1968

A Volatile Year

 

In 1968 Edward Abbey’s most famous book, Desert Solitaire, was published.

 

“A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself. If industrial man continues to multiply its numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making. He will make himself an exile from the earth.”

 

The average cost of a new house was $15K

 

The average cost of a new car was $2,800

 

A gallon of gas cost 00.34 cents

 

Top Grossing film was 2001: A Space Odessey

 

Hottest single was The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”

 

The Vietnam War

 

            Battle of Khe Sanh Marine Base

 

            The Tet Offensive

 

            The Massacre at Hué (Viet Cong massacre 4K to 6K civilians with clubs)

 

            Walter Cronkite on the evening news calls for negotiations

 

            Anti-war sentiment becomes widespread across the US, especially college campuses

 

MyLai Massacre, US forces massacre 300 to 500 civilians in the MyLai village

 

Martin Luther King, Jr assassinated (Race Riots and demonstrations across the US)

 

Robert F. Kennedy assassinated (JFK’s brother, would have been elected president)

 

The 1968 Civil Rights Act (prohibited discrimination based on race)

 

Multiple Ethnic and Racial movements across the US

 

Mexico City Summer Olympics (two African American athletes raise their fists on podium)

 

1968 Presidential Election, Nixon elected

 

Chicago Riots (Chicago site of National Democratic Convention)

 

 

What’s Going On?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

 

Mercy Mercy Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efiDnHS3fzk

 

Big Yellow Taxi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

 

This Land Is Your Land

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s

 

Don’t Go Near the Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpJ-pLYmDHU

 

Beds Are Burning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E

 

From Outside Lies Magic, John R. Stillgoe, 1998

 

Get out now.  Not just outside, but beyond the trap of the programmed electronic age so gently closing around so many people at the end of our century.  Go outside, move deliberately, then relax, slow down, look around.  Do not jog.  Do not run.  Forget blood pressure and arthritis, cardiovascular rejuvenation and weight reduction.  Instead pay attention to everything that abuts the rural road, the city street, the suburban boulevard.  Walk.  Stroll. Saunter. Ride a bike, and coast along a lot.  Explore.

 

Abandon, even momentarily, the sleek modern technology that consumes so much time and money now, and seek out the resting place of a technology almost forgotten.  Go outside and walk a bit, long enough to forget about programming, long enough to take in and record new surroundings.

 

Flex the mind, a little at first, then a lot.  Savor something special.  Enjoy the best-kept secret around—the ordinary, everyday landscape that rewards any explorer, that touches any explorer with magic.

 

The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over centuries, the built environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sounds and smells and glimpses neither natural or crafted—all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in.  Take it, take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and about all expands any mind focused on it.  Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary.  Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity.  Outside lies magic.

 

“Miracles” Walt Whitman

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the
        ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

From Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,

And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,

And the tree toad is a chef-d'oeurve for the highest,

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,

And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,

And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels!

 

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.

 

 

From Walking, Henry David Thoreau

 

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking . . .

 

Sauntering, from idle people who roved about the country in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under the pretense of going a la Sainte-Terre, to the Holy Land . . . mere idlers and vagabonds.

 

He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all.

 

For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of Infidels.

So we saunter toward a Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done, shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light.

 

God and Nature?

 

Deism: belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not interfere in the universe [god the clock maker].  The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17^th and 18^th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.  To understand something of the creator, deists stressed the necessity of studying creation [as opposed to scripture or revelation].  Deism is usually taken to involve God’s leaving the universe to its own lawful devices, without intervention, once creation was completed.  It is most often associated with boundless confidence in reason; the human intellect, once liberated from superstition and fear, can discern the creator by studying the natural laws of creation.

 

Pantheism: doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.  Pantheism is the doctrine that the divine is all-inclusive and that man and nature are not independent of God, but modes or elements of his Being.  Christian theologians have generally denounced pantheism as a form of atheism, since it detracts from orthodox theism [belief in one God who controls creation and who sustains a personal relation to his creatures].

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –  

 EMILY DICKINSON

 

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –

 

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I, just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

Our little Sexton – sings.

 

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I’m going, all along.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

 

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Going On

Marvin Gaye

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, eheh

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh oh oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Yeah, what's going on
Ah, what's going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on brother
Right on babe

Mother, mother, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply 'cause our hair is long
Oh, you…

 

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)

Marvin Gaye

Whoa, ah, mercy mercy me
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east

Whoa mercy, mercy me,
Oh things ain't what they used to be, no no
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas, fish full of mercury

Ah, oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Oh mercy, mercy me
Oh things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Oh, no no, na, na na, na
My sweet Lord, na, na, na
My Lord, my sweet Lord

Songwriters: Marvin Gaye / Marvin P Gaye

·        

Top of Form

 

Bottom of Form

Big Yellow Taxi

by Joni Mitchell

 

They paved paradise 
And put up a parking lot 
With a pink hotel *, a boutique 
And a swinging hot spot 

Don't it always seem to go 
That you don't know what you've got 
Till it's gone 
They paved paradise 
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees 
Put 'em in a tree museum * 
And they charged the people 
A dollar and a half just to see 'em 

Don't it always seem to go 
That you don't know what you've got 
Till it's gone 
They paved paradise 
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer 
Put away that DDT * now 
Give me spots on my apples 
But leave me the birds and the bees 
Please! 

Don't it always seem to go 
That you don't know what you've got 
Till it's gone 
They paved paradise 
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

 

 

This Land Is Your Land

Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
And saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me , a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In the wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

This land is your land and this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice come chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me

 

 

Don't Go Near the Water

The Beach Boys

Don't go near the water
Don't you think it's sad
What's happened to the water
Our water's going bad

Oceans, rivers, lakes and streams
Have all been touched by man
The poison floating out to sea
Now threatens life on land

Don't go near the water
Ain't it sad
What's happened to the water
It's going bad

Don't go near the water
Don't go near the water

Toothpaste and soap will make our oceans a bubble bath
So let's avoid an ecological aftermath
Beginning with me
Beginning with you

Don't go near the water
To do it any wrong
To be cool with the water
Is the message of this song

Let's all help the water
Right away
Do what we can and ought to
Let's start today

 

Beds Are Burning

Midnight Oil

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty-five degrees

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent, to pay our share
The time has come, a fact's a fact
It belongs to them, let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent now, to pay our share

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore, east to Yuendemu
The Western Desert lives and breathes
In forty-five degrees

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent, to pay our share
The time has come, a fact's a fact
It belongs to them, let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?
How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?

The time has come to say fair's fair
To pay the rent now, to pay our share
The time has come, a fact's a fact
It belongs to them, we're gonna give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning?
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?