Daily Gut: Rebels, Eccentrics and Berkeley
by Greg GutfeldSo last Saturday I spoke at UC Berkeley, my alma mater. The city itself is as delightful as ever – a mix of fall leaves, bright sun and tramp feces. And with that combination of serene elements, I can’t think of a better starting point for my Gregalogue.
See, when I arrived at Berkeley as a freshman some 25 years ago, the city not only helped to transform my political self, but reinforced a cynicism already brewing inside me concerning the meaning of true rebellion. I was a punk in high school, for sure, and embraced generic left wing dogma – for it impressed teachers and even won extra credit in various classes. As a teenager, it also gave me what I craved: attention, some relevance, and a chance to get lucky with hippie chicks. That last desire was never achieved – because I had attended an all boy high school. But no matter, I practiced on the drama students.
But when I got to Berkeley, I saw what true subversion was – and it wasn’t the “subversives” at Berkeley. See, the idea of rebellion means nothing when it’s turned into a personal identity. Dying your hair pink, dipping yourself in tattoo ink and getting ten nipple rings – these acts become not markers of rebellion, but markers of conformity. In Berkeley – the real sheep pretended to be rebels, and those who looked like sheep – were the real bad-asses. The engineering major with back acne was far more rebellious than the coffee house commie in her Crass t-shirt.
Berkeley embraced “subversives,” and they were often called “eccentrics,” which is a nice way of saying they smelled awful. Berkeley celebrated “craziness,” even if it was authentic mental illness – and I am fairly certain a great many of the folks they lauded for their nonconformist behavior would die alone, by their own hands, with no one there to tell them how cool their suffering was.
And so in 1983, I realized that a true rebel blends in, embraces discipline, hard work, and clean pants. I joined a fraternity. I cut off my long crazy mop of hair. I started tanning – I am not sure why, but it seemed the opposite of heroin chic. I also took up the banjo, just to keep it real.
If you’re starting college now, I suggest you do the same.
And if you disagree with me, then you’re probably a racist.
Tonight we have the delightful Ann Coulter, the intriguing Alex Blagg, and the jovial George Wendt.
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81 Comments
An important point is made here…
Namely non-conformist conformity. Being the same by being 'different'. So when you, in your normal attire and actions enter their domain you are now not 'normal' for not achieving the bi-racial transgendered humanistic Order of the Secular Sentient Being in Harmony With the One.
Now, aren't you glad?
What dcase said. I think..
Don't be too quick to condemn all of the Beserkly lifesytle. The irresponsible use of drugs may be the only thing that gets some people through the Obama years. (And if you think I'm serious about that, you're a racist as well.)
That's Bezerkeley. I went there from 70 to 74 (BA Comp Sci).
Greg's saga is similar to mine, except that I'm about five years older. While in high school during the mid-70's I read all the classic left-wing tomes and began to fancy myself a Revolutionary. The first day of of senior year I remained seated during the Pledge of Allegiance. I was enraged when the teacher did nothing. I wanted to be hauled down to the office, where I planned to stick it to The Man and rant about "what this country had done to the Viet Nam people."
I hated America I loved socialism. I felt contempt toward the military. I wished I was old enough to vote for Carter.
Then I went to college: the University of Iowa. I met some genuine communists – the kind who drove Jaguars. I argued, I debated, I read, I wrote. In 1980, the first election I was old enough to vote, I cast that vote for Ronald Reagan. Two years later I joined the US Navy.
You had me up until the back acne and then killed it for me with the frat talk.
I went to school not too far from there, but the culture was pretty much a 180 from the freaks in Berkeley.
Glad to hear you're a rebel. You have to be to survive in these current political times. Conformity is for lefties!
In Amerikka, it may soon be "rebellious" to get up early and work til late in the hopes of being a successful businessperson. After all, successful businesspeople are "evil" and are simply there to be taxed, not to generate success and opportunities for others.
Here's to hoping one doesn't have to go against the grain of culture to be ambitious and successful, and furthermore, to enjoy the rewards of one's success. America has always celebrated the successful and hard working entrepreneur, Now, our leaders and the media herd celebrate successful labor unions and community organizers, the entreprenuers' polar opposites.
