August 14, 2009, - 8:03 pm

Woodstock: 40 Years Ago, An Orgy for the Quickening of America’s Fall

By Debbie Schlussel

Forty years ago tomorrow (Saturday), a stupid concert that helped hasten America’s decline happened.  And because of it, this past week, we’ve been treated to an endless undue nostalgia for something unworthy–an orgy to America’s end.  That’s what Woodstock was, nothing more.  And certainly nothing worthy of celebration or glamorizing.

When You Celebrate Woodstock, You Celebrate This . . .

woodstock

woodstockposter

For those of us with critical thinking skills, the nakedness and pothead mania at that jerk Max Yasgur’s farm is not only not worth celebrating or remembering with fondness, it’s worth looking back upon with the only things it deserves:  disgust and condemnation.

I really don’t care that the “greatest names in rock of the day” performed there.  So what?  And who cares if Jimi Hendrix played there?  Look what happened to him just over a year later.  Dead of a drug overdose and too much alcohol.  Typical of the Woodstock idiots.  They, the rockers,  and the hippies, yippies, and other numbskulls making up the boomer generation  at this infest-o-fest brought us free love . . . and STDs and AIDs, single mothers and baby mamas, and a whole new hipness to out-of-wedlock births that has brought us crime waves, sensitive men a/k/a wimps, and a whole lot of other problems.  Their sexual mores brought us sky-high divorce rates and a rate of out of wedlock mothers–40%–that rivals many Western democracies.

Their anti-war peace and love was really just America-hatred which glamorized violent protest against the country and parents and authorities who gave them everything; it was uber-tolerance for Black panther racism, violence, and murder (of cops and others); and it was the big love and tolerance of those who hate and want to destroy us.  Woodstock was anti-patriotism-palooza.

Yup, the drugged-out Woodstock free-lovers of 40 years ago are the aging ACLU lawyers for Islamic terrorists of today.   And don’t forget how they spit on our Vietnam Veterans . . . the ones who didn’t return in body bags, while their fellow Americans–Woodstock pondscum–had educational deferments and other methods of staying in America for this stupid self-esteem-on-steroids party.

The Woodstock alumni are the 60-something-year-old cat ladies who watch America’s Al-Jazeera, PBS (while your tax dollars subsidize it), and idolized Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, and they are the converse:  the aging groupies who slept with every hippie and druggie that ever professed a hatred of Nixon and the Vietnam war (the chicks who now look like burnt leather in overstretched lace camisoles and tank tops covered by ugly multi-colored jackets from Chico’s).   They slept around so much, they brought us abortion on demand to help eliminate the “baggage.”

They are the liberals who voted for Barack Obama and not too long before him, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.  They are the ones who made today’s consideration of socialized medicine possible.  They are the fathers of the modern stimulus package.  And don’t forget that Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was part of that wigged out, acid-tripping generation.  And look what she gave us.  Talk about being a mother…  .

Sorry, Woodstock worshippers and glorifiers, there is nothing to exalt there.  You worship at the altar of Ben & Jerry’s.  Your god is dysfunction.  It was a giant party for the selfish generation, probably the most selfish in U.S. history.  In addition to stinky people with afros and bad perms and packets of weed, there was little more to it than a bunch of dirty, muddy people stoned and tripped out and badly in need of a shower, a haircut . . . and probably a good spanking from  mom or dad, something that spoiled Woodstock generation never received.  Instead, they toked up America’s future in smoke amidst their rolling papers.

40 years ago today something happened from which our country will, sadly, never recover.  The cancer was unleashed.  While we had temporary victories with the Reagan Revolution and the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, we are at a point of metastasis, in which we are only trying to slow it down.

Woodstock, August 15, 1969, isn’t a memory to celebrate.  It’s an everlasting nightmare to spit on.




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105 Responses

But, why did it happen?

Lee Merrick on August 14, 2009 at 11:02 pm

damn lady pop a midol and chill out.

Mike on August 15, 2009 at 12:21 am

    Maybe Mike you need to chill out!

    Bob Porrazzo on August 15, 2009 at 7:21 am

Rooting around in the mud naked and stoned is what passes for achievement for that generation. 40 years later and they think just because they went to a rock concert they’re some sort of demi-gods. Get over yourselves you burnt-out narcissists. It’s not like you walked on the moon or defeated tyranny.

tempus fugit on August 15, 2009 at 12:57 am

    I’m a very proud baby boomer, proud of what we accomplished. Proud to be a part of the counterculture. We didn’t view our parents as the “greatest generation,” as Tom Brokaw put it. We considered them part of everything that was wrong with the country so we tried to change things and we did. We were into the Greening of America. You know, things like equal rights for women, ending the war in Vietnam, and Earth Day.

