I absolutely enjoy that you let your guests speak uninterrupted. It allows me time to hear what they actually have to say, rather than hammering in a point to be made by some partial party. Straight up good footage. Thank you for uploading. When I see you in my suggested list I always make sure to check it out!
Watching these interviews about life in the 50s and 60s gives me an even deeper appreciation for my grandparents and the lives they led. Thanks for the interesting posts Mr. Hoffman.
@@godsnotdead6973 *He's being self-deprecating. As a Boomer, hearing "Grandparents" equals "Old", and we **_hate_** thinking of ourselves as old, even though it's true.*
Measl.... you got it! Old has always been about 20-25 years older than me. Now think about it! Lol. It is true, your definition of old grows with you as you age once you are an adult. Only now, 20-25 years older than me is almost, well, almost at the cemetery. 🤦♀️ OH NO!! That can’t be!
I'm happy to say that I agree with you (which is a rarity in itself in a RUclips comments section!) It's actually for once full of interesting, respectful people who genuinely appreciate the content and are able to have a discussion without it deteriorating in to some kind of ridiculous argument for no apparent reason.
I grew up during this time frame in Ohio in a blue collar community. We did not have much but we were happy. What Rick describes about the jocks and the cool kids is accurate. They were in their own world, had the best of clothes, haircuts, money for lunch in the cafeteria. They were athletes that were recognized, and were chosen for leadership. I was not one of the cool kids and did not care. I had my own circle of friends and interests. The only thing I saw of the beatnik movement was Doby Gillis on TV, as it was pretty much non-existent in Ohio. To my knowledge our school board didn't ban any books. I felt the education I got at my high school was very good. It prepared me for life and college. I and most of my friends did not rebel against things. My father worked in the factory at Firestone, It wasn't an easy job, was very physical and very hot in the summer. I appreciated what he did for me, my 2 brothers, and sister. My mother did not work then which was pretty much the norm for mothers then, however she did work during WWII while my father was in the Army.
These interviews and channel in general are simply remarkable! Videos like these seem to me as windows to a particular time and place though which you can experience (or at least come as close to experiencing as possible) the life of that era. Coming from a completely different age and culture, I find them incredibly interesting.
I agree. Great interview. He really captured the experience of moving into the 60's. For a short while there, we really did have "Camelot". So sad to compare that with where we are today.
Being born in 77 this guy is talking about my parents generation. So I've heard the stories but he really does have a way of explaining the young culture of that time that makes it completely relatable. Too much suppression leads to an explosion.
So well spoken. I would add that the music was the lubricant that moved the movement. And now that music is being rediscovered with reaction videos on RUclips. We need comparable music today, and that is being recognized.
I was in my early 20’s in the late 60’s and this is one of the best interviews you have done on the 50’s and 60’s. I guess I was a hippie for a while. I look back on those years now and I would not change a thing. I learned a whole lot about life, things I would not have learned had I conformed to what was expected of me.
13:52 “Do your own thing” “Create yourself. Don’t fit in to one of the preset patterns that’s been prepared for you. That’s a trap. That’s a game. Invent yourself. Be true to yourself. Learn what you want to do and do it.”
Well said! I was 10 in '69. I went from a crew cut to long hair marching in demonstrations. Loved what I was experiencing and grew up very fast. My parents were young enough to embrace the change so it made my transition so much coooooler. :-) Peace, Love, Dove.
Hendrik is a very astute Dude!! Being a Writer makes him an "Ultimate" Observer! He mentions so many things I can directly relate to....which made for a nice trip down memory lane!! Thx!!
Interesting hearing about The Catcher in the Rye from the perspective of 1950s counterculture. I read it through a modern lens, not even considering the cultural context it was meant to appeal to. Teenage angst before it was fashionable.
Ok David, you got me, lol. I've watched several videos now and am enjoying it immensely. I'm subscribing. Thank you for your glorious work. Signed, An old hippie in Texas.
Love this, I was there. There were so many different cliques, beatniks, hippies, preppies, loners, environmentalists aka tree huggers, in the early 70s. You were either into the Beatles or the Stones, then it was hard rock, country went downhill. Elvis was waning. Interesting times. Kids cared about everything, because we understood that what was happening was going to effect us greatly. I never did drugs, but most became dopers after Nam. Exciting times. Thank you.
Oh my gosh, this guy is from my home state, Colorado! I recognized the names of those venues he talked about for concerts. Times have really changed here, so it’s real incredible to know what growing up was like back then.
The man talking, was speaking about music venues in San Francisco. The Fillmore is still standing. The Avalon Ballroom closed on 1969. The Fillmore now has a lot of venues across the US. In the 60’s, the only Fillmore around was in San Francisco.
Well this is the 3rd video I’ve watched on your channel. I’m really enjoying these stories, it really helps me to see through the eyes of the people telling them and giving me a idea of life for the average man. I sorta realize that a lot of these older gentlemen were probably more left leaning as teenagers and young adults but have become more centered and sorta conflicted in their political beliefs. It’s like they really want things that sound great, while realizing that people need to be responsible and pull their own weight. It’s actually very interesting.
To both of you. The name would be hyperbolic of course These people aren't ancient but they come from a different world. The worl has remained relatively unchanged socially for the past 20 years now. But from the 60's to the 80's there was tremendous social change unparalleled in recent history, even with the advent of the lgbt community gathering strength and power and the deconstruction of adulthood and cultural maturity.
@@D.A.-Espadathough that may be true from some perspectives I would argue global communication through the internet is a monumental social change. With access to millions of perspectives young minds are being shaped like never before. You're right though, ancient is hyperbolic from the traditional sense of the word. Some people think time itself has changed due to the nature of our relationship with technology.
@@ElmTheWar I think that's something we cann both agree with. The internet certainly did reshape communication and accessibility to new ideas and the time it takes to do so is nearly instant.
Are you older now? These days, jocks can definitely still be "dumb meat head brutes", but much more often you'll find that they are fairly kind people. Maybe not the smartest, or the least wild, but usually inclusive, kinda preppy, and good students. I think in modern schools there is much more inclusiveness in general between students. Haha thanks Breakfast Club
"Here was a group of hippies using amplified instruments, and all kinds of technological advances-- to advance, to put across an anti-technological message" What an eloquent account of a unique and idealistic era. I feel inspired to educate myself and live my own truth after watching this. I was born in 1989, the same year that this was filmed, but I really wish I could have been around for the 60s
Nobel! Lived through the 60s I'd rather go back to bland and boring! I'd hate to be young now! When democracy is failing, white males are vilified, censorship galore, especially with this cultural appropriation nonsense!
