Did Woodstock Hippies Lead to the Financial Collapse?

[Play The Man]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/woods...9958077&page=1

A new film is gaining traction among tea-party followers for suggesting that the collapse of the US financial system has roots dating back 40 years to the Summer of Love.

"Generation Zero," a film set to premiere in March, examines what producer David Bossie says is a "historic perspective on a generational change" that led to the September 2008 bank collapse.

Bossie says generational narcissism, as represented by the 1969 Woodstock Festival, is responsible for the excessive spending, mortgage crisis, and recklessness on Wall Street.

"The people who were at Woodstock turned into the yuppies of the '80s and the junk bond traders of the '90s and the Wall Street executives of the 2000s," he says. "They went from Woodstock to driving a Jaguar."

Defending Baby Boomers

Quantifying baby boomers as yuppies is a familiar position taken by conservative groups, says Leonard Steinhorn, author of "The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy."

Steinhorn says it is common for boomers to become a target, because their generation helped "reverse the social order of the '50s" by creating civil rights for blacks, women and gays, and by helping address issues such as environmental pollution.

"Not every boomer was a hippie, but the normative structure of the baby-boom generation has been for a more inclusive, equal, and free society, and so if you have problem with that, you're going to have problem with boomers," he says.

Citizens United, Bossie's company, is no stranger to controversial topics that take aim at liberals or their causes.

The company was at the center of a recent U.S. Supreme Court case involving "Hillary: The Movie," a documentary it produced that showed then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in an unfavorable light.

The high court overturned a provision of the McCain-Feingold law that barred the use of political advertisements created or paid for by independent parties.

Before his tenure at Citizens United, Bossie was a chief investigator in the Whitewater hearings and he also led investigations into alleged finance abuses in Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.

Early this month, a screening of the film was warmly received at both the National Tea Party Convention and the Conservative Political Action Conference. From there, it was the subject of an hour-long special on Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity.

Bossie says the attention may mean an eventual theatrical release. At the moment, it is available only via DVD from the movie's Web site.

The film, which features commentary from conservative pundits such as Charles Krauthammer, Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris, offers no concluding message other than a plea to control government spending. Bossie adds that blame is shared among both Democrats and Republicans for failing to do so.

"The political correctness of not wanting to say 'no' took hold not in 1999; it started in 1969," he says.

Steinhorn, who also teaches at American University's School of Communication, says that type of position is unfair and has ulterior motives.

"As a conservative, if you can trivialize what boomers have done, to create a false hippie-to-yuppie paradigm, then your goal is to trivialize all these remarkable changes to our society in the last forty years," he says. "Changes that made us a far more equal, free, inclusive, and environmentally conscious society than we've ever been before."

[J.B.]

"The people who were at Woodstock turned into the yuppies of the '80s and the junk bond traders of the '90s and the Wall Street executives of the 2000s," he says. "They went from Woodstock to driving a Jaguar."

[NateR]

I took a History of the 60s class in college, which was taught by a husband and wife team of ex-hippies. They were the first to tell us that this notion of Hippies being these all-accepting, open-minded, loving and compassionate people was nothing but a myth. The Hippie movement itself was rooted in nothing but pure selfishness.

I have no problems at all believing that the downfall of Western civilization took root in the 1960s.

[Tyburn]

Originally Posted by NateR

I took a History of the 60s class in college, which was taught by a husband and wife team of ex-hippies. They were the first to tell us that this notion of Hippies being these all-accepting, open-minded, loving and compassionate people was nothing but a myth. The Hippie movement itself was rooted in nothing but pure selfishness.

I have no problems at all believing that the downfall of Western civilization took root in the 1960s.

Well it was a reaction to the Second World War in Europe certainly. A whole generation of people vanished in five years, so werent around to guide those who came next...the wars were a stressful time with rationing, very little help and great devistation

As soon as things returned to normal in the 1960s people let down their hair, so to speak...it was the birth of Post-Modernity, in which there are no absolutes...its a philosophical anarchism if you like, because almost anything seems to go, and though the children after them were reformed somewhat...really we've never been able to reverse the philosophy of that Generation.