    I was a philosophy major at college, minoring in psychology. The first Earth Day happened when I was there. I went to the big anti-war rally in DC on May 1, 1971. Having been in Vietnam and seeing no earthly reason for us being there, I was interested in that rally.

    For the record, I’m a liberal Democrat in the classic sense and voted only for Democrats for 40 years. Last November, I voted for John McCain. Last year, I supported Hillary but once she quit, I went to McCain’s HQ with some other Hillary supporters to discuss policy with him.

    Of course, if you don’t want boomers to vote for conservatives, keep dissing them, okay? 😉

    Ron on August 15, 2009 at 2:18 am

      You’re only turning conservative now because your precious health care is threatened. Typical selfish, knee jerk reaction of the boomers. Beware of the brown Maalox going around, dude.

      John Henry on August 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

      Ron said…”I’m a very proud baby boomer, proud of what we accomplished. Proud to be a part of the counterculture. We didn’t view our parents as the “greatest generation,” as Tom Brokaw put it. We considered them part of everything that was wrong with the country so we tried to change things and we did. We were into the Greening of America. You know, things like equal rights for women, ending the war in Vietnam, and Earth Day…”

      You sound like a nice guy, and reasonable enough but I remember it all with a different touch. The ending of the war in Vietnam…?
      That really brought about 250,000 dead Vietnamese, killed by marists who were never brought to justice for the slaughter. And 1.75 millions of Cambodians were homicided- you didn’t protest that and didn’t bring any change in that, nor the marxist killing of a quarter million Vietnamese. And ‘Earth day’… what a joke globing warming is- it was Global Cooling back when National Geographic first reported it and for five years screeching- then the data came in- oops, ‘Global Cooling’ but now that’s all wrong too.
      But fore the purposes of social control it’s a beautiful guilt mechanism- along with ‘health care for everyone’ where the entire soviet block had people all of whom got inferior health care except for the elites. But hey, as long as you say it’s for everyone, it shows we care.

      Not……

      I bet you’re a nice guy Ron. We didn’t bring civil rights. The generations before did, as a matter of fact.
      Today, there’s 600,000 enslaved black christian and animist women and kids in the Sudan where Islam religiously sanctions enslavement of blacks. 40 different words for slave in Arabic.
      Go youtube Francis Boc, and listen and watch him tell as a black man about enslavement by Islam.

      You’re a nice guy. But you’re incorrect.
      ‘We didn’t free the slaves’ or bring rights. We just helped a little and hurt a little. And the perspective of the ‘woodstock generation is fu-ked up’ purely and simply. It’s narcissism and hatred for what took 3300 yrs of western civ’s changes. We were and are a blip on that screen.

      Go read some of Oriana Fallaci’s commentary upon some of that- it’s well worth a look.
      ‘The Rage and the Pride’ come to mind.

      Speaking of the assault upon our freedoms, it was our generation that allowed this destruction of our educational system and the uniform political correctness that defines and defies that deterioration.

      Regards
      Mark

      Mark Goldberg on August 15, 2009 at 5:12 pm

        one more thought. The appeasement and desire to not be a world leader, and to denigrate our federal republic, our constitution, our capitalism, has brought about a far more dangerous world of terrorism, and will only worsen and become the sewer of equivalency that ‘we’, that 60’s generation, brought and bring to the nation.

        Mark Goldberg on August 15, 2009 at 5:47 pm

      Accomplished?

      sorrow01 on August 15, 2009 at 8:24 pm

I grew up in the ’60’s and ’70’s, and I really expected all this hippy crap, and all the feminism and affirmative action to be gone well before now, but I was wrong because it is all still going strong. When I was in my twenties, back in the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan was elected president, I really thought that all this dumbshit was coming to an end. Here I am, getting close to the “golden years” and it is all still around.

Ron Taylor on August 15, 2009 at 12:58 am

PS that picture is gross.

tempus fugit on August 15, 2009 at 12:59 am

I was at Woodstock 40 years ago today. A group of us went in 2 cars, 5 people per car and I was driving one of them, a 1968 green Dodge Dart. I was 21, having completed my first semester in college after 3 years in the Army, including one year in Vietnam. That summer, I was working at a Naval ordnance lab as a tech writer writing manuals for a new torpedo. The other car, a Chevy Nova, was driven by a coworker. I stopped and picked up 2 girls along the way who were hitching to Woodstock. Man, the car was crowded. The other car was carrying a 10-person tent in the trunk. My trunk was full of 10 sleeping bags.

