What’s up? Are they no longer popular? Have they gone out of fashion? For most of my life, since I was a teen, those were the most sacred of all things, the holy trinity, the father, son and holy ghost, the raison d’etre, the goals one strove for and the means for taking you there. They got one through tough times and helped in celebrating good times. They were basic staples of life. True, I missed out on the height of the psychedelic, mind-altering, peace, love and r&R revolution of the late '60s, but for me and my friends, those years continued through the 70’s and 80’s.
But lately I sense a different vibe. Lately, it seems, sex is a premeditated, deliberate activity engaged in with all the proper precautions by two fully-consenting (and conscious) adults committed to a long-term monogomous relationship, and anything else is abhorrent. Rock & Roll has gone the way of vinyl albums and drugs are seen as a scourge of the weak, depraved and sinful losers, who should be flogged, imprisoned or executed for their transgressions.
Am I imagining things, do I need to get out more, or have sex and drugs and r&R lost their appeal?
If it’s true, then what’s the problem? What’s the source of their decline? AIDs, soccer moms, bursting of the Internet bubble, Republicans, the “Global War on Terror”? Don’t tell me they’ve faded to insignificance because people grow up, mature and outgrow foolish habits. What’s so wrong about smoking a few doobies in one’s spare time, shagging some chick one met at a party, popping a tab of blotter and zoning out to some psychedelia? If it was good enough for one generation of young adults, and good enough for the next, why should this generation find it so distasteful and do whatever it is they do instead?
Admittedly, I’ve mellowed a lot over the years, after so many years of sitting behind a desk and now raising a wife and child, but in my heart I still hold those things sacred and feel I could revert in an instant if given the right opportunity.
So what’s the deal?