Here's to hoping our experiment with liberal conformity doesn't last and the American values of hard work, success, and personal responsibility are rise back to the forefront.
i love you man. i mean that in the most sincere way.
I'm a big advocate of nonconformity in school.
I'd show up for the first day of school, and already have detention hall. Left over from the year before.
In the long run it helped me out though, because I always did my homework in detention and hence did well in school and got good grades.
I was the only conservative in my English/debate class. I pulled alot of dirty looks, and the teacher didn't know what to do with me. She even had counterpoints for me after the debate was done (won by yours truly) and I would shut her down. Soon she would tell me I didn't understand the issue and that we should move on. But I aced the class. I take particular pride in that.
Poor Berkeley, a cautionary tale, in that tolerance of intolerance isn't tolerance at all. They tolerate nothing that isn't approved by lefty groupthink.
Simple: rebel equals non-coformity or minority in a certain facet of life. A school full of rebels is an oxymoron, Berkeley's an extremely liberal campus and you're not a rebel if you dye your hair and embrace socialism just because it makes mom and dad go crazy.
I've always felt hippie / punk rebellion was a form of insecurity, not a form of individualism or rebellion. It seemed to me that those that suffered from the "hey look at me" syndrome were really the most frightened and insecure in their own skin. They more than anyone else yearned to be accepted and included by someone, anyone who would have them. But you Greg most certainly put the 'hip" in hippie, or maybe it was the "pee".
[...] — Greg Gutfeld [...]
Chatsworth High School, early 70s, hippie students would ask me why I chose to conform and be part of the establishment (my fingers feel old just typing this). The students usually asked this question as a group of at least three people. All of them wore virtually the same hair cut, complete with bandana, bell-bottom pants, tie-died shirt, peace sign the size of a man-hole cover, and round shades. I wore a t-shirt and jeans and cheap sneakers, just like the founding fathers meant me to.
“It is almost impossible to distinguish a politician from a gangster.” (Will Durant, The Golden Book, 1931)
At the time in high school, I never considered myself "rebellious" since I was totally not into fashion, boys, cars, music, whatever. I only cared about volleyball (you have to play it to understand the obsession!) and getting good grades. Now, I understand why my teachers would get really angry or frustrated with me when I challenged their "knowledge" about something with actual knowledge. Now 20 years later, I get that true rebellion really is having the spine to do what you want and make your own conclusions without the need to "fit in."
a mix of fall leaves, bright sun and tramp feces.
With this whole post, I thought you were talking about New Paltz for a while there. Berkeley East.
After that pic of you above making the peace sign when you first got to Berkeley, it it is obvious that it was a good idea to join a fraternity.
Hey Greg I feel where you are coming from. I have conservative parents so to rebel I was fairly liberal. Then when I was 17 I went to art school in New York and found out that I was not liberal enough. And worse I had no desire to go as far as others in their views.
I think the final straw was having a president I was once happy to vote for at 18 try and tell me that Oral Sex was not really sex when I was 24. I'm sorry but if it has the word sex in your sex act and you could get VD from it, then it is sex. Sorry Bubba.
Please slap around your friend McCotter…….pet supplies…..give me a break, and now find out he is supporting the crazy in NY23…..We do not need another RINO….acerbic or not…….NO HAPPY ACT….or has he lost his way? Are you doing something to this guy? QUIT IT
Cool. I went ther frum 82- 89 I think.
Banjo? Yes, but 4 string.
Honestly, trying to "be" something is phony. When you are self confident then you just "are" yourself. Labels are an easy way to understand and predict what someone is and how to think about them.
Aren't you now glad you weren't old enough to vote for Mr. Peanut?
"Conformity is for lefties! "
short, simple and Right On!!
It's hard to ignore dirty filthy smelly commie hippies when they're college professors.
Yeah! I remember arguing about Carter with my grandfather, a deeply religious WWII vet who raised three fine children on a blue-colar income. Right from the start, Grandpa just didn't like Jimmah. I couldn't figure it out – after all, he was NOT a Republican, so didn't that mean something really, really good? At 17, I sensed that Carter had a vague animosity toward the country he "led" and that he really considered himself to be the president of "the world." All that appealed to me. I considered Grandpa's dislike of the man a product of narrow-mindedness and ignorant – hey, ANYONE who disagreed with me I instantly knew HAD TO BE "ignorant."