Once we got off the thruway, traffic came to a standstill. The little road was single lane in each direction with shoulders so we decided to make it 2 lanes heading for Yasgur’s farm. Before we pulled out, with me in front, a guy got on the hood of the other car behind me. I slowly moved up to 25 mph when another car suddenly pulled out in front of me, causing me to slam on my brakes. The Nova slammed on his brakes and the guy on the hood went flying into my trunk lid, breaking his leg in 3 places. Cars got so jammed up around us that we had to pass him through cars to the shoulder. An ambulance eventually picked him up and took him to the hospital. We pulled off to the side and spent the night there, sleeping in, on, and around the cars. Later, we heard that a couple of kids we didn’t know were run over by a car in the night.

The next day, we drove to a field where we could set up the big tent. The concerts were amazing! The whole feeling of being there was electrifying. We didn’t care how bad conditions were. Some of us went to a home nearby looking for water. Lots of Hassidic Jews there with outhouses and cast iron pumps outside. They let us get some water from the pump. Strong iron taste but we were happy to get it.

After 3 incredible days of music, it was time to go home. We heard people were skinny dipping in White Lake so we stopped by there on the way out. I took off my clothes, waded in, and just wanted to get clean. There were little bars of Ivory soap floating in the water so I grabbed one and washed, then tossed a frisbee around. When I was standing on a wooden platform floating in the lake, someone grabbed my Canon camera that I left on the beach and snapped some photos of me. I didn’t know that was happening so when I went to show photos of Woodstock to my mom, oops.

The whole experience was fabulously wonderful. On the way home, I spotted a full rainbow. Once home, I slept around the clock. Forty years later, I have wonderful memories of that incredible experience.

Ron on August 15, 2009 at 1:24 am

    If that is the most wonderful experience you can come up with from the past 40 years, I do feel sorry for you.

    Sorrow01 on August 15, 2009 at 3:35 pm

[It’s not like you walked on the moon or defeated tyranny.

tempus fugit on August 15, 2009 at 12:57 am]

In their own way, they did.:)

Norman Blitzer on August 15, 2009 at 1:52 am

    Yes, if accomplishing something is akin to going to the methadone clinic each week, I guess they accomplished a great deal.

    Sorrow01 on August 15, 2009 at 10:42 pm

Although our website is now indefinetly closed, I still use it to link to your column. This article is spot on. I’m 63 years old, a boomer, and I remember Woodstock well. I wouldn’t have attended on a bet. Like you, I don’t care who played there, and I can se how it was indeed the begining of the end of an era in America. Thank you for the excellent piece. I’ve shared it with others who will fully understand and agree with your commentary.

Maria Pearson on August 15, 2009 at 2:23 am

What a bunch of pieces of crap. Once in a while I run into a homeless person that did too much acid and I think to myself, “Oh well, if it weren’t for the hippy movement, maybe this country would’ve REALLY excelled.”

Joe on August 15, 2009 at 2:39 am

Woodstock to me was the apex of what has now become what I call Late 20th Century fascism. The movement by those on the extreme left of the false left-right paradigm didn’t give a rat’s butt about The Constitution. And they used their stoned condition to become the angry college professors, femi-fascists and overall America haters…sound familiar Norman Blitzer and Ron?

BTW, Woodstock was 5 years before I was born. But reading up about it, I now know it was a nothing more than a promotion of fascist enabling.

Bob Porrazzo on August 15, 2009 at 7:20 am

Oh and dare I say..

HIPPIES SMELL
THEY OUGHTA BURN IN HELL!

Bob Porrazzo on August 15, 2009 at 7:23 am

There’s that condition called “critical thinking skills” outbreak we see across America. It’s an amazing epidemic. It must be highly contagious as some are in ‘fear and smear’ mode, big time.

If it (the 60’s) had just been afro hair, it would have been a beautiful thing. I’ve never understood the peace and love rhetoric. They were anything but! Dayum!

Smile on August 15, 2009 at 8:34 am

@Ron
You “baby boomers” are going to be dead soon, so who cares who you vote for?

Ace on August 15, 2009 at 8:42 am

If I go back time-traveling, I would make sure Woodstock never happen. It’s just a stupid, over-hyped event that does nothing to contribute to America’s greatness.

Bobby'sBrain on August 15, 2009 at 8:59 am

The promoters courted Bob Dylan to perform, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with Woodstock. In fact, he was quite specific about it. An appearance would have dated him, and interestingly enough Debbie’s opinion in 2009 is similar to Bob’s in 1969.

