abbie hoffman

Well,now that I pissed everyone off, allow me to clarify my thoughts. Abbie was no hero to the thousands of innocent kids he led to Chicago in 1968 where they proceeded to get gassed and their heads beaten in. All he did most of the 60's was incite riots. He, naturally having rich, leftist friends, got bailed right out. The rest of the kids, being poor, street-kids, got to do time in prisons where long-haired boys were preyed upon by the scum of society. And, that's your idea of a hero?


Sorry, I don't see it like that.

 

He didn't lead the kids to Chicago.. The idea of people going there wasn't his. And it was always ALWAYS their choice to go and participate. Everyone knew by that time what the risks were in protesting.
And if you read Steal This Book, he does offer tons of advice on how to protect yourself in a protest, from simple ideas of wearing the right kind of clothes, to things like writing down your lawyers number on your arm.
And his friends weren't all rich. His bail money was raised. And a lot of money (most of it, in fact) that he made off of speaking and his books was put toward getting lots of kids out of jail. A true hippie helps his brothers and sisters. And he did so.

 

He was gay and a pedophile if I remember correctly. Don't have a problem with the former but definitely the latter.

NAMBLA scum.

 

What U Fail To Realize Is This Was A Price People Were Willing To Pay In Order To Stop The War Abbie And His Followers Stopped A War Who Else Do U Know Of Who Has Ever Done Sutch A Great Thing Id Be Willing To Go To Jail If That Ment Another Mother Wasnt Goina Loose Her Child..another Child Didnt Have To Worry About Neaver Seeing His Father Again...hmmmm Jail Time To Make Sure That Doesnt Happen....id Do It In A Heart Beat...would You? Do U Get The Big Picture Now Or Are You Still Ignorent???

 

Hey someone had to sell the sixties and somebody had to buy it.

 

It seems to me that, when you lose the light in your heart all good things flee from the negitive from which one has chosen. Altho we come to gather here in peace and harmony there will always be obticals to overcome. Like the lost ones stumbling in the darkness, grasping only bitterness as the light leaves them. Like children lost and alone in the night.
The laughter now turned to bitter rememberence against the jagged edge of yesterdays song. To let lifes lessons turn you to stone instead of building a base of knowledge to draw from leaves us exposed to a lower level of consciousness, not using our higher mentality leaves for a 'flabby' thinking process.
Losing ones Spiritual connection takes away Hope and leaves one cynical in their despiration. Heavy hearts drag out the wrost in people, creating a 'woe is me' syndrom which drive men to irrational thinking. To cover up their pain they pick at others to feel less threatened. Their fear turns to addiction to mask itself and is released when the mind looses control over it's own enviroment and EGO steps in a takes over. When EGO steps in, then all hope walks out. EGO being, all consuming and self centered, leaving no room for light or learning..Ego knows everything and it's job is to destroy the body. EGO resists and disrupts the universe flow of wisdom. EGO thinking it is most supream and listens to no one, only itself. There is no unity or brotherhood in EGO. EGO is strictly for itself. EGO does not lend a hand but pats itself on the back with it and says, 'Ha! I showed them who's boss', and then sits alone in the darkness it creates.
It's like the Dark Night Of The Soul. When one isolates theirself, they lose the innerself that keeps them on the path to enlightenment. They lose contact with their higher selves and think with the 'Little Me' that only includes them.
Are these not the ones that need compassion and understanding, the lost desprite souls that cover up their pain by creating diversion at others expence. Is it not up to us to show them a better way and release them from the chains they have bound themselves with. Perhaps it is our own shortcomings that close us off to understanding what we need to be doing. Should we not enbrace our brother who is in pain and in need of love and compassion. Is that not why they were sent to us, so that thay can be healed, and we turn them away in their suffering.
I judge myself harshly as I read over my words. Have I let the negitivty overcome me, is it I who walk in darkness. Do I draw negitivity to me as means of attonement for past failures, or out of guilt for my own shortcomings. Should I search my soul for why I have failed them and not given them comfort. I will have to pray on that one.
sh

 

"be your own fuckin hero" is for me? .. I'm confused.