I would have made a fine Obama appointee!
I'm an old lady now, but was in high school during the hippie days. I still remember feeling so inferior because I wore a bra and shaved my legs and armpits. There was that smug superiority that I never wanted to be part of. I don't think much has changed. The liberals are still playing the same game but, thank you Lord, they stopped hurting my feelings a long time ago. Love your show Greg!
Wearing pink and smeared red ink on your hands?…. sounds to me a sign of mental illness.
Greg, I was a complete anti-war, far left liberal in 1967. Then I fell in love with an Air Force guy, quit school, and moved to West Berlin.
My husband and I saved our money for months to see Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in concert at the Sportzhalle (leftover from the 1936 Olympics).
When we got there the Communist students started booing Zappa and he and the band had to leave the stage. Zappa came back with a German-English dictionary and proceeded to tell them to go F themselves. So they stormed the stage again and destroyed all of the instruments and speakers.
A riot began, and I (being 8 months pregnant) had to be lifted by my husband and his buddies over a railing to escape.
That was my introduction to the left. I foolishly voted for Carter in 1976 due to the Ford pardon, but by 1980 I was done with the left, having gone back to college and listened to their foolishness.
I voted for Reagan and became a conservative, and I am proud to be one.
Thanks for your memories!
Oh, I should also add that while we were in West Berlin we had to travel through East Germany to go to West Germany and then on to Denmark. While traveling through the Eastern Zone, I saw a man plowing his field; HIS WIFE WAS PULLING THE PLOW.
So much for the wonders of communism.
Hippies, yeah… that was more my sister's generation. I remember her listening to Iron Butterfly's In A Gada Da Vida or whatever it was… and white kids wearing fros. My mom said she knew none of her kids would ever be hippies because we liked to bathe every day and wear clean clothes. What I did love about that time was my bell-bottom jeans with big flowers printed all over them and watching Star Trek every day after school.
Christa, I think it would be helpful for anyone wanting to change America to a European type government should live over there for a few years. Like you, I lived in Europe and traveled there for business for many years. Poland, East Germany,all the communistic countries were so depressing! I lived in Austria which is socialistic I suffered the loss of a baby due to their great socialized medicine. What a nightmare! I was so happy when I finally decided to move back home to our wonderful country. The liberals have some intellectual fantasy that it is morally superior because it is a cradle to grave government. I found it to be the opposite. BTW,HIS WIFE WAS PLOWING! I hauled milk in a huge can on the back of a bike ,and I thought that was "different"!
"a chance to get lucky with hippie chicks"
The only reason to be a lefty.
I went to Southern Illinois University in the 70's. Just missed the Viet Nam war and the heyday at SIU with the riots and burning the old admin building and the National Guard and such. My experience was that there were quite a few hippies, only the lame straights were in the frats, but we did have a huge population of Iranian Students who constantly protested the Shah in front of the ESL building. Down with the Shah, Down with the CIA, they would chant.,,,, I found work in Saudi Arabia after graduation in 1978. Eventful years and what a place to be. In that time was: Idi Amin, batting practice with missionary heads, Iranian hostage crisis, Jim Jones and the Kool-aid, Irainian radicals taking hostages at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the Khmer Rouge still killing people by the thousands.(damn the liberals who had us bail on viet nam) I think it was right around that time that I became politically aware and how sheltered my life had been and how the US media was not reporting on anything that mattered. Witnessing public executions in Saudi was a real eye opener. I wish Berkley residents would get the same taste of the world that I had, they would know what injustice really is and what torture really means.
Who's the guy in the tie dye and love beads? The President of Berkley? I knew a guy in college that had back acne and was on the wrestling team. When his opponent rolled him on his back it sounded like someone stepping on wasps.
Now a days they would just have CNN fact check you.
I think people should be required to have a passport and visa to visit Berkely and be subjected to a health screening when exiting (mental and physical)
Greg reminds me of a guy I went to college with who walked around all day singing the batman theme over and over and over again………..
I matriculated from a southern liberal university. Or was that a liberal southern university? Whichever, had a very enlightening experience as a member of an oppressed minority on campus — ROTC. This was during our empiricist adventure in SE Asia to seize control of rice paddies before ethanol was cool.
