I'm jazzed about Facebook, especially the phenomenon of us old Boomers storming its ramparts, using it to get together once again. It's like the Grove Avenue Republic has been resurrected.
In the 60s, stirred up by the folk revival which showed us authenticity for the first time, we unexpectedly started doing those things for ourselves which the powers-that-were thought they owned: music (singer-songwriters instead of Tin Pan Alley & record corporations), homegrown literature (great example in the illustration), and a philosophical-values system to live by (Readers' Digest vs. the Acid Tests). No one thought we could, or should, be allowed to come up with satisfying alternatives to the plastic, artificial, consumerist airconditioned nightmare.
When the Internet arrived, it's like we got a whole new green Monroe Park to play in again. Remember the Be-Ins there and in Forest Hills Park? Now they're worldwide and still free admission. Imagine Earth Day being invented by the WWII generation if you want to crack yourself up! Our energy lives on in the succeeding generations who invented Napster, Facebook, You Tube and blogs, who live tolerance and gender equality because they are not radical concepts anymore. Doin' it for themselves, just like we still are.
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