#1 Vato on August 15, 2009 at 10:37 am

Whatever happened to that fat loser clown, Wavy Gravy?

GianniV on August 15, 2009 at 10:38 am

Great article, Debbie.

Woodstock and the 60s were truly horrible. Treason chic, narcotic drug chic — Woodstock! A muddy disaster of first proportions.

The universities went along with the SDS, weather underground terrorists and helped usher in the horrid mess we have today.

Underzog on August 15, 2009 at 11:28 am

It’s no wonder you’ve never been married!

EminemsRevenge on August 15, 2009 at 11:41 am

The mindset that was in vogue in Woodstock typical of the “free love”, peace, sex and rock and roll generation was to cast off all authority and live without rules.

Ron–it’s ironic that you can write the memories you have of the concert and while you are honest enough to admit about your passenger getting his legs broken up from your group’s stupidity–and the other kids getting run over–to you it was still all good. Amazing bro.

Ron–you should be a poster child for the hippies. As you smoke your doobie and drink your beer (or whatever) and you invite others to partake in the party–you cast off the rules and enjoy!

Here’s the problem–back in REALITY there are consequences for breaking all those rules. Drug addiction, illegitimate children who grow up as survivors of the escapades, STD’s, and countless other cases of human wreckage–all going on like there are NO consequences as Purple Haze plays on–even after its musician dies in his own vomit.

Debbie is right on this post–Woodstock should be more of a cause for mourning than celebrating.

BB on August 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Spot on Debbie! I’ve been saying this about the boomers for years. They are the ones “trying” to destroy this great country. They will NOT succeed! Hopefully they will be all dying off soon. Then we will have to deal with their children but they are so mindless, aimless and lost we should have no problem pushing them to the side and returning this country to the values it was founded on. The so called greatest generation saved the world from tyranny but they may again destroy it by producing these hippie freaks and liberal scum and leaving us to clean up the mess they have created.

Jim on August 15, 2009 at 12:10 pm

Great post! Maybe some will call it too harsh. But given the all-pervasive, glowing encomiums to Woodstock we’ve been hearing for the past 40 years, couldn’t we use a counterweight?

Scott Spiegel on August 15, 2009 at 12:40 pm

All I remember about Woodstock is my parents chasing me out of the living room so I wouldn’t see any of it on TV. Not the sort of thing a little kid should see. All the drugs and nudity!
But I heard my dad yelling at the top of his lungs, “Lorraine, do you see that???? Those boys and girls are all in the water together, naked!!!!!”
Poor man had a real (justifiable) conniption fit.

Michelle on August 15, 2009 at 2:38 pm

What f-cking nonsense. She is becoming more delusional all the time.

We went to these fest to see naked hippy chicks and smoke dope. End of story.

[F-word edited with dash by DS. Typical language and ethics of the Woodstock idiots. DS]

bill on August 15, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    Bill:

    TAKE THE DOOBIE OUT OF YOUR MOUTH NOW!!!

    Bob Porrazzo on August 15, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    You just made her point dude.

    sorrow01 on August 15, 2009 at 8:19 pm

“They, the rockers, and the hippies, yippies, and other numbskulls making up the boomer generation at this infest-o-fest brought us free love . . . and STDs and AIDs, single mothers and baby mamas, and a whole new hipness to out-of-wedlock births that has brought us crime waves, sensitive men a/k/a wimps, and a whole lot of other problems.”

AIDS? Really? C’mon Deb. There’s enough to bitch about without making stuff up!

Pfft on August 15, 2009 at 5:58 pm

Thank you, Debbie! You’re a beautiful voice of truth in these dark and dangerous times for our country’s very existence. I saw about 5 seconds of the commercial for this piece of revisionist tripe movie before I switched the channel after realizing what it was. You are dead-on about the event, hideous boomers and their “values” and this horrid movie.

Debbie, in a parallel universe where everything is just, righteous and pure, you are the President of the US.

DS_ROCKS! on August 15, 2009 at 8:22 pm

The music was good.

There is NO Santa Claus on August 15, 2009 at 8:40 pm

I loved the 60s. I had 3 children between ’61 and ’70, restored an old house, campaigned for Barry Goldwater all over the state of Connecticut, was campaign manager for my husband who was running for the local School Board (he won) and learned to grow veggies in a huge garden. Those were great days and Woodstock was just a silly footnote. Oh, and by the way all those 60s children are now conservative activists and faithful churchgoers. We did not waste the decade making fools of ourselves, and now I have sweet memories. Thanks Debbie – we share the real basic values that made our country great!

