Matthew and the Hippies

So I took the family up to Washington last weekend to see Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center.  Not only were the kids fantastic, the musical was excellent as well (though I have to say… I miss the old set).

Red!  The blood of angry men!  (…and the fate of revolutionaries)

Our highlight was when Matthew Kenney decided he wanted to see the Air and Space Museum.

…and ran into about 200 anti-war protesters.

…and locked doors.

One of the individuals attached to the protests was a very nice gentleman who informed us of what happened — some folks tried to get into the museum to protest an exhibit on drones, they got a bit rowdy, the police pepper sprayed them (and the crowd), and everyone got kicked out.

“Sorry Matt,” was all I could muster.  “They closed the Air and Space Museum today.”

Little brown eyes peered back after having walked about a mile to see the Apollo capsule and the Wright brothers flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis.

“Why?”

“Well son…” I waved my arm to the sea of protesters, “these guys aren’t happy about one of the exhibits, and someone did something stupid and they had to shut down the museum for the day.”

“So they ruined it for the rest of us?”

Pause.  OK… now I could have told him “Hell yeah, son — stupid freakin’ hippies.”  Or I could have calmly explained the justness of their cause and the right to protest — which would have only made the fact that he wanted to go to the Air and Space Museum and all these “rights” were interfering with his childhood.  Or I could have let the family next to me do the talking.

“Damn hippies is what it is!!  All they want is something for free.  It’s our military keeping them free that allows them to shut down museums and ruin it for the rest of us!  You know it’s true!” elbowed the family next to us as they laughed and shook their heads, their Saturday afternoon equally ruined by the experience.

We trudged back towards the runner-up: the Smithsonian Museum of American Indian History…

All the while back, Matthew was muttering something about “hippies…”

***

Now obviously, were I a fanatic I could sit back well pleased that my son is now a Republican for life.  Good job, Occupiers!

…of course, that just won’t do.

It got me to thinking how often these events really do forge the mindsets of children — and yes, adults — from time to time.   One bad experience, one wrong word, one conversation with an overconfident fanatic.  Not exactly the basis for raising thoughtful young men and women, is it?

O physician, heal thyself.

What is news today but a conviction of our own prejudices and predilections?   Blogs themselves used to be a clearinghouse for an exchange of ideas, art, culture, and politics.  Now?  Splash and trash reign on high… jokes are political fodder, insight is ridiculed or lost in a sea of information, and ideas are lost in ideology.

Les Miserables for those who do not know the musical or the book on which it was based is Victor Hugo’s prime achievement, a triumph of vocation and the soul over ambition and form.  The reformed prisoner Valjean and his manifested past Javert just half-a-step behind.  Revolution vs. reaction.  Changing the world to fit the desires of the people, contrasted with the much more arduous task of reforming yourself despite the world.

Occupiers and Tea Partiers have something in common.  Politicians share it.  The desire to find change through political systems is an idea as old as government itself; as old as “am I my brother’s keeper?” was the wrong question for Cain to ask.

If there is a shift in America, it is the shift from personal vocation to personal ambition.  Once our government was small, without the need to protect us from either corporations or the need for business to outpace a growing government.  Today, we need more business to pay for bigger government… and bigger government to protect us from overreaching corporations… and more business to pay for the government.

Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works because circular reasoning…

Worst of all, we all want someone to do something.  But note the fallacy — we all want someone else to do something.  Can’t the politicians sort it out?  Can’t Obama pass his jobs bill?  Can’t Congress cut the deficit?  Can’t Richmond fix the VRS?  Can’t education just pay for itself?  The list continues ad nauseam.

Is the problem with America us?

That’s the hard truth that I haven’t quite been able to break to Matthew just yet. Yet Matthew in his own way just can’t bring himself to blame anyone (aside from hippies).  Matthew is collecting eggs from the chicken coop.  Matthew is doing his schoolwork.  Matthew is reading his book.  Matthew picking on his brother.  Matthew is playing with his sisters.  Matthew is trying to find two black rooks and a black pawn so I can buy him a black bag for his chess set (as I promised to do should he find the missing pieces).

Matthew isn’t asking anyone to do anything about the hippies.  Or the Air and Space Museum.

Matthew moved on.  Matthew went back home to improve himself.

Matthew is in the world… but not of it.

The hippies?  They’re in the world.  The protesters and Occupiers and politicians and bloggers and the characters of Les Miserables and Matthew’s father?

Our kids have it figured out.  Our Founding Fathers had it figured out.

***

So what’s the moral of this story? People need to quit blaming the rest of the world and get off their collective butts.  Because to the rest of us, you look like this:

America the Beautiful…

…and no, this goes for Occupiers and Tea Partiers both.

Objectivists? You’re a mooch living off society — go apply your ethics and find out how many friends you have in five years.

Occupiers? You live in the greatest, freest nation on earth — go get a job, or if you can’t find one, MAKE ONE.

Pensioners? You made a promise with my future paycheck then wave a Gasden flag like it’s your right…

Banksters? The era of cheap credit is OVER.

Consumerism? If you can’t make something with your own two hands, you are wasting your God-given talent to become who you are.

This alliance between corporations and socialism? It ends — not by revolution — but because *I* simply refuse to participate in it anymore.

America needs a general St. Thomas More moment — a cross pollination between More’s desire to live quietly once England went to hell, a V for Vendetta mass awakening, and a revision of Thomas Jefferson’s self-sufficient yeoman farmer.

Above all else, take a more Christian viewpoint on the matter.  At the very height of political tension, when Roman Judea demanded a political Messiah and dozens of pretenders were proclaiming themselves to be as such, God sent his only Son as a Messiah… but of a better sort.  One spark would have ignited the tinderbox (and did in 66 A.D.) and guess what?  They got stomped.  Christ rules the world today.

Don’t be a hippie.  Change yourself.  I’ll tell Matthew the truth he already knows when he really begins to question its veracity.

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