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39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Idealistic but Flawed, March 21, 2001
This is the kind of book that had I read it ten years ago, it would have changed my life. However, having a little education and some wisdom that comes with age, this book quickly reveals it's true colors. Charles Reich was (and may still be) a professor at Yale University. I originally got the idea to read this book when one of my history professors related a story about Reich gadding about campus in his bare feet during the early 1970's. My professor, with a wry grin, related how shocked he and some of his fellow students were that someone of Reich's stature would do such a crazy thing. After reading this book, this behavior fits right in with Reich's codification of what he calls a "new consciousness".This new consciousness, which is essentially the hippie lifestyle, is a new extension of man that has grown from a technological and corporate society run amuck, and two prior forms of consciousness that failed to properly allow man to run a high-tech world. This first consciousness was what our founding fathers had: a sense of individuality and hard work. With the advent of industrialism, this consciousness gave way to the second form. This is the one most of us are familiar with today. It a way of strict conformity to hierarchy, a rigid adherence to rules and regulations, as well as heavily materialistic and goal-oriented. Reich argues that this way of being was too stilted and crushed individuality and free expression. The result was the third phase of consciousness: the hippie. Doing your own thing, freedom, and a desire to make technology work for humanity were the ultimate goals of this group. Reich examines their clothing (of which shoeless activity is perfectly acceptable for a college professor) and music. He sees in all of this an articulation of rebellion and rage against the Corporate State, a mindless automaton that runs roughshod over all of humanity. The glorious hippies will rise up and put a stern hand on this rudderless beast and all will be well. Reich makes sure he points out that the current system is beyond reform (which I agree with) and that the only way to bring about a "Greening of America" is to restore humanity to society. This book certainly has some high points. Reich is absolutely right about the banality of the system and that democracy and law have been bent and subverted to agree with and reinforce the system, just as humans have. His solution of the hippie, especially seen through the lens of time, is laughable. We all know what happened to the hippies. Those that didn't die from drug overdoses in the early 1970's sold out and actually expanded the system that Reich rails against. Who do you think the Yuppies were? Aging hippies that absolutely wallowed in materialism and excess. Think of how advertising has expanded in the last twenty years. How many television channels do we have now? How many of them are full of unhealthy images and advertising? The freedom that the hippies so strived for through the music of Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead has given way to Marilyn Manson and the hateful, pornographic throbbings of rap music. As we can see, what Reich crows about has actually morphed into a nightmare. At least Reich did foresee it, as he states that if the hippies couldn't move their ideas past youth, they would fail. They did, in spades. This book should be read, and it is interesting and exciting at times. I love how he demolishes the New Deal, although he basically does it by saying they didn't do enough because they tried to work within the system. The flaws in the book are destructive to his overall ideas, and the outcome of history has showed us that Reich completely failed in his objectives. At best it can be said that he was amazingly astute in his observations of the time.
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