled
> epstein@wfu.edu by threads."
> Rocklist@sun.soci.niu.edu Marillion
>
>
>
>
>
>
Touche'
Andrew Herman