When I lived in Santa Cruz the coffee shops were full of old communists and activists, beatniks and hippies . It was full of the most interesting dialogue I have ever experienced . Rebels just like each other and share fabulous stories. This guy seems like someone who would have been there😊 Someone you could talk to all night.
@@BenSunness Nonsense, he is a far more complicated an intellect than that. I invite anyone to go back to his pieces in the New Yorker when he was the political editor. He considered the Carter administration of which he was a part to have good intentions and yet a failure. He wrote that Rush Limbaugh should be given sympathy when he had his drug addition (OxyContin prescribed for back pain after surgery), and praised John McCain. Some people are still capable of subtle and insightful thought even as much of the country went off the cliff with right wing fools like Gingrich, Limbaugh, and Trump.
Like most of the interviews I’ve seen of your collection, when I read this one was produced in 1989, I wish wish wish you would go and locate this fascinating gentlemen and catch up with him again. Now. 30 years later! This is so special to those of us who might be the same age or share the same experiences of the 50’s and 60’s. I am not the intellect this gentleman is although I really wish now that I had been. Or, am now. Dammit, it’s not fair!
Yes. I would like to do what you suggest. Time and finances don't allow that these days for me. No question that he and many of the people I interviewed back in 1989 would be fascinating reviewing what they would say and feel now about what they said 30 years ago and 60 years ago when they were young. David Hoffman - filmmaker
It's been 30 years since this gentleman expressed his thoughts and ideas, i wonder if the accumulation of experience and knowledge has kept his view of ideas the same now that so much time has passed, it would be nice to see Mr. Hoffman do a follow up video series, to see if these people are alive and how much their world view has changed since appearing on this video series. some amazing people here, thanks Mr.Hoffman. Have a blessed day everyone.
In my experience, I have found that beneath the powerful, rebellious spirit of the individuals who are today's equivalent of "the girl/boy who lives in a commune to have sex, do drugs, and spread love," lies a broken relationship with their parents. It is against the image of their authoritative fathers or their humble mothers that they rebel, and they go off on their own to forge a path to nowhere. Today we see what an entire generation of bitter arguments and pent up resentments between generations have done to a nation's spiritual capital. In the end, the hippies were right: all they needed was love. It's a shame that they didn't realize that parental love is the most sacred form of love.
*It's important to look at the 60s through 70s in context. We had a decade that saw common assassinations (JFK, Malcom X, RFK, Martin Luther King), attempted assassinations (Gerald Ford, Carter, Reagan in the 80s), **_regular_** terrorist bombings (at least where I lived, in NYC), from groups like FALN, regular plane hijackings; the Olympics; a slew of Serial Killers (**en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_in_the_United_States)**, Race riots (Newark, Watts, L.A. etc.)... We came of age in an incredibly violent world: on top of all the previous mentions, the USA was experiencing it's worst (sustained) crime wave in history (which generated the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control Act, the first federal gun control legislation), plus there was a heroin epidemic from returning Vietnam veterans (which were their own class of problem without them showing up junkied). Add "little" things like rapid technology development, Johnson's "Great Society" (which ended up utterly destroying the Black community to this day); rapid developments in medicine which increased life expectation (and therefore societal job competition) unexpectedly rapidly by 1972, and things were quite literally so crazy as to be incomprehensible...* *All of this mayhem, never ending, had multiple effects on the nations youth. You can trace things as diverse as Hippies, Yippies and LSD Dropouts directly back to this. As well as almost every edge of the fantastically fast changes taking place in clothing, language (Lenny Bruce, then the 7 Dirty Words) - hell, I need to stop listing all the disruptions, or I'll never get to the point. Society fractured, and every shard created new cultures, subcultures, movements, and backlashes.*
It somehow feels that nowadays the aspect of anti-technology is far more understood than at the time of the interview. Not that there is any anti-technology mood nowadays but having reached such a thorough technologization of our everyday life, the consequences are more apparent.
Elvijs Krūmiņš they didn’t. They tried to make kids think they did, but they didn’t. They just banned the books at school. She just read them somewhere else. So authority they appear to have is a mirage.
Another excellent interview interesting to hear a person that lived thru those times a was going to high school then and have read that book and liked it I wish I could have talked to my grandparents even my uncles
I had the same experience as did he -- school-wise and friend-wise. It was hard to be truthful for fear of being ridiculed. I wasn't a radical but the inside of me questioned it.
I disliked Catcher in the Rye back in high school, but given the context here it makes a lot more sense. I guess it's progress that I thought very little of it when I read it vs being disruptive material that needed banning back then. Lots of parallels I'm seeing with the present day with an increase of counter-culture and all that too. What a well spoken and understandable man.
I was in high school in the 60's and remember reading "Catcher in the Rye" in study hall and bursting out laughing in the midst of the silence. No one stopped me from reading it. He must have lived in a parallel universe to mine.
Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States. The book was banned in high schools across the country and was called part of an "overall communist plot. David Hoffman - filmmaker
Although it was never part of the curriculum where I attended high school, no one attempted to stop me from reading it. I bought many books from home to class but I wasn't aware of any book bans, that I can remember.
I thought that part was interesting, because in 9th grade in my high school in Northern VA in the mid 70s I was required to read Catcher in the Rye. At the time I couldn't understand it and really hated it (I've matured quite a bit since then.) But I would never have expected it to be censored.
My mom was a beatnick..and I was a handful..and high school hasn’t changed with the hierarchy, even in 1986 when I graduated, Or in the 2000s, when my kids graduated.
Boy you are correct. It is getting longer each week. I try to pay attention. And I have engaged my teenage son in the effort for the summer to help me. David Hoffman-filmmaker
getting into the beatniks, (especially ginsberg and burroughs, even frank ohara & then things like de kooning & pollock) is what saved me through my teens ! i always recall wishing i was part of the 50s to meet those like minded people, but in retrospect, i’d imagine there’s more fans now then back then.
It's funny things like these amuse me, I'm 19 years old i would show people these video's and call it boring lol idk to me i like learning about people who lived in that era.
I wish I knew when this guy was born - it would help put everything into perspective . He only looks early 40's here ? its great to catch these people about their youth before they got to old to record.
