Correspondents' Correspondence Con Game

...Probably a million-copy seller by Charles Reich describing what happened to Con III and how to be part of Con IV—Herbert London...

...Those alleged flower children with flowing hair and a smile for everyone The ones who planted seeds between cracks in the pavement The children of Woodstock and Marcuse Contrary to a growing behef, they are alive and well and living in a fantasized ivory tower, where they can remain somewhat free from the harsh realities of life But they are not completely sheltered It must already be obvious even to them that the "dry look" manufacturers dig long hair, that Brooks Brothers sells bell bottoms as cruise wear, and that David Eisenhower sports jeans at the beach Charles Reich may think he has discovered a revolution m consciousness, but so has Madison Avenue The hippie exists only as a myth, a fabrication of television documentaries A so-called vanguard of Con III was in Miami Beach this summer practicmg log-rolling with every Con II politician it could find An ambivalence m parental moral attitudes has led directly to Krishna consciousness and Jesus Freaks-curiously reminiscent of Con I religion Openness has generated an orthodoxy of honesty that substitutes moral absolutism for human decency Sexual promiscuity has made penicillin an essential ingredient in the ubiquitous knapsack Science is denounced as the creator of Frankenstein, but the stereo can be found in every commune from Big Sur to Rutland Sixteen-year-olds still arrive in New York looking for that dream You can see them in Grand Central with a facial innocence hidden by hair and anachronistic love beads They still walk on St Mark's Place, self-consciously reluctant to stare at the bums on the stoops They visit Eighth Street head shops and buy overpriced mobiles All m the hope of capturing a past that didn't exist For those who are more committed there is the walk to the old Fillmore, lamentations about its closing and memories of The Who breaking their guitars on stage There are the efforts to buy a stash and the inevitable realization that they've been had There is the search for a pad free from bikers and a lot of tears when they compromise themselves for a bed When the evening approaches some can hear Jams Jophn's ghost sing, "Freedom s just another word for nothing left to lose " These children ol the Reichian dream discover their own consciousness one that involves the constraints of reality The turgid praise Reich heaped on the "new generation" was as artificial as the "revolution in soap suds " Marcuse realized that revolutions don't happen because some self-styled radicals will them Just as Archie Bunker knows that three squares and a com fortable bed can be powerful lures The curious thing is that Con III is no longer even discussed It was something like a revolutionary hula hoop But it is not yet camp enough for a Susan Sontag piece m Partisan Review It is m a limbo between havmg been and memorabiha In 10 years, college students playing Tnvia will ask who was Goldwater's running mate, Ann Margaret's husband, and the man who coined the phrase Con IIP For those who took Con III seriously, e g , John Kenneth Galbraith, it offered reinforcement in the form of pseudosophisticated historical affirmation You could read the New Yorker and convince yourself of a permanent position m history And it was all so easy By contemplating the "smoke rings of your mind" you could launch a revolution By wearing tight-fitting jeans the millenium would be achieved Instant euphoria and revolution could be found m Bloomingdale's basement But this was undiluted antinomiamsm with preachers in flowered shirts It is clearly over now Used copies of the Greening of America sell for a quarter at the Strand bookstore Flowered shirts can be found on the racks of used clothing stores on the Bowery And students are starting to confuse Charles and Wilhelm Reich What will come next...