I dont know how that translates to the United States really...but certainly thats how it was for Europe...it has bought with it its hardships...Like Nathan points out its a selfish philosophy, but in someways thats half the problem, by denying absolutes, noone is sure what is good, what is evil, what purpose they have, what their reason for being is...because there is now in the zeitgeist NO definative answers...Technology has helpped by providing an outlet to fantasy and doing what you want...but if you ask me it'll only be a short repreive...its led to a dependance on modern technology that might be unsustainable, and is certainly not reliable...meanwhile noone answers these existential questions...and IMHO it is driving people literally insane...depression is on the rise...and somewhere in all of this, I think its because noone knows who or what they are anymore.

In short...I aggree...but not that it was any direct cause of the financial collapse...just the episode that allowed all the fractuaring across the whole spectrum of life to occure.

Woodstock=drugs=generation of stupidity=financial collaps

Makes sense to me!

lol

say what you will about the hippies but Santana and Hendrix both gave a hell of a performance

Originally Posted by CAVEMAN

Woodstock=drugs=generation of stupidity=financial collaps

Makes sense to me!

That's pretty much my thought on the matter! I suspect that most hippie men were a bunch of Long Haired Woman beating stoners who just claimed they wanted peace. The Hippie Women were probably stupid little stoned out Tramps rebelling against their Parents.

[NateR]

Originally Posted by Tyburn

Well it was a reaction to the Second World War in Europe certainly. A whole generation of people vanished in five years, so werent around to guide those who came next...the wars were a stressful time with rationing, very little help and great devistation

As soon as things returned to normal in the 1960s people let down their hair, so to speak...it was the birth of Post-Modernity, in which there are no absolutes...its a philosophical anarchism if you like, because almost anything seems to go, and though the children after them were reformed somewhat...really we've never been able to reverse the philosophy of that Generation.

I dont know how that translates to the United States really...but certainly thats how it was for Europe...it has bought with it its hardships...Like Nathan points out its a selfish philosophy, but in someways thats half the problem, by denying absolutes, noone is sure what is good, what is evil, what purpose they have, what their reason for being is...because there is now in the zeitgeist NO definative answers...Technology has helpped by providing an outlet to fantasy and doing what you want...but if you ask me it'll only be a short repreive...its led to a dependance on modern technology that might be unsustainable, and is certainly not reliable...meanwhile noone answers these existential questions...and IMHO it is driving people literally insane...depression is on the rise...and somewhere in all of this, I think its because noone knows who or what they are anymore.

In short...I aggree...but not that it was any direct cause of the financial collapse...just the episode that allowed all the fractuaring across the whole spectrum of life to occure.

That might have been how it went down in Europe, but America emerged from WW2 as one of the last remaining world powers and immediately experienced what is now referred to as the "Baby Boom" and the "Golden Age of Capitalism." During that time, we became one of the wealthiest nations in the world, which led to more parents having more children... lots more children.

Those parents, with memories of the hardship, fear and horror of WW2 still fresh in their minds, naturally wanted to ensure that their children experienced none of that. So we had an entire generation of "baby boomers" being brought up in wealthy (compared to the rest of the world), sheltered, sub-urban, prefabricated lives.

Previously, parents would raise their kids in a manner that prepared them for adult life. Instilling in them a strong work ethic and a basic morality that would, hopefully, guide them through adulthood. However, during the Golden Age of Capitalism, children were generally sheltered from the realities of the world and, in these children's experiences, prosperity only multiplied as time went on with little effort or intervention from them. In other words, life for them got continually easier and all they had to do was sit back and enjoy it.... until they turned 18 and went out into the real world only to be faced with the sharp realities of adult life. This led them to believe that there was something wrong with the world and you'll notice that the early years of political activism by the youth in America started roughly 20 years after the end of WW2.

This is where the "entitlement mentality" that plagues the US today started to really take hold. Kids started to believe the lies that marriage, happiness, wealth, owning a home, full access to healthcare and education where their "rights" as American citizens. Nowhere in the Constitution does it guarantee any of that.

Again, you guys in Europe experienced things very differently since your entire continent was hit by the war in some way. America itself experienced very little damage to our mainland and soldiers came back from WW2 to a nation that was nearly identical to the country they left.

[MattHughesRocks]

Ok so the title of this thread is laughable enough so I'm not going to read it but I just wonder....what about the hippies that didn't attend Woodstock? They were cool?