Jamie Shafer on August 15, 2009 at 9:12 pm

thank you for expressing my unexpressed thoughts on this silly festival of insanity

shmujew on August 15, 2009 at 9:23 pm

Heh, what fun reading these comments. It’s amazing the assumptions people come up with about me, about Woodstock, and about the boomer generation. We’re as varied as there people. Me? I was as atypical as they come. Never did any drugs, period. Sure, everyone around me did but that wasn’t my thing. Never smoked anything, either. OK, once I ate a fiber-filled brownie unawares. I don’t drink alcohol, either, except maybe a half a glass of Manischewitz at Passover. Technically, I wasn’t a real hippie, though I looked like one with long hair and a beard. I guess I was mostly a nerdy dweeb with black Woody Allen glasses.

Anyway, this Jew has always been very pro-Israel. I parted company from my liberal friends online in the summer of 2006 during the second Lebanon war. I didn’t become conservative but distinguished myself from the anti-Semitic leftists I despise. I became anti-Obama starting in January, 2008. I’ve been reading Debbie’s site for the past few years and I appreciate her POV, though I don’t always share it.

Everyone, please be a bit more open-minded about the baby boomer generation. It isn’t monolithic and includes a lot of very different people. Some facts from MetLife from 4 years ago:

Baby Boomer Statistics

Represent almost 27% of the population
Account for approximately 48% of U.S. families.
Almost 70% own their own homes instead of renting
Annual average household income $56,500 (for younger boomers) and $58,889 (for older boomers)

As for me, I retired at the age of 57 and have been a homeowner since the age of 29. I’ve been with the same woman for 38 years and we’re very happily married.

As much as those who weren’t there would like to trash the idea of Woodstock, those of us who were there will always treasure it as a magical event. Yes, it was tragic that a guy broke his leg on the trunk of my car and that two kids were run over by a tractor. When the announcement came over the PA system we were all horrified and saddened.

The think about Woodstock that was so magical was the fact that 500,000 kids got together in difficult circumstances and it was very peaceful and wonderful. It rained, there was mud, practically no food or water, and it was an extremely exhausting experience but it was still awesome. It’s a wonderful experience I will always treasure.

R: Any statistics on how many of those boomers who “own their own home” have now been foreclosed upon or gotten government mortgage bailouts because they bought homes they couldn’t afford? DS

Ron on August 15, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    DS: “R: Any statistics on how many of those boomers who “own their own home” have now been foreclosed upon or gotten government mortgage bailouts because they bought homes they couldn’t afford? DS”

    Most boomers who own their own homes bought them about 30 years ago with standard 15 or 30 year mortgages and most of those loans are already paid off. The people affected by the subprime mess bought within the past 7 years so look to gen-X and Y. Some links to foreclosure maps:

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/15/nyregion/0515-foreclose.html

    http://hotpads.com/search/#lat=36.94989178681328&lon=-99.31640625&zoom=12&listingTypes=&visible=new,viewed,favorite&areaBorders=heatMapForeclosurePerHousehold

    R: Actually, many of ’em were boomers who were speculating in real estate, vacation homes, second homes, etc. And also, the boomers are fast becoming the biggest drain on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc. They are the reason we won’t allow people to invest in their own futures with the SS money. And they are the reason we are now considering ObamaCare. Can’t wait ’til we all have to foot the bill for the lasting effects of their acid trips, pot smoking, and STDs. They are also the most selfish generation financially–and yet they expect us to pay for them (Gen-X and Gen-Y and beyond). DS

    Ron on August 15, 2009 at 10:49 pm

      Wow, Debbie, you sure are down on the boomer generation which means you’re down on over a quarter of the population. We’ll be a big drag on SS, Medicare, etc.? Sure but we also paid into those programs more than any other generation before or since. As we retire, we’ll be financing whole industries and sectors like no other generation in this country’s history.

      From a November, 2007, article:

      In less than a decade, all of the baby boomers will be 51 to 70 years old. This generation’s size and tendency to make new rules have created business opportunities since child boomers bought hula hoops in the 1950s. Now it’s time for businesses to prepare for the changing needs of the older boomers, who are about to become the largest and wealthiest over-50 consumer group in US history. Boomers will account for roughly 40 percent of US spending by 2015 and for a disproportionate share of the growth and consumption in industries ranging from consumer electronics and clothing to home furnishings, restaurants, and, of course, health care.

      http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Country_Reports/Serving_aging_baby_boomers_2068?gp=1

      Ron on August 15, 2009 at 11:39 pm

      Also, how many of those boomers failed to survive their “trips”, or found themselves permanently injured, physically or mentally? I have had to live near people who trashed themselves during the 6o’s and early 70’s, and this group really is not sympathetic for me. They lived on S.S.I.and received public assistance in variour forms, including housing. These people, even after their past travails, still sought out the narcotics of their youth.

      sorrow01 on August 15, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Often, I view Debbie as a bit of a raving bigot, yelling “Jihad!” on the Howard Stern Show.

