Story Must Be Told, Pt 11: The 1960s and ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll’
Let’s talk about the 1960’s. In previous columns I mentioned that “revolution” was in the air and that the New Left had conveniently learned how to “tune out” any or all arguments coming from the political right, compliments of the Kremlin, brainwashing, and the theory of the authoritarian personality. Well, to help seal the deal, lots of people were urging lots of other people to take as many drugs as they could. In that way, a sort of collective narcissism (which of course included rampant sexual activity) would make it a whole lot easier to foist the most ridiculous ideas on young people – ideas that persist to the present day, I might add, in the Democratic Party.
So, who else was behind all of this drug use, besides the Jefferson Airplane and Wavy Gravy? Well, there were a few so-called leaders waving the sex, drugs and R&R banner, and many of them hailed from – – – – – – – wait for it – – – – – – – – wait for it – – – – – – – –
The Frankfurt School!!!!
That’s right folks. Who would’a guessed that anyone from The Frankfurt School would end up causing mischief during the 1960’s? But, there they were, happily led down the path by ole’ Herbert Marcuse himself — the guy who coined the phrase, “Make love, not war” — the guy who worked on Critical Theory with his fellow Frankfurters – the guy who was hired by Soviet spymasters to screw with the Allies during Dubya Dubya 2.
So, good ole’ Prof. Marcuse manages to survive the war, unlike 125,000 real Americans, and went on to write a “groundbreaking” book that he called Eros and Civilization in 1955. In it, he argued that by freeing sex from any societal restraints, we could raise the pleasure principle over the reality principle and create a society with no work, and only play. He also theorized that people are not free because they function within systems such as the economy, and said that if people were really free they would be free from these systems.
Well, push sex, drugs and R&R he did – right into the abyss of the 1970’s. Marcuse, one of the great “heroes” of the New Left and of rock bands everywhere, also advocated “polymorphous perversity” and stated that sexual repression of any kind was anti-social. And, in the perverse minds of those at the Frankfurt School (and most college facilities), this repression of sexuality was also a driving psychological force behind the twisted logic of the Authoritarian Personality. So, whenever a lefty sees a Republican and yells, “You’re a f**kin’ NAZI!” what he’s really saying is “I subscribe to this long-honored, but ridiculous notion that many conservatives are authoritarian Nazis. Therefore, you must be one too … plus, I’m horny”; or something like that.
Wacky, huh? You bet!
But, here’s something even wackier to contemplate.
It wasn’t a complete accident of history that drug use exploded as it did in the early 60’s. Starting in the 40’s the CIA and the Pentagon began experimentation with LSD both on unwitting civilians and on Armed Forces personnel – even to the point of conducting war games in which several small Army units were given the drug without their knowledge. So widespread was the “experimental” use of LSD that CIA’s Internal Security unit had to urge that the punchbowl at the one of their office Christmas parties not be spiked with the drug. That’s comforting.
Next week, we go BACK to World War II (again?) in order to further understand the insanity of the 1960’s.
Image: KristaLeanne; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Topics: Frankfurt School, 1960s, Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll, Authoritarian Personality