Near the end of my academic career (which was seemingly constan for the longest timet), enrolled in a bunch of literature classes to bump up my GPA. One was a graduate course in drama criticism (attributed to suppressed protestor syndrome). Great fun to show up for seminars outfitted in ROTC garb, with flat top, sharpshooter medal, shoulder boards, etc., and expound on cultural differences I had discovered from reading French plays — in French.
Long-haired, bearded classmates (all of them) in the seminar were no doubt amazed at a military-like appearance with French literature tastes who also shaved daily and regularly attended a barbershop. Non-conformism rules!
Thank God for my American loving parents. My parents loved Ronald Reagan and he was president for most of my childhood. I went to college as a conservative and came out an even bigger conservative (especially after seeing my first real paycheck). I also read that ignorant mess of a boring book called "The Communist Manifesto" (so that I could see where my commie teachers were coming from). Yeah, college just reinforced my beliefs in freedom, capitalism, and individuality. Also, I'm a big fan of taking baths and I hate pot.
There's a reason liberals who grew up in the Fifties and early Sixties paint it as a time of hypocrisy and emotional repression… they genuinely think that's what they experienced. The Boomer kids grew up with parents who were so glad that the Depression and the War were over that they spoiled their kids rotten with material goods; in far too many cases, however, the material goods were intended (by the parents) or received (by the kids) in lieu of emotionally satisfying familial connections. That's a recipe for teenage rebellion and hippiedom…
The Greatest Generation are partly to blame for the excesses of the late Sixties because they coddled their kids. Which, of course, doesn't mean that the Boomers didn't deserve a swift kick in the ass for refusing to get over their issues and grow the f_ck up.
PART 2
DESERT SPECIAL IMPORT FROM BREITBART FEEDING FRENZY INC: Acorn pimp pie topped with ho-ho-ho sauce. Note: You may hold the ho sauce, if, you are, you know, that way. Know what I am talking 'bout ? Management Disclaimer:We aim to please all genders and non-genders and whatever. Who knows, you might like to hold the pimp pie and feast on the ho-ho-ho sauce, or any combo imaginable. It's your call.
After diner, be sure to kick back and relax with one, or 2 of our fine wines. The Special Wine for the past 2 months has been such a success, we have decided to extend it to, well who knows. The latest estimate we got from suppliers was Nov 7, but now we are hearing from Mr Gates that the supply could run out befor then.
Le indécision 2009 vintage ENJOY
PART 1
WOW !!! It sounds like a LIB NURSERY in here. You BABY-LOONS need to MoveOn, if you get my .org drift. It's almost feeding time at the .org. Don't want to be late, especially tonight.
ON THE MENU.
A REAL LIB MAN'S MAIN COURSE: TINGLE-LEG soup with OBAMA lie pleas. (no hard balls ever avail)
SPECIAL SIDE ORDERS:
CRÈME de AFGAN-artiCHOKE (Cheney pre-chewed $5.00 xtra)
GOV-OPT GULASH BAR (DEMS ONLY) Pick and choose your desire. THIS BAR DONATED BY O. SNOW. Who by the way is available to sign autographs tonight 10:00 P.M.- 6:00 A.M. In our NEW MEDICAL MARY-JANE SMOKING ROOM in the basement. Right next to the historic T. Kennedy DUI DRIVING ACADEMY.
What killed my short-lived radical aspirations going to college in the early 70's was coming into contact with actual leftists, who seemed way more irrational and dogmatic than my dad and the Jesuits who's been my high-school teachers.
What really buried it fir me was reading Solzhenytsyn's "Gulag Archipelago," which showed me the end of the radical road.
I can so relate to this. In high school I started dating a guy who would now be called a goth. His friends hated me because I was "too normal." My boyfriend fancied himself a rebel but really he was just trying to fit into his particular clique. I was always proud of the fact that I never changed anything to fit in with his friends– and maybe he deserves a little credit for not allowing his friends to run me off. It's interesting though. The old boyfriend, predictably, ended up following the herd into blind liberalism fancying himself the rebel still while I grew up and raised a family.