So happy to have found this channel, awesome material. I'm curious do the various interviews come from a single source/archive? Or rather, what is the context of these interviews? Anyways really great stuff thanks for putting it out there. The numbers are boggling: 130K subbed, but only 2500 views and 38 comments?!?!?! I get that this type thing isn't for anyone, but holy cow are those numbers wonky.
What an interesting guy; I could listen to him for hours. Is there any longer version elsewhere or is this is? Great descriptions of the anarchist (benign at first) feeling, that you could do it all yourself (ourselves) and live off the grid and make it up as you went along. If the hippies who spoke sense (like this guy) and the WHOLE world had listened, who know what might have happened. Too many regimes with too many axes to grind now and won't be happy until their "eye for an eye" policy will indeed blind the world. At least they tried dammit, however illogical or out there it sounded to the straight laced "other" side; they just didn't get it. And YES YES the music was part of it, a big part. We thought it would and could, change the world, if only they listened. They heard it but never listened to it.
That music and movement DID change the world. It just wasn't in the way we thought it would at the time. The music is just as relevant today as it was then, maybe more so in some cases.
Well I never saw anything wrong with conformity, if dressing in the current styles is putting a name on it. Men and women pretty much emulated whatever styles were popular at any time. Of course, men's formal wear didn't vary much over a century from probably the late 19th century to the mid-20th. I remember seeing my father wearing one of those shirts with the little buttons in 1957 and thought it looked so good on him! We didn't realize at the time that 1957 would be his last year to live. He was only 59, but was found to have inoperable lung cancer in January 1958 and passed away on St. Patricks day. If you want to talk about conformity, once it started (thankfully I was already out of college by then), the hippies or counterculture, whatever you wanted to call them, were as conformist as the 1955 GM board of directors. Once you saw one hippie, you'd pretty much seen them all--the long, stringy hair on men, the long, flowing dresses on women and their blissed out smiles. What happened is that our society took the worst parts of the counterculture and mainstreamed them. Living together and having children out of wedlock, we now have over 40% of white births and 70% black births born into bastardy. Society adopted an entrenched drug culture, as though the problems with alcohol, still illegal for minors, weren't enough. And also slovenly dress everywhere. When I was in college, the young men outdid themselves looking smart, every hair in place, wearing sport coats and ties, slacks and shoes to class every day. Today we have a monolith of social service agencies that on the face of it may seem like benevolence (drug treatment programs, battered women shelters) but are really an effort by society to corral the chaos that has ensued. We forget that the 50's and early 60's had very low incidences of crime. From 1965 on through the 1970s, violent crime exploded all over the country and wasn't until the early 1980's that it was somewhat brought under control.
Wearing a suit in mindless conformity is the antithesis of enlightened society. There's nothing wrong with wearing one, but forcing any fashion upon a society, as style was then, is completely bone-headed. Glad my generation does not give a damn about it.
@@McShag420 And what is wrong with that? As long as I'm comfortable, what difference does it make. I made the point that the hippies were conforming as well and you can't argue with that. Most people in fact do conform to whatever style is in fashion. In church this morning everyone there was nicely dressed in their Sunday best. I always enjoy seeing my cousin's grandson across the congregation who is 40 now and his wife with their two little boys and girl who are being raised the correct way. I never saw any advantage to aspiring to the lowest common denominator in behavior. Happy Easter!
@@VictrolaJazz "And what is wrong with that? As long as I'm comfortable, what difference does it make." Yes, as long as you are comfortable, and your tastes are the norm, why should anyone else matter? No, better to let people wear whatever the hell they want!
I had an English professor that was head of the English dept. assign readings to us - Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Machivelli -The Prince, and Martin Luther King - I had a dream, Palt -Allegory in the Cave. I didn't grasp the concept that he was conveying at the time but later in life I know now. I really wish I could retake that class or at least sit in a bar with him and talk about politics and the future of mankind.
it upsets me that i have, joyfullly, wathed so many of your videos yet I only am just now subscribing. If you ever need a boring mans take on life, you let me know!
Ivan. I have never found an individual's take on life boring. If they are willing to express it including their emotions and their passions, it's always interesting to me. David Hoffman - filmmaker
I remember when I was 8 or 10 years old, it was the late '70s and one of my friends checked out a children's book from the library called "How To Eat With A Spoon", which had the F-word in it. My friend (who was a straight-A student) asked me what it meant. I told him it was a "bad word" and I borrowed the book to show my mother. After the incident, we could no longer find that book in the elementary school library.
Growing up in school with safety drills in which we got under our desks put our heads between our legs as a solution for a possible nuclear attack fear giving way to a greater fear that I would probably die in Vietnam. Living in a country divided by gender and race and watching protests and race riots, living thru the heart break of watching That last vestiges of our family fall apart. I was frozen by fear I was a 7 year old child scared to death I was going to die at any moment. I have every reason to blame others I could list hundreds. At 60 yrs old I read some of these posts and wonder if people know any history at all. The world today is a better place then the one my parents grew up in. As theirs was a better world than my grand parents. Looking back thru history I can clearly see some great wrong that each generation corrected sometimes with Blood. We find ourselves teetering at a cross road that each generation before has stood a at. We can save the world, save the environment right now! The technology is finally here. I believe these labeled millenials will do this .There is always unintended consequences with every action. With hindsight we can pick apart the much needed social change initiated by boomers and the.unintended consequences. There will be many unintended problems that will arise as the move to go green will cause the biggest unemployment rate ever seen. But we have to do it, this RUSH to embrace A.I. will be the second thing millennials will be remembered and judged for by their children. Let's hope the Gen X and millennials do a better job but remember our mistakes do not underestimate the greed of your peers, for greed is our downfall
Hertz berg was born in 1943. This interview takes place in 1989 which makes him 46 at the time. He mentions the beatnik era wish by my recollection would be the late 50s when he would be a teen. When the Beatles hit in 64 he would have been 21 so he is right in the era that he is talking about. However he is just early of being called a baby boomer.
"Do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate" appeared on IBM punchcards. We naturally expected the same treatment. Thanks for these. Unfortunately they are timely. Thanks to PC going off the rails, poor old Holden Caulfield would be labeled a stalker, hiding in the rye field to catch some innocent wayfarer.
He has such a mirthful quality about him :) EDIT: Music IS a way to collective enlighten humanity, but it takes several generations to take effect. It does not happen in a decade. The greatest changes take time.
