43 Comments
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Alan Lovejoy's avatar

We ARE the new counterculture. It should be noted, however, that those can take decades, or even centuries, to effect the changes they hope to achieve. Meanwhile, we have to do the best we can with the (sometimes very) suboptimal conditions we find ourselves in.

It's not just freedom that is not free, it's the knowledge that things could be better, if only more people weren't committed to things as they are. Enlightenment can be a burden.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Two answers:

Yes, this won’t happen quickly. All the more reason to get started with a new kind of plan.

And yes, it would be better if more people got it. But they don’t, and they won’t, so we cannot wait for them. This too calls for us to get started ASAP.

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Mystic William's avatar

A good friend hitched to SF for the Summer of Love. He said it was beautiful for some time. Then Jerry Rubin and the Yippies moved in. Overnight he said it changed. Drug ODs violence, no sharing of food (and bodies). He said the original hippies were not the same as the Yippies. He said to me ten or fifteen years ago he wondered if they were actually CIA.

A young friend got involved with Occupy. In retrospect he said it was silly. But he said something similar happened. Same thing. A group moved in and took over. Suddenly bad drugs, ODs, rapes, guns found. And it disintegrated.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Would not surprise me in the least if either or both decline was orchestrated. Especially in the 60s. I have heard other similar things…

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Mel Remple's avatar

Love that song! I have vague memories of an excellent version performed on The Muppet Show.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

I have the same memory, so it must be real!

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albert venezio's avatar

So True Christopher! Thank you.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

🫡

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Debra Breeze's avatar

Very right on! I'm going to sing it in my warrior set:)

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Cool. I hope it goes well!

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DE's avatar

Good sermon, Chris. Thank you.

Always did love that song.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

It’s a good one. Thanks!

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Amaterasu Solar's avatar

Indeed, I want Us all to be free to do any Ethical thing We choose, sovereign of Self and crowndom (that which One owns).

I never knew that song was called "For What It's Worth..." Haha! But I rocked to it many a time back in the day. Good piece on that!

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Christopher Cook's avatar

What is the genesis of the term “crowndom”?

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Amaterasu Solar's avatar

I coined it. LOL! I wanted to avoid a sexual reference - “kingdom,” “queendom,” We are all the crowns of Ourselves, so… “Crowndom.”

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AnthonyFlows77's avatar

I love the fact that it takes a few to get started and affecting the sphere of influence that you have around you and not fear rejection but being patient with them as well as they say the best way to let them see that change is needed is to be the change yourself! Thanks Christopher ( my second name by the way 😊) for sharing a way forward with all this nonsense that we have going on

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Right on, Anthony Christopher.

We aren’t going to change everyone, and we don’t have to (and shouldn’t) try. All we need to do is live it, model it, find our tribe, and build our new world.

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Philip Mollica's avatar

I love your contention!

That said, I can no longer listen to anything by Neil Young - who I used to love.

Mirror Ball was one of my fav albums of all time. Just can't do it now.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

I never liked him. I love CSN's clean harmonies, but Y's voice grates on me. I get that some people like it, and that's fine; I just never did. Which makes it easier for me, than for a genuine fan, when he showed himself to be a total tool.

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EricStoner's avatar

How the Left Became So Intolerant

An answer to a letter.

SASHA STONE

MAR 22, 2025

https://sashastone.substack.com/p/how-the-left-became-so-intolerant?r=iha3h&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

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Christopher Cook's avatar

It says in the article that "Americans are built to be free."

Are we? I used to think that, and I still do think that it is far more true of our population than others. But…after 2020, I think we discovered that it is not quite as true as we had hoped.

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EricStoner's avatar

I agree.

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EricStoner's avatar

I found the two similar articles interesting and encouraging in that smarter people than me are discussing this change. It's something I've argued for years but not as eloquently as the two authors referenced.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

I am glad there is hope!

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Kris Bayer's avatar

“Everybody look what’s going down”

I love this song! Let my people go reminds me of one story but we are creating our own. We are the ones

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Christopher Cook's avatar

We must be the ones! Our children's children will thank us.

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Timothy Andrew Staples/pop122's avatar

And CSN&Y named their Vietnam protest song, "Ohio".

(Albeit for very good reason.)

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Christopher Cook's avatar

I saw CSN (no Y) in concert in the late 80s. Great sound…though Graham Nash is supremely arrogant on stage. It was weird.

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Timothy Andrew Staples/pop122's avatar

They had already made it by then.

One of the reasons I like the studio sound, or very small concerts.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Yeah, some of the best concerts I've seen have been small. Elysian Fields in a small club in LA was awesome.

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Timothy Andrew Staples/pop122's avatar

An intimate audience penalizes Nashian arrogance.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Right, and Lake Compounce in Connecticut is anything but intimate!

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Adele Courtman's avatar

Muppet version link below...

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Oh, thank you for linking that. I kind of remember the animals, but I had completely forgotten the hunters (or that they portrayed the hunters like trigger-happy lunatics).

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Doc Ellis 124's avatar

Yo, Christopher, is your wife still guitaring?

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Not really—just little nibbles here and there. Only so many hours in the day!

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Doc Ellis 124's avatar

I manage 15 minutes during the day. Sometimes, I don't even get that.

Thank you for this essay.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Yeah, it’s tough to squeeze it all in.

Here she is back in the day: https://youtu.be/s-K4tYQJTjk

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Doc Ellis 124's avatar

I subscribed to the channel as Lyin Doc 124.

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Christopher Cook's avatar

You mean the YouTube channel of the video I linked? I don’t think any new music will be posted there. It’s just a few old vids of their band from the 90s.

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Doc Ellis 124's avatar

Very cool.

Here are a couple of links to what I do as Lyin Doc 124

https://www.youtube.com/@LyinDoc124/videos

https://lyindoc124.substack.com/

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Christopher Cook's avatar

Rock on!

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