But sadly, I have to agree with the lady on this one, even though I was there.

GL: As you well know, I’ve never ever yelled “Jihad!” or even said the word on that show, a show I haven’t been on in several years. That’s a stupid, fat, cokehead (unfunny) comedian on the show who yells that. But thanks for lying, so you can give me a backhanded compliment. DS

Gerry Lincoln on August 15, 2009 at 10:06 pm

its too bad that ron cant see the destructive impact of this moronic age cohort and the horrifying impact it had on future generations

shmujew on August 15, 2009 at 10:31 pm

One look at the picture with the dude being disgustly naked, and now I know why they called it “Woodstock”.

Anyone who defends it is sick, and anyone who bashes Debbie for speaking the truth about it is sick. Yeah, I said it, and I’m not afraid one bit of what you sickos say.

Was there any blacks among them…just thought I ask because I’m a young black guy and all…

Squirrel3D on August 15, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    They were too smart to show up. It was a worthless event put on by worthless people, and attended by the people who had trouble seeing beyond the age of 14 intellectually.

    sorrow01 on August 16, 2009 at 12:08 am

Woodstock, in the scheme of things, matters not at all. Coinciding with the moon landing, the event, in a way, can be construed as a parallel event – an escape from this world, although one fueled by drugs, mud, and debauchery. I was about twenty one at the time, and never would have wished to go (I always disliked rock, and hate crowds, dirt, and drugs), but I do remember the fear and desperation so many of my generation felt – and rightfully so – over the prospect of being drafted and possibly dying halfway across the world, fighting for a corrupt, unpopular regime. Our government would not let the military fight effectively or robustly, and thousands of those in the U.S. military, unfortunate enough to be conscripted, died needlessly. The government would not let us resort to gloves-off, decisive tactical fighting, fearing that doing so would risk escalation of the conflict, resulting in nuclear war with China or the USSR. So, we fought meaningless battles, hoping for little more than stalemate, and American lives were utterly wasted. The song by Country Joe and the Fish (“Next Stop is Viet Nam”) resonated deeply, and expressed a justifiable rage at how the government viewed us – as disposable. There was no exit strategy, no plan to win this stupid war – just futility and death. So Woodstock was, in its own way, an alternate way of leaving Earth, coiciding exactly with the moon landing. While I do understand all of this, as I remember the zeitgeist of the summer of 1969, I still regard Woodstock as having accomplished nothing lasting; it was an event, really, of no significance.

commonsense on August 15, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    Actually, Woodstock was and is a significant event, and the proof of that is how many other rock concerts are talked about by so many 40 years after the fact. It was the bookend of the 60’s. The new generation revealed itself in unflattering ways that have lasted and are being reborn today. Woodstock was a portent of decline, as were the imperial debaucheries of Rome.

    sorrow01 on August 16, 2009 at 12:16 am

Have to agree, Deb. Was in the Navy when the movie “Woodstock” came out and watched it with some of my buddies and I have to say most of them were really turned on by the event. As much as I liked some of the groups who were there, I could never figure out what the big deal was. It looked like a mess to me and the music was really overrated, which was usually the case with live concerts compared to studio sound. Yeah, I admit we mismanaged the war in Vietnam,
strictly defensive, and then pulled the rug out from under the
South Vietnamese. How these Clintonista liberals can be proud of that when they should be ashamed still amazes me.

Daniel on August 15, 2009 at 11:13 pm

Ever see those gray haired dudes with those pathetic ponytails and a receding hairline? Always tempted to cut one of those ponytails off.

CaliforniaScreaming on August 16, 2009 at 12:08 am

Will take Johnny Cash over any of the Woodstock performers any day of the week.

CaliforniaScreaming on August 16, 2009 at 12:23 am

    I loved, and love Johnny Cash. I love country-western, jazz, Jewish music, Irish music, English ballads and soul. I don’t agree with Joan Baez’s politics any more (they threw me off her fan website when I refused to put on sackcloth and ashes over Sarkozy’s election,) but I still think she’s a fine singer.