The hippies were dreadfully naive in thinking that by sitting round in your love beads grooving to the endless noodling of psychedelic rock bands while getting high they were going to change the underlying power structure.
If everyone sat around and passed a fatty it would be a better place...I know that's probably been said a million times, but there's a reason its been said a million times
I would love to know if he was at the 68 Democratic convention where cultures clashed catalysts, there was darkness then, just as today, just as always, it's part of humanity, and it's fascinating
Hertzberg is one of the lsat remaining truly great reporters and journalists. I had no idea he was as good a speaker and orator as he is a prose stylist. I often wonder about the connections, or the lack thereof, between verbal articulateness and written ability.
He would/must hate what is going on in many states today. There will be another wave of young people figuring out the same things again in the next generation. Thank god.
I was lucky enough to go to school in a pretty progressive school district (at the time, at least, who knows what happened to it under Reagan et al.?) that DID NOT BAN books like "Catcher in the Rye", "Brave New World", and the like. That was during the mid- to late-1950s through 1962. Thank the Lord that I had that opportunity!
"Then you had that whole parasite phenomenon" (commercialization of the counter culture) pretty much sums up life in USA: religion, healthcare, education, government, IT, music, ... . "They paved over paradise and put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell, Yellow Taxi.
He is correct about the stupefying boredom that made the boomers take action! But it was our demise. I read Catcher in the Rye in 8th grade and laughed myself sick!
At my school football jocks and cheerleaders were still the cool ones in the late 2000s. Huge muscles are still in to this day too! I've since embraced hipster culture and discovered civil rights issues and indie music. Are things really that different today? lol
As a Dutch male in my mid-20's I've had a few years of experience observing my peers embracing hipster culture in droves. Steadily I've come to the sad conclusion that this new wave of love, peace and unity only expresses itself in hollow rhetoric, and less so much in actual deeds. I see that within the large frameworks of this culture it only seems to be about presenting the correct aesthethics (as much in words as in looks) towards fellow men. How one gets to that point is of secundary importance. Being seen is, thanks to this culture in my humble opinion, overly prioritized over seeing for oneself. This translates into (what might become if they not already are) quite serious problems in society. Over here in Western Europe we have massive shortages in the labourforce (which I'm part of), as physically demanding jobs are more and more seen as degenerate by the up and coming hipster generation, who in the meantime (even if they like to tell you the opposite) consume as much if not more of our material resources as any generation has before. On one side I can't blame them, why get your hands dirty for a shitty wage if you can secure your income selling biodegradable shoelaces to people who can't even properly argue why they want them in the first place? On the other side, together we have a society to run, and these new trends of unrestrained individualism aren't actually helping that cause too much. Meanwhile (and again in a substantial way thanks to this framework, based on what I've seen) personal contacts are becoming as exchangable as a second hand car, and this is slowly creating big hurdles in terms of establishing long term relationships. This has large implications if we talk about reproducing, and creating stable environments to raise our offspring. Not to mention how the continuous (and as I see, political) mistrust inside this framework completely ruins the ability to create long lasting friendships, and in doing so destroying the ability to go in depth with another, out of fear of dropping a few steps on the by now very slippery social ladder. As I don't want to come off as entirely negative, and as one human to another, I do hope you have found peace in your way of life, and I'm happy to tell you that I share the love for Indie music. But it's just that there is a bigger picture that seems to be overlooked in general, and the mere idea of this phenomenon existing just keeps on nagging in the back of my head.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
"When we discovered Allen Ginsberg, and jazz, and black People, and stuff like that" definitely my favorite quote from this.
@Neil Hood I like pats on the head too
What a rabbit hole all boomers slipped down head first! There was no escape. Alan Ginsburg was a dirt bag! He led our generation to ruin!
I absolutely enjoy that you let your guests speak uninterrupted. It allows me time to hear what they actually have to say, rather than hammering in a point to be made by some partial party. Straight up good footage. Thank you for uploading. When I see you in my suggested list I always make sure to check it out!
Thank you.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
This is a prime example of how to speak eloquently and use the correct words without flexing.
Watching these interviews about life in the 50s and 60s gives me an even deeper appreciation for my grandparents and the lives they led. Thanks for the interesting posts Mr. Hoffman.
GodsNotDead69 .... Grandparents? That’s not nice!
@@nevershutup684 not nice?
@@godsnotdead6973 *He's being self-deprecating. As a Boomer, hearing "Grandparents" equals "Old", and we **_hate_** thinking of ourselves as old, even though it's true.*
@@measl lol, don't know how i didn't pick up on that
Measl.... you got it! Old has always been about 20-25 years older than me. Now think about it! Lol. It is true, your definition of old grows with you as you age once you are an adult. Only now, 20-25 years older than me is almost, well, almost at the cemetery. 🤦♀️ OH NO!! That can’t be!
It feels like a special community in this channel!
I'm happy to say that I agree with you (which is a rarity in itself in a RUclips comments section!)
It's actually for once full of interesting, respectful people who genuinely appreciate the content and are able to have a discussion without it deteriorating in to some kind of ridiculous argument for no apparent reason.
Join the wave!
i agree
This guy understands what being cool actually means
I was thinking the same thing...very cool....
I grew up during this time frame in Ohio in a blue collar community. We did not have much but we were happy. What Rick describes about the jocks and the cool kids is accurate. They were in their own world, had the best of clothes, haircuts, money for lunch in the cafeteria. They were athletes that were recognized, and were chosen for leadership. I was not one of the cool kids and did not care. I had my own circle of friends and interests. The only thing I saw of the beatnik movement was Doby Gillis on TV, as it was pretty much non-existent in Ohio. To my knowledge our school board didn't ban any books. I felt the education I got at my high school was very good. It prepared me for life and college. I and most of my friends did not rebel against things. My father worked in the factory at Firestone, It wasn't an easy job, was very physical and very hot in the summer. I appreciated what he did for me, my 2 brothers, and sister. My mother did not work then which was pretty much the norm for mothers then, however she did work during WWII while my father was in the Army.
I envy this man's articulation. His work history ain't too shabby either.
These are phenomenal. They gave me a completely different; almost POV look at life in general. Please keep doing these
thank you Alex. I am trying.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
Truly your interview archives are a gemstone carved out for the ages
These interviews and channel in general are simply remarkable! Videos like these seem to me as windows to a particular time and place though which you can experience (or at least come as close to experiencing as possible) the life of that era. Coming from a completely different age and culture, I find them incredibly interesting.
