Comment by mturmon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mturmon | Hacker News Reader

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One worthwhile vantage point from which to understand the foul and self-serving element of the 1960s in California is Joan Didion’s essay collection The White Album, published 1979. And in particular the title essay, which deals partly with the Manson cult.

It is a fascinating book, and she is such a singular writer, with a different and unique viewpoint of the 60s (being older than the hippies and not temperamentally suited to an optimistic worldview anyway), that it is completely worth your time.

Another reference point, come to think of it, is T.C. Boyle’s novel Drop City, which also features an idealistic commune that starts out in California and relocates (kids and all) to a remote place once the Man catches up to them. It also does not end well.

(Edited to add: not knocking the 60s as a whole, or optimism, or hippies, each of which has/have their place in my heart.)

I remember an essay about how, every generation in the modern era, it seems like there's a new crop of avant-gard writers who think they should shake things up and abandon the rules of narrative, or some such. These movements turn out to produce "new and forward thinking" writing that eerily resembles the attempt of the previous generation.

We know from history and even archaeological records, that there have been people trying to start society anew with some idealistic insight or inspiration for literally thousands of years. Most of those attempts resemble each other. Most of them fail within a few generations, and most well inside one. That's not to say that there isn't some kind of progress. However, even the examples of progress can be characterized with common attributes.

Often, in the case of successes, there is often an economic revolution based on technology. There is often some kind of communalism involved, which fails to scale, resulting in some form of hierarchy and bureaucracy. There is almost always some kind of ideology involved as well.

This sounds interesting. Do you remember the essay or more details so that I could google it?

People never change.

They do and they don't. Once, the only way to deal with the out group was to kill them. Slavery was developed as an alternative to killing. Now, we regard slavery as an abomination. Many countries are abolishing the death penalty. There is some progress, at least for a little while.

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