At about that same time a buddy of mine went AWOL from the army to see Led Zeppelin in Luxembourg. On their return trip, German border guards found contraband in their car and proceded to strip them all naked, started feeding them bread and water and pretending not to understand english.
He said after about 3 days American military police showed up to take them back, and threw them in the brig.
Besides all that…………………………………….he said they really enjoyed the show.
There is nothing more conformist than a California liberal.
THANK you for leaving the Dark Side.
http://noliberalspin.blogtownhall.com/2009/10/22/...
BTW, ZAPPA ROCKS!
Ahhhhh….the stinkies at the Berzerkley asylum…..who knew that the commies there were the true "rebels". I always thought of them as braindead lefty sheeple. Silly me!
I liked what you said about the true rebel – and the ones thinking they are "rebelling" are really the conformists. I decided long ago that when my kids reached a certain age, I would take them to the mall. I would offer to pay them one dollar for every kid they saw dressed differently than all the others. They'd point out five or six "Goths" and I would tell them, that no that only counts as one – because they are all dressed the same. I figure the visual would sink in that individualism is NOT being just like the rest of the herd. Unless, you just honestly want to be like them, for your self. I never saw dressing nice for work as "being part of the herd" I always saw it as being my professional self.
Christa, at least your walk on the dark side led you to vote for Carter. I was a bleeding-heart, soft-brained liberal (even after becoming a new Christian) and voted for Clinton against Bush.
Mea culpa!
In my defense, George did not appear to actually want to really win, and then there was the crazy Tolkien character running… (HT to Dennis Miller) – okay, I was dumb, and I'm sorry for it.
That is amazing isn't – when you conform you are being part of the herd, when THEY conform it is simply being in the brotherhood. You know it's togetherness.
I think the perfect testament to our differences when you break with the "herd" and the reactions of the group can be testified to by the former "Roe." She said when she became a Christian and against abortion, her old friends pretty much tried to destroy her. I like to think that while conservatives are saddened when people go Left, but hey, some of us did manage to vote for McCain (okay, Sarah), but we tried to be happy about it. (Dang, I'm not helping my argument…laugh)
I think you nailed it!
In 1978, I sold tree spirit candle holders on Telegraph Ave, working for a small crafts company that was based in Marin county. So I had my share of show up crazies from an LSD-addled former physicist to Hare Krishnas to bums (I mean vagabonding cultural rebels). My brother and I almost got mugged a couple of times just walking around. I remember the banks wouldn't let me open up a checking account until I could show a utility bill. But I loved the weather:everyday, like clockwork, at 10AM the sky would clear completely and the temps were in the upper 70's, lower 80's if I remember that right. Now I realize I was a Leftist then into New Agey so called metaphysics but now I reaize: I must have been a racist.. Thanks, Greg, for your humor, your writings, and the show on Fox.
i think i speak for all present when i say, "eeewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!" thanks soooooo very much for sharing that with us.
When I was still in high school, just as the whole 'psychedelic' youth culture was a-borning in the early 1960s, as a student of history I realized that those who were outwardly conformist to society's norms could be get away with far more truly radical views and could effect far more change than could those who were outwardly 'rebels'. And it was even obvious that there was far more conformity among 'rebellious' youth — they were no different as college students trying to be "in" than they had been as high school students trying to be "in" — than there was among the adults who were comfortable in their own skin and focused on what they thought and did, rather than on what others thought of their outward appearance.
The more things change……..
Yeah, he did! Never get tired of Apostrophe, One Size Fits All, etc….
It's amazing how many comment boards I can visit, propose the same thing and they shut up. Very few have any experience outside the borders of another state much less another country. Most that I have debated, informally, in person, have been to less states than I have countries. The looks on their faces and the deflation of their poseur rhetoric is priceless.
Wait,…….
that's my childhood! Oh, …..Bell-bottoms!?!?
No, it wasn't. Yuck.
SIU. Madistone South. 4 of my HS buddies came down here from 76-80. I used to visit when I was home on leave. It was still pretty crazy. So, I came down here 81- never left. There were still leftover hippies wandering the area. Merlin's, Das Vas, Gatsby's. Fun days of wonderful weirdness.
Lake of Egypt. I guess I'll just die here.
Solzhenytsyn's "Gulag Archipelago"