I think everyone born in the 70's through now should be watching these.
Another great video. This channel is a treasure.
I agree. Great interview. He really captured the experience of moving into the 60's. For a short while there, we really did have "Camelot". So sad to compare that with where we are today.
Being born in 77 this guy is talking about my parents generation. So I've heard the stories but he really does have a way of explaining the young culture of that time that makes it completely relatable. Too much suppression leads to an explosion.
What a great interview. Reminds me of my father, a counter culture writer from around the time your interviewee is recalling.
You should sit him down on camera and interview him!
So well spoken. I would add that the music was the lubricant that moved the movement. And now that music is being rediscovered with reaction videos on RUclips. We need comparable music today, and that is being recognized.
I was in my early 20’s in the late 60’s and this is one of the best interviews you have done on the 50’s and 60’s. I guess I was a hippie for a while. I look back on those years now and I would not change a thing. I learned a whole lot about life, things I would not have learned had I conformed to what was expected of me.
Wow! What a astute storyteller. I have never described better. I'm thankful to relive that through his words. I'm 72 yrs.
You can hear aspects of today echoing in his explanation of the 50s and 60s.
It a phase of life .
@@claremchugh5005 for sure!!
No, young people have become lambs. Sad.
Totally agree!!!
@@Dave-zl2ky always has been
13:52 “Do your own thing” “Create yourself. Don’t fit in to one of the preset patterns that’s been prepared for you. That’s a trap. That’s a game. Invent yourself. Be true to yourself. Learn what you want to do and do it.”
that statement in itself is a trap.
@@chadpunte1731 Life is a deathtrap.
Marriage is a trap, everything else is an adventure.
…as long as it is something valued by capitalism, otherwise you’re boned
These videos are priceless. What genius in genial conversations. Rock on!
Well said! I was 10 in '69. I went from a crew cut to long hair marching in demonstrations. Loved what I was experiencing and grew up very fast. My parents were young enough to embrace the change so it made my transition so much coooooler. :-) Peace, Love, Dove.
Hendrik is a very astute Dude!! Being a Writer makes him an "Ultimate" Observer! He mentions so many things I can directly relate to....which made for a nice trip down memory lane!! Thx!!
Bland uncooked muffin was such a great description of the time!
He is a educated independent ghinker.
We need more people like him.
Interesting hearing about The Catcher in the Rye from the perspective of 1950s counterculture. I read it through a modern lens, not even considering the cultural context it was meant to appeal to. Teenage angst before it was fashionable.
such a weird book
I loved the book " Catcher in the Rye." So many truths in it.
Wow... excellent - I could listen to this guy talk for hours...I really enjoyed his memories and perspective 🔥
Ok David, you got me, lol. I've watched several videos now and am enjoying it immensely. I'm subscribing. Thank you for your glorious work.
Signed,
An old hippie in Texas.
thank you for saying so.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
I love these stories, would also be great on a podcast platform.
This is delightful to listen. Thanks for good works.
Lordy, he's describing my 'transition'! It's actually a really nice visit back to those years. I miss the early ones even more now.
Love this, I was there. There were so many different cliques, beatniks, hippies, preppies, loners, environmentalists aka tree huggers, in the early 70s. You were either into the Beatles or the Stones, then it was hard rock, country went downhill. Elvis was waning. Interesting times. Kids cared about everything, because we understood that what was happening was going to effect us greatly. I never did drugs, but most became dopers after Nam. Exciting times. Thank you.
Smoke pot its never too late !
Oh my gosh, this guy is from my home state, Colorado! I recognized the names of those venues he talked about for concerts. Times have really changed here, so it’s real incredible to know what growing up was like back then.
The man talking, was speaking about music venues in San Francisco. The Fillmore is still standing. The Avalon Ballroom closed on 1969. The Fillmore now has a lot of venues across the US. In the 60’s, the only Fillmore around was in San Francisco.
Very interesting and fine interview. Thank you for sharing this.
Very well spoken but also balanced, showes the counter culture side but also those who where not part of it.
Well this is the 3rd video I’ve watched on your channel. I’m really enjoying these stories, it really helps me to see through the eyes of the people telling them and giving me a idea of life for the average man. I sorta realize that a lot of these older gentlemen were probably more left leaning as teenagers and young adults but have become more centered and sorta conflicted in their political beliefs. It’s like they really want things that sound great, while realizing that people need to be responsible and pull their own weight. It’s actually very interesting.
Thank you this fine evening.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
Thanks David, for another great video. Love your films.
In today's age this channel could easily be called "wisdom of the ancients"
What do you call Confucius, Plato, Socrates?
@@giorgioblack They are primordial, mythical relics
To both of you. The name would be hyperbolic of course
These people aren't ancient but they come from a different world. The worl has remained relatively unchanged socially for the past 20 years now. But from the 60's to the 80's there was tremendous social change unparalleled in recent history, even with the advent of the lgbt community gathering strength and power and the deconstruction of adulthood and cultural maturity.
@@D.A.-Espadathough that may be true from some perspectives I would argue global communication through the internet is a monumental social change. With access to millions of perspectives young minds are being shaped like never before. You're right though, ancient is hyperbolic from the traditional sense of the word. Some people think time itself has changed due to the nature of our relationship with technology.
@@ElmTheWar I think that's something we cann both agree with. The internet certainly did reshape communication and accessibility to new ideas and the time it takes to do so is nearly instant.
As a former jock....i think this guy is cool....i always had friends like this guy....people never understood why
Are you older now? These days, jocks can definitely still be "dumb meat head brutes", but much more often you'll find that they are fairly kind people. Maybe not the smartest, or the least wild, but usually inclusive, kinda preppy, and good students. I think in modern schools there is much more inclusiveness in general between students. Haha thanks Breakfast Club
"Here was a group of hippies using amplified instruments, and all kinds of technological advances-- to advance, to put across an anti-technological message"
What an eloquent account of a unique and idealistic era. I feel inspired to educate myself and live my own truth after watching this. I was born in 1989, the same year that this was filmed, but I really wish I could have been around for the 60s
Nobel! Lived through the 60s I'd rather go back to bland and boring! I'd hate to be young now! When democracy is failing, white males are vilified, censorship galore, especially with this cultural appropriation nonsense!
