Sunday, February 24, 2008

Countercultural peace

The Woodstock festival (3-4 days in August,1969) drew almost 500,000 people to a remote farm in upstate New York. Most of the participants were certainly stoned off of various drugs most(?) of the time, yet there were no real incidents of violence, no fistfights or stabbings, etc. Only two people died- one from a heroin overdose, another when a tractor ran over someone sleeping in a sleeping bag in a distant field.
The older 'silent majority' adults that witnessed the event praised the internal workings of the minds of the youth that attended; the older 'squares' applauded the spirit of cooperation and rationality that they experienced from the 'audience.'

What do you think would happen today if you were to put just 10,000 flaming rednecks, or ladies literary club members, or any other demographic, in a cow pasture for a concert for three days and nights, largely un-policed, as were the Woodstock revelers?

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