    Miranda Rose Smith on August 16, 2009 at 4:33 am

    Johnny Cash loved Woodstock, rock music and Bob Dylan.

    He was one of the first people to speak out against the
    war in the late 60’s.

    Cash was great. Willie Nelson is great. I can’t stand
    country music, but I recognize a real man when I see on.

    MaryHarman on August 16, 2009 at 6:23 am

On the way home from work I had to help a wacked out hippy. Just to show that conservatives do give a crap about people, here’s the deal: I’m driving down a side street and in the distance of about 100 yds away I see something in the road and something on it is shining. It’s a passed out 50 year old that just wrecked a stolen bicycle. She hit her head and laid there for about 15 minutes before myself and another good sumaritan happened by(come to find out). According to the responding officers, they deal with her all the time. Another waste of my tax dollars. Dealing with serial dirtbags that never decided to grow the hell up. An ambulance was dispatched to drive her to the e.r. as well. Nice and expensive ride that again is a waste of MY tax money. Yeah, I’m a home owner and my taxes are too much already. Ewww live for today!

Joe on August 16, 2009 at 12:47 am

    I would imagine that your hippy friend probably fried her brains out on the wonderful drugs that became so readily available after the 60’s. And, as a taxpayer you are now stuck paying for this wonder’s medical care, ssi, housing, etc. There are people who have legitimate problems and difficulties who are either on long waiting lists or simply denied services due the carcass that you encountered. Maybe under Obama Care, Dr. Jack Kevorkian(when released)will be paid to discuss the end of life options with her.

    sorrow01 on August 16, 2009 at 2:41 am

Have to agree. And then they came to Vietnam, brought their drugs with them, blamed Vietnam, came home and filed claims for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but not before saying that they battled their way through hell (as a clerk/cook/mechanic/stockboy/etc.)

JimS on August 16, 2009 at 2:06 am

Woodstock may have hastened the collapse of Debbie Schlussel’s image of the “Real” America. But America itself has survived quite nicely, thank you. And the music, on the whole, holds up well.

Earth to Debbie: The homeowners who have gone belly up in the current mortgage crisis were first-time buyers. And you won’t find too many — especially whites among them — over 40. Too young for Woodstock.

How do I summarize Debbie Schlussel? Think of her as a hybrid of Roger Kimball’s greatest fits and a bad case of PMS. No? Then think of her as Midge Decter’s long-lost daughter dressed as a professional dominatrix.

S: Wrong. In fact, many were speculating in second homes, other properties, and vacation homes, and yes, many of them were also boomers. Regardless, America has declined because of the boomers and the extension of Woodstock for the last 40 years upon America. It is a plague–a cancer–that knows no end. DS

Seek on August 16, 2009 at 2:15 am

    When you use PMS and a dominatrix remark as part of your argument with Debbie, it is really hard to take you seriously. Do you normally use sexist remarks at the office or in public when dicussing serious issues with women? Or, is it only when you hide behind your keyboard in the dark that you can drum up the courage and bile to do that? If you are a representative “Baby Boomer”, that does not say much for that generation.

    sorrow01 on August 16, 2009 at 2:34 am

wow. they had a big special about woodstock on vh1 last night during prime time and all these aging hippies (much like my mother and her husband) were bragging and reminiscing about how they did acid throughout the festival and how many people they were having “free love” with.

my mom was a hippy. she is a boomer. and everything debbie says about the boomers is true. they are a drain on society and the damage they did to their own children (and at this point most of them have started infiltrating their grandchildren with their idiocy too) is devastating. you can’t be an effective parent when you have no respect for laws, social norms, your own parents, and authority in general. this made for a whole generation of confused kids being told to just say no while at home behind closed doors their hippie parents were just saying yes while telling them to get good grades and don’t do drugs…

on the bright side debbie, some of the spawn of these hippie unions ended up like me, i am like the michael p. keaton of my family :0)

denise on August 16, 2009 at 3:33 am

oops. alex p. keaton.

alex p. keaton, michael j. fox, i’m sure everyone knew who i meant :0)

denise on August 16, 2009 at 3:36 am

“60-something cat ladies who watch America’s Al-Jazeera, PBS?” On behalf of Philippa and Caesar, not to mention Ernest, Perkins, Danny, Jasper, Froniga, Persephone and Max, I find that very offensive. If you havn’t guessed, they are or were all cats.
“You worship at the alter of Ben & Jerry’s.” I believe you mean “altar,” you (sic) woman. Shavuah Tov and Hodesh Tov.