When I lived in Santa Cruz the coffee shops were full of old communists and activists, beatniks and hippies . It was full of the most interesting dialogue I have ever experienced . Rebels just like each other and share fabulous stories.
This guy seems like someone who would have been there😊
Someone you could talk to all night.
I'd Love to hear his thoughts on present day and what changes in his philosophy since 1989.
He turned out to be the kind of political hack writer that thinks everyone who is to the right of him is crazy.
@@BenSunness Nonsense, he is a far more complicated an intellect than that. I invite anyone to go back to his pieces in the New Yorker when he was the political editor. He considered the Carter administration of which he was a part to have good intentions and yet a failure. He wrote that Rush Limbaugh should be given sympathy when he had his drug addition (OxyContin prescribed for back pain after surgery), and praised John McCain. Some people are still capable of subtle and insightful thought even as much of the country went off the cliff with right wing fools like Gingrich, Limbaugh, and Trump.
These videos are fantastic. They are history in the making. Hearing actual people describing how ordinary life was. That's so real
Like most of the interviews I’ve seen of your collection, when I read this one was produced in 1989, I wish wish wish you would go and locate this fascinating gentlemen and catch up with him again. Now. 30 years later! This is so special to those of us who might be the same age or share the same experiences of the 50’s and 60’s. I am not the intellect this gentleman is although I really wish now that I had been. Or, am now. Dammit, it’s not fair!
Yes. I would like to do what you suggest. Time and finances don't allow that these days for me. No question that he and many of the people I interviewed back in 1989 would be fascinating reviewing what they would say and feel now about what they said 30 years ago and 60 years ago when they were young.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
David Hoffman It doesn’t take much money to find people nowadays. The Internet is at your disposal, but yes, time is short
It's been 30 years since this gentleman expressed his thoughts and ideas, i wonder if the accumulation of experience and knowledge has kept his view of ideas the same now that so much time has passed, it would be nice to see Mr. Hoffman do a follow up video series, to see if these people are alive and how much their world view has changed since appearing on this video series. some amazing people here, thanks Mr.Hoffman. Have a blessed day everyone.
I would love the opportunity to do that.
David Hoffman filmmaker
In my experience, I have found that beneath the powerful, rebellious spirit of the individuals who are today's equivalent of "the girl/boy who lives in a commune to have sex, do drugs, and spread love," lies a broken relationship with their parents. It is against the image of their authoritative fathers or their humble mothers that they rebel, and they go off on their own to forge a path to nowhere. Today we see what an entire generation of bitter arguments and pent up resentments between generations have done to a nation's spiritual capital.
In the end, the hippies were right: all they needed was love. It's a shame that they didn't realize that parental love is the most sacred form of love.
*It's important to look at the 60s through 70s in context. We had a decade that saw common assassinations (JFK, Malcom X, RFK, Martin Luther King), attempted assassinations (Gerald Ford, Carter, Reagan in the 80s), **_regular_** terrorist bombings (at least where I lived, in NYC), from groups like FALN, regular plane hijackings; the Olympics; a slew of Serial Killers (**en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_in_the_United_States)**, Race riots (Newark, Watts, L.A. etc.)... We came of age in an incredibly violent world: on top of all the previous mentions, the USA was experiencing it's worst (sustained) crime wave in history (which generated the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control Act, the first federal gun control legislation), plus there was a heroin epidemic from returning Vietnam veterans (which were their own class of problem without them showing up junkied). Add "little" things like rapid technology development, Johnson's "Great Society" (which ended up utterly destroying the Black community to this day); rapid developments in medicine which increased life expectation (and therefore societal job competition) unexpectedly rapidly by 1972, and things were quite literally so crazy as to be incomprehensible...*
*All of this mayhem, never ending, had multiple effects on the nations youth. You can trace things as diverse as Hippies, Yippies and LSD Dropouts directly back to this. As well as almost every edge of the fantastically fast changes taking place in clothing, language (Lenny Bruce, then the 7 Dirty Words) - hell, I need to stop listing all the disruptions, or I'll never get to the point. Society fractured, and every shard created new cultures, subcultures, movements, and backlashes.*
Well said
Nice comment! Thanks!
@sbfcapnj That is sad that you had horrible parents. However, all parents wasn't horrible.
wow! that is a profound and intelligent statement. and a very sad one also.
I'm glad I found this channel interesting life time people I wish I could tell mine I been all over the place and met some great people and still do
Thank you for uploading these videos.
@13:59 forever
It somehow feels that nowadays the aspect of anti-technology is far more understood than at the time of the interview. Not that there is any anti-technology mood nowadays but having reached such a thorough technologization of our everyday life, the consequences are more apparent.
They were banning books at my school in the 80s (Cathoholics School)...
So, I bought everything they banned.
Life is good.
Well, nobody should have the authority to tell you what to read and what to think. We're all just dumb humans.
Elvijs Krūmiņš they didn’t. They tried to make kids think they did, but they didn’t. They just banned the books at school. She just read them somewhere else. So authority they appear to have is a mirage.
Went to Cath. School we looked for band movies.
That was bad movies, the more skin the better 4,12yr old boys.
@@WilmerCook Easy to do with our parents' hidden stash. Just did not have a VCR for a few years, but still...
Another excellent interview interesting to hear a person that lived thru those times a was going to high school then and have read that book and liked it I wish I could have talked to my grandparents even my uncles
I had the same experience as did he -- school-wise and friend-wise. It was hard to be truthful for fear of being ridiculed. I wasn't a radical but the inside of me questioned it.
Great interview
"Do not bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate" was also a play on the early computing of IBM punchcards of the 1950s.
I still remember the video, where he tells about how everyone wanted to read "Catcher in the rye", when it became banned.
I disliked Catcher in the Rye back in high school, but given the context here it makes a lot more sense. I guess it's progress that I thought very little of it when I read it vs being disruptive material that needed banning back then. Lots of parallels I'm seeing with the present day with an increase of counter-culture and all that too. What a well spoken and understandable man.
I was in high school in the 60's and remember reading "Catcher in the Rye" in study hall and bursting out laughing in the midst of the silence. No one stopped me from reading it. He must have lived in a parallel universe to mine.
Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States. The book was banned in high schools across the country and was called part of an "overall communist plot.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
Although it was never part of the curriculum where I attended high school, no one attempted to stop me from reading it. I bought many books from home to class but I wasn't aware of any book bans, that I can remember.