 

voided 37

my grammy used to always say that too: IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL" good words to live by
hippiewise

 

Hippiewise, I don't belive Voided meant anything unkind in his post or sig. I think in his frustration at Thudly he was trying to call out to you, to follow your own heart and make your own discissions. Ones can influence you and broaden horizons but always remain true to yourself.
As Bob Dylan put it. " Don't follow leaders and watch your parking meters" Think for yourself and do your best.
sh

 

Coyotes have no ego.The CIA had more important people to take care of.Abbie was not a threat especially later in life.He was mainly a nusense to them.No reason to kill him.He took what the kids were doing and sold it to straight amerika.Not a dishonerable profession but a self serving one.He tried to extort money from the producers of woodstock,but that was a commercial enterprise and maybe they deserved it.R.I.P.

 

gate68 i agree with what you say, abbie was human, just like all of us, not a saint nor a sinner.
hippiewise

 

i usually don't use the word hero. it gives to much of a pedastal for the person it is applied too. Abbie was someone amazingly beautiful. And I think to learn about his life, and see the beauty he possessed, is a wonderful thing.
i guess i say hero because he saved people. i could say idol. but that sounds wrong too. And, as I'm sure you know, I can't say leader. "There are no Yippie leaders."
he was a man i wish had lived long enough that maybe I could of have met him.

 

maryfairy i love your picture of the naked hippies. i remember being in golden gate park in 1973 at a love-in and it looked just like that. hippies all over the place making love and being free and naked, man, i miss those days, they were good days.
hippiewise

 

RE: You'll find plenty of personal friends of Abbie's still around to dispute that claim but i doubt they'd want to talk to you.....potmetalgoth..

If that's not true then I won't dislike him - however, I don't like pedophiles, never have, never will.

 

I seem to remember reading a book titled "Revolution For The Hell of It" by Hoffman in the late 60's. On the cover it suggested you should steal the book. Is this the one you all have been refering to, or is it another work of his? Or is my memory faulty? thanks

 

Revolution for the Hell of It came first. Steal This Book was the.. next book (I believe). He wrote a few more too.

 

My last word on the subject (thousands of people across cyber-space applaud)-- Abbie and Tom Hayden and the Yippies and thousands of protesters didn't end the war: the middle-class tax-payers finally got tired of financing it; in other words, my parents and their coevals put an end to it. BTW, it was a Republican who finally ended it-- mean old Richard Nixon (not that I love him for it-- he had his own reasons and they had nothing to do with a half-million protesters).


Gee, since I haven't had a drink for two days, maybe I better check the 'fridge!

Nah, better not-- I gotta get a good week in while the weather's is good.

 

voided

i totally understand what you are saying, and i agree have, all along. abbie hoffman, along with many others of our generation spoke out against oppression and tryanny. they protested in the only way they knew how. anytime someone is known by the public eye, they are scrutinized. look at john lennon, he got so much bad rap back in the 70's about being associated with the black panthers. i knew many black panthers in oakland, california. i used to go help distribute food to the poor that was provided by the black panthers, they also got a bad rap. i believe our generation helped in so many ways: civil rights, equal rights, human rights and yes, we did help stop the viet nam war and bring down nixon, and i give credit to the two brave men that wrote about watergate in "all the presidents men". it's hard to understand if you weren't there or alive during that time, but it seems to me that the young people on these boards are very willing to hear about our time, that is great. i thank you for all that you have posted, i learned alot about abbie hoffman that i didn't know before.
hippiewise POWER TO THE PEOPLE

 

I'm a little young to know what went on back then (I was only 4 in '68), but it seems to me it was all about fighting against the social order to uphold civil liberties. Sure icons like Abbie Hoffman and Timothy Leary might've seemed over the top in their personal behavior by today's standards, but they laid the groundwork for what (little) freedom we have today. There's always gonna be the right wing nazis who try to take away civil liberties in the interest of the "GRAND DESIGN" using "moral values" as a front, and they'll throw as much dirt out there as they can to discredit the "infidels", but when I look at the positive things the Abbie Hoffman's fought for and what they accomplished, my hat's off to them...

 

hehe i know Abbie got knocked of stage during Woodstock by MY hero Pete Townshend (of The Who, but you knew that). He interupted there gig an Pete Smashed him with the neck of his guitar.
have to say...shows him to interupt an artist at work
but i totaly agree with what Mellow Yellow Sais above...

Peace