Miranda Rose Smith on August 16, 2009 at 4:29 am

For anyone who shares Ms. Schlussel’s opinion of Woodstock, I recommend Peter Abrahams’ thriller Hard Rain.
For anyone who shares Ms. Schlussel’s opinion of Israel, I recommend Peter Abrahams’ thriller Tongues of Fire, set in a future in which Israel has been defeated by the Arabs, G-d forbid. The books are out of print, I believe, but you can find them in a library, in a used bookstore, or on the Internet.

Miranda Rose Smith on August 16, 2009 at 4:57 am

i partly agree-while I am sure some went and came back normal, I am also sure that some went and became nuts. Luckily, no hippies in my family history(grandparents on both sides were immigrants, worked hard and encouraged my parents to love this country) and I think things worked out well. Too bad the people were nuts, the music seemed cool.

mindy abraham on August 16, 2009 at 7:20 am

Sadly I need to agree with you Debbie, I am a 59yo male who has been saying this for years. It was for all means the beginning of the end. I remember hearing at that time “that the only way to make a change in the “man” (government) was from the inside. In reflection it has happened , those you speak of were my brothers and sisters at the time. Proudly I can say I came to my senses years ago , becoming a conservative and denouncing everything I thought was “cool”. I hope there are many more like me and not like those you point out, so we can rescue this country from the edge of “the insiders”

john freymuth on August 16, 2009 at 9:46 am

Defending woodstock can be likened to a public defender defending a child killer. What’s the point? Just shows the empty soul a hunk of skin is. Let’s see, promiscuous sex, recreational drug use, hate your country, hate the police, open the mind to the very things that will try to destroy America, etc.
We should’ve denied treatment to the acid heads and such that cost this country dearly with all their expenses. Mental institutions, prisons, drugs to make them less violent.

Joe on August 16, 2009 at 10:35 am

The only we Boomers did wrong Debbie was not paddle your generation more! You’d have a little more respect if we did.

G: Hmmm . . . are you Gregg Krupa, the Islamo-pandering “reporter,” er . . . fabricator and Islamo-regurgitator who writes for the Detroit Newsistan? Looks like someone wasn’t paddled enough, and it was the guy in your mirror. BTW, if you are Gregg of the Newsistan–and I believe you are–how much in bribes are the Muslims paying you? Like I said, the Woodstock generation had a horrid set of values, or, rather, no values at all. If you aren’t him, sounds like you have the same worldviewas he does. DS

gregdn on August 16, 2009 at 10:47 am

Woodstock did not make what’s happening today happen. Not everyone that went there voted for the lousy president we have now. There where republicans that went there. You can’t say all this stuff when you weren’t even there. The reason there was so much weed and other drugs was because we didn’t have the knowlage about drugs the way we have knowlege about them now. The reason they had long hair was becase that was the style. That was just the way that generation was.

Kelly on August 16, 2009 at 10:50 am

I’m one of those boomers who was 19 in 1969. The music of the time reflected the attitudes of the time. I remember at that time thinking that, if this keeps up, this country is going to be in trouble. If it is a passing fad, then we will survive. Turns out, it wasn’t a passing fad.

And the song that, I thought, began the degradation of society as we knew it, because it was so popular at that time was ‘Love the one you’re with.’ I think that’s the name of it. It had become the anthem for promiscuity. And like the ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’ logo of the 60’s, it was more than a behavioral timestamp. It permitted behavior that what was never before acceptable as acceptable. Which followed us boomers all the way to the Clinton White House 30 years later. It wasn’t called a sexual revolution for nothing.

Thanks Debbie, for calling a spade a spade.

Ross Calloway on August 16, 2009 at 10:53 am

What’s most vile to me, is that too many of the childish traitors ,not only at Woodstink,but other similar festivals,and Vietnam rallies,destroying of colleges,acts of terror upon innocent,far-more-moral people( Whom the hippies slandered as square ),etc,etc, is that the majority of them came from the richest backgrounds( Middle to,the wealthiest of,the Upper Classes ) ,with most parents being as Leftist politically and been active in such activities before WWII, especially during the Depression – grossly ironic,since they cleverly hid that fact,and cleverly disguised themselves as being the voice of the poor,and ‘caring’ about them.

At some point, the Boomers should have been renamed “The Bad Seed” Generation,as the murderous,selfish,Rhoda Penmark character would have been the appropriate age as the rest of the revelers at Woodstink by 1969. Then,infuse her evil mind with Marxist/Libertine politics,and of course, all the ‘fashionable’ hallucinogenic drugs,and presto! Prototypical Baby Boomer.

Phineas on August 16, 2009 at 12:32 pm

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