I thought that part was interesting, because in 9th grade in my high school in Northern VA in the mid 70s I was required to read Catcher in the Rye. At the time I couldn't understand it and really hated it (I've matured quite a bit since then.) But I would never have expected it to be censored.
Your videos are brilliant
My mom was a beatnick..and I was a handful..and high school hasn’t changed with the hierarchy, even in 1986 when I graduated, Or in the 2000s, when my kids graduated.
I like the way Mr. Hoffman pays attention to the comments section. BUT I won't be surprised if a time comes when you can't keep up with it!⚘
Boy you are correct. It is getting longer each week. I try to pay attention. And I have engaged my teenage son in the effort for the summer to help me.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
getting into the beatniks, (especially ginsberg and burroughs, even frank ohara & then things like de kooning & pollock) is what saved me through my teens ! i always recall wishing i was part of the 50s to meet those like minded people, but in retrospect, i’d imagine there’s more fans now then back then.
It's funny things like these amuse me, I'm 19 years old i would show people these video's and call it boring lol idk to me i like learning about people who lived in that era.
Cultivate an inquiring mind!
It's because our generation has the attention span of a goldfish, forget adstract thought or reasoning.
I wish I knew when this guy was born - it would help put everything into perspective . He only looks early 40's here ? its great to catch these people about their youth before they got to old to record.
Read the description please.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
So happy to have found this channel, awesome material. I'm curious do the various interviews come from a single source/archive? Or rather, what is the context of these interviews? Anyways really great stuff thanks for putting it out there.
The numbers are boggling: 130K subbed, but only 2500 views and 38 comments?!?!?! I get that this type thing isn't for anyone, but holy cow are those numbers wonky.
sure is weird.. maybe the channel owner knows more about his stats
It’s strange that some of these videos have upwards of 700,000 views, while others have very few.
Loving these interviews. "Talking 'bout my g-g-generation."
What an interesting guy; I could listen to him for hours. Is there any longer version elsewhere or is this is? Great descriptions of the anarchist (benign at first) feeling, that you could do it all yourself (ourselves) and live off the grid and make it up as you went along. If the hippies who spoke sense (like this guy) and the WHOLE world had listened, who know what might have happened.
Too many regimes with too many axes to grind now and won't be happy until their "eye for an eye" policy will indeed blind the world.
At least they tried dammit, however illogical or out there it sounded to the straight laced "other" side; they just didn't get it. And YES YES the music was part of it, a big part. We thought it would and could, change the world, if only they listened. They heard it but never listened to it.
That music and movement DID change the world. It just wasn't in the way we thought it would at the time. The music is just as relevant today as it was then, maybe more so in some cases.
Well I never saw anything wrong with conformity, if dressing in the current styles is putting a name on it. Men and women pretty much emulated whatever styles were popular at any time. Of course, men's formal wear didn't vary much over a century from probably the late 19th century to the mid-20th. I remember seeing my father wearing one of those shirts with the little buttons in 1957 and thought it looked so good on him! We didn't realize at the time that 1957 would be his last year to live. He was only 59, but was found to have inoperable lung cancer in January 1958 and passed away on St. Patricks day. If you want to talk about conformity, once it started (thankfully I was already out of college by then), the hippies or counterculture, whatever you wanted to call them, were as conformist as the 1955 GM board of directors. Once you saw one hippie, you'd pretty much seen them all--the long, stringy hair on men, the long, flowing dresses on women and their blissed out smiles. What happened is that our society took the worst parts of the counterculture and mainstreamed them. Living together and having children out of wedlock, we now have over 40% of white births and 70% black births born into bastardy. Society adopted an entrenched drug culture, as though the problems with alcohol, still illegal for minors, weren't enough. And also slovenly dress everywhere. When I was in college, the young men outdid themselves looking smart, every hair in place, wearing sport coats and ties, slacks and shoes to class every day. Today we have a monolith of social service agencies that on the face of it may seem like benevolence (drug treatment programs, battered women shelters) but are really an effort by society to corral the chaos that has ensued. We forget that the 50's and early 60's had very low incidences of crime. From 1965 on through the 1970s, violent crime exploded all over the country and wasn't until the early 1980's that it was somewhat brought under control.
VictrolaJazz yea, I agree.
Wearing a suit in mindless conformity is the antithesis of enlightened society. There's nothing wrong with wearing one, but forcing any fashion upon a society, as style was then, is completely bone-headed. Glad my generation does not give a damn about it.
How incredibly closed-minded your view is. Of course you have no problem with conformity.
@@McShag420 And what is wrong with that? As long as I'm comfortable, what difference does it make. I made the point that the hippies were conforming as well and you can't argue with that. Most people in fact do conform to whatever style is in fashion. In church this morning everyone there was nicely dressed in their Sunday best. I always enjoy seeing my cousin's grandson across the congregation who is 40 now and his wife with their two little boys and girl who are being raised the correct way. I never saw any advantage to aspiring to the lowest common denominator in behavior. Happy Easter!
@@VictrolaJazz "And what is wrong with that? As long as I'm comfortable, what difference does it make."
Yes, as long as you are comfortable, and your tastes are the norm, why should anyone else matter?
No, better to let people wear whatever the hell they want!
Thumbs up at 2:20 ..."uncooked muffin of a culture." LOL
I had an English professor that was head of the English dept. assign readings to us - Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Machivelli -The Prince, and Martin Luther King - I had a dream, Palt -Allegory in the Cave.
I didn't grasp the concept that he was conveying at the time but later in life I know now. I really wish I could retake that class or at least sit in a bar with him and talk about politics and the future of mankind.
thanks your 50,60s docs.. very detailed - from S.korea
it upsets me that i have, joyfullly, wathed so many of your videos yet I only am just now subscribing. If you ever need a boring mans take on life, you let me know!
Ivan. I have never found an individual's take on life boring. If they are willing to express it including their emotions and their passions, it's always interesting to me.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
I remember when I was 8 or 10 years old, it was the late '70s and one of my friends checked out a children's book from the library called "How To Eat With A Spoon", which had the F-word in it. My friend (who was a straight-A student) asked me what it meant. I told him it was a "bad word" and I borrowed the book to show my mother. After the incident, we could no longer find that book in the elementary school library.
I AGREE
THANKS MAN
GREAT WORK
KEEP GOING
Weird, it's almost like today in America. Except, the roles are reversed. Traditionalism is the new counterculture.
