Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Be Here Now Teabagging

At the beginning of the Tea Party movement, the members first used the term "tea bagger" until they found out there was another meaning for tea bagging that they did not find very appropriate for their movement. The more liberal members of the media found their ignorance humorous. and took advantage of the situation.
I have seen a similar situation with "Be here now".
First, a little hippie history. Dr. Richard Alpert was a professor at Harvard until he was dismissed the same year as his close friend Dr.Timothy Leary. Alpert collaborated with Leary and Ralf Metzner on the book "The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead". The book was intended to be used as an instruction manual for the use of hallucinogenic drugs. Somewhere along they way, Dr. Alpert was transformed into Ram Dass. His first book under that name was "Remember, Be Here Now". The book "Be Here Now" is often described as a counterculture bible and Alper/Ram Dass was as big a hero with the LSD crowd as Timothy Leary. The phrase "Be Here Now" is not much different in meaning as the phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out".
I have seen "Be Here Now" being used by people who pretend to be knowledgeable in their teaching, but most likely would be as embarrassed  as the tea baggers if they knew the cultural references of their words.

1 comment:

  1. i never knew that, thank you for the mini history lesson :)

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