As I've mentioned before, Ken and I have been watching all the original Star Trek episodes. We watched one the other night that had us giggling. Well, I was giggling, I can't say that Ken normally giggles. Anyhoo, the episode is called "The Way to Eden," and it's about what pretty much amounts to a bunch of space hippies. It would have aired in either '68 or '69, and it was definitely a product of its time. There's a messianic leader (who turns out to be insane, of course) and his band of followers, all looking for the lost Eden. They think they've found the planet where Eden exists, so they hijack the Enterprise. They all wear funky clothes, they go around singing and playing weird instruments, and they call everybody "brother." Or if someone is really bringin' them down and layin' a heavy trip on them, they call him "Herbert," as in "Don't be such a Herbert." At one point, Spock breaks out one of his Vulcan instruments and jams with one of the space hippy girls. Someone cleverly put this footage together with a fun song called "Music to Watch Space Girls By."
My journey to Old Fogeydom continues, because watching this episode I was both amused and appalled. I told Ken that in my college days, I was fascinated by the sixties, and felt like I'd been born about 10 years too late. I took to wearing headbands for a while, which makes me laugh now. (I still occasionally wear a bandana as a headband, but it's to catch the sweat when I'm working in the yard or garden!) I know that young adults feel the need to "question authority," but the whole sixties drug culture was a joke. How can a bunch of drug-addled cretins get anything accomplished? They can't, of course, which is why the whole Movement thing died a fairly quick death. It's one thing to question authority, but unless you have an alternate plan (one that goes beyond everyone just LOVING each other and just BEING), you're not really solving anything. Seems pretty simple to me.
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