The demand for conformity is coming from the left
"errr.. ya got that catcha in the rye book , eh ? I hear thats really err... hot stuff " LOL
It's hard to explain the times you had to I've been there to feel the vibe.😁I was there.
I am glad I grew up in the Midwest during the 50 and 60’s.
Growing up in school with safety drills in which we got under our desks put our heads between our legs as a solution for a possible nuclear attack fear giving way to a greater fear that I would probably die in Vietnam. Living in a country divided by gender and race and watching protests and race riots, living thru the heart break of watching That last vestiges of our family fall apart. I was frozen by fear I was a 7 year old child scared to death I was going to die at any moment. I have every reason to blame others I could list hundreds. At 60 yrs old I read some of these posts and wonder if people know any history at all. The world today is a better place then the one my parents grew up in. As theirs was a better world than my grand parents. Looking back thru history I can clearly see some great wrong that each generation corrected sometimes with Blood. We find ourselves teetering at a cross road that each generation before has stood a at. We can save the world, save the environment right now! The technology is finally here. I believe these labeled millenials will do this .There is always unintended consequences with every action. With hindsight we can pick apart the much needed social change initiated by boomers and the.unintended consequences. There will be many unintended problems that will arise as the move to go green will cause the biggest unemployment rate ever seen. But we have to do it, this RUSH to embrace A.I. will be the second thing millennials will be remembered and judged for by their children. Let's hope the Gen X and millennials do a better job but remember our mistakes do not underestimate the greed of your peers, for greed is our downfall
Hendrik Hertzberg is his name, tremendous interview
Hertz berg was born in 1943. This interview takes place in 1989 which makes him 46 at the time. He mentions the beatnik era wish by my recollection would be the late 50s when he would be a teen. When the Beatles hit in 64 he would have been 21 so he is right in the era that he is talking about. However he is just early of being called a baby boomer.
Thank u for saying the year it was done in the bio
"Do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate" appeared on IBM punchcards. We naturally expected the same treatment. Thanks for these. Unfortunately they are timely. Thanks to PC going off the rails, poor old Holden Caulfield would be labeled a stalker, hiding in the rye field to catch some innocent wayfarer.
You should do a follow up interview!
He has such a mirthful quality about him :)
EDIT: Music IS a way to collective enlighten humanity, but it takes several generations to take effect. It does not happen in a decade.
The greatest changes take time.
This channel is dope!
Brillant!
“You became a non conformer so you weren’t a conformer”
What a paradoxical statement.
The hippies were dreadfully naive in thinking that by sitting round in your love beads grooving to the endless noodling of psychedelic rock bands while getting high they were going to change the underlying power structure.
Now they ARE the power structure
@@dontaskmeimjustagirl...5798 Chaos
this is exactly how the hippies changed the world. sitting around in beads getting high
If everyone sat around and passed a fatty it would be a better place...I know that's probably been said a million times, but there's a reason its been said a million times
@@wesleyAlan9179 is that before you built a house and found food for the day?
☮️💟☮️💟☮️💟☮️💟 this buy was/is so cool!
I would love to know if he was at the 68 Democratic convention where cultures clashed catalysts, there was darkness then, just as today, just as always, it's part of humanity, and it's fascinating
Hertzberg is one of the lsat remaining truly great reporters and journalists. I had no idea he was as good a speaker and orator as he is a prose stylist. I often wonder about the connections, or the lack thereof, between verbal articulateness and written ability.
He would/must hate what is going on in many states today.
There will be another wave of young people figuring out the same things again in the next generation. Thank god.
I was lucky enough to go to school in a pretty progressive school district (at the time, at least, who knows what happened to it under Reagan et al.?) that DID NOT BAN books like "Catcher in the Rye", "Brave New World", and the like. That was during the mid- to late-1950s through 1962. Thank the Lord that I had that opportunity!
That was in Long Beach, California.
“It was much more than just partying” 😂😂😂
"Then you had that whole parasite phenomenon" (commercialization of the counter culture) pretty much sums up life in USA: religion, healthcare, education, government, IT, music, ... . "They paved over paradise and put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell, Yellow Taxi.
Brilliant x
Keep hearing echoes of Dead Poets Society as he talks about conformity.
He is correct about the stupefying boredom that made the boomers take action! But it was our demise. I read Catcher in the Rye in 8th grade and laughed myself sick!
At my school football jocks and cheerleaders were still the cool ones in the late 2000s. Huge muscles are still in to this day too! I've since embraced hipster culture and discovered civil rights issues and indie music. Are things really that different today? lol
As a Dutch male in my mid-20's I've had a few years of experience observing my peers embracing hipster culture in droves. Steadily I've come to the sad conclusion that this new wave of love, peace and unity only expresses itself in hollow rhetoric, and less so much in actual deeds. I see that within the large frameworks of this culture it only seems to be about presenting the correct aesthethics (as much in words as in looks) towards fellow men. How one gets to that point is of secundary importance. Being seen is, thanks to this culture in my humble opinion, overly prioritized over seeing for oneself.
This translates into (what might become if they not already are) quite serious problems in society. Over here in Western Europe we have massive shortages in the labourforce (which I'm part of), as physically demanding jobs are more and more seen as degenerate by the up and coming hipster generation, who in the meantime (even if they like to tell you the opposite) consume as much if not more of our material resources as any generation has before. On one side I can't blame them, why get your hands dirty for a shitty wage if you can secure your income selling biodegradable shoelaces to people who can't even properly argue why they want them in the first place? On the other side, together we have a society to run, and these new trends of unrestrained individualism aren't actually helping that cause too much.
Meanwhile (and again in a substantial way thanks to this framework, based on what I've seen) personal contacts are becoming as exchangable as a second hand car, and this is slowly creating big hurdles in terms of establishing long term relationships. This has large implications if we talk about reproducing, and creating stable environments to raise our offspring. Not to mention how the continuous (and as I see, political) mistrust inside this framework completely ruins the ability to create long lasting friendships, and in doing so destroying the ability to go in depth with another, out of fear of dropping a few steps on the by now very slippery social ladder.
As I don't want to come off as entirely negative, and as one human to another, I do hope you have found peace in your way of life, and I'm happy to tell you that I share the love for Indie music. But it's just that there is a bigger picture that seems to be overlooked in general, and the mere idea of this phenomenon existing just keeps on nagging in the back of my head.
The game doesnt change......the players do