We are now past the end of the entire
hippy era. The hippy era began in 1964 and ended in 2009. It is hard
for most people to recognize what I call the hippy era as a coherent
social period.
I think it would be more understandable if I call it the Stewart Brand Era. The Stewart Brand Era is over.
I pick 1964 because that is the first year I was being surrounded by friends who were doing drugs (in San Francisco, the center of this era). Salli Rasberry (later my co-author) had already moved to San Francisco and started the hippy movement in the Haight-Ashbury. Mario Savio was giving his "fuck" speech at U.C. Berkeley (Mario had been my Treasurer a previous year when I organized a Graduate Students Assn.)
By the time I finally met Stewart in 1966 he had begun his campaign to ask NASA for pictures of the whole earth which became the cover of the iconic Whole Earth Catalog.
The Stewart Brand Era includes all the drugs especially pot and LSD, environmentalism, ecology, anti-Vietnam War marches, communes, free love, rock music, everything in the Whole Earth Catalog, environmental Armageddon, small business revival, organic food, Birkenstocks, home schooling, water beds, tie dye, blue jeans, beards, long hair, the women's movement, personal computers, hacking and much more.
Folks, the Stewart Brand Era is over for three reasons: 1) new natural gas technology has ended any rational thought of resource scarcity, (2) Climategate ended a twenty year hysteria about global warming and 3) the slow death of Obama Healthcare in 2009 was the end of a functional Lefty, feminist, minority, urban coalition.
I was a central player in the Stewart Brand Era and I'll miss it, greatly. But it is over.
I think it would be more understandable if I call it the Stewart Brand Era. The Stewart Brand Era is over.
I pick 1964 because that is the first year I was being surrounded by friends who were doing drugs (in San Francisco, the center of this era). Salli Rasberry (later my co-author) had already moved to San Francisco and started the hippy movement in the Haight-Ashbury. Mario Savio was giving his "fuck" speech at U.C. Berkeley (Mario had been my Treasurer a previous year when I organized a Graduate Students Assn.)
By the time I finally met Stewart in 1966 he had begun his campaign to ask NASA for pictures of the whole earth which became the cover of the iconic Whole Earth Catalog.
The Stewart Brand Era includes all the drugs especially pot and LSD, environmentalism, ecology, anti-Vietnam War marches, communes, free love, rock music, everything in the Whole Earth Catalog, environmental Armageddon, small business revival, organic food, Birkenstocks, home schooling, water beds, tie dye, blue jeans, beards, long hair, the women's movement, personal computers, hacking and much more.
Folks, the Stewart Brand Era is over for three reasons: 1) new natural gas technology has ended any rational thought of resource scarcity, (2) Climategate ended a twenty year hysteria about global warming and 3) the slow death of Obama Healthcare in 2009 was the end of a functional Lefty, feminist, minority, urban coalition.
I was a central player in the Stewart Brand Era and I'll miss it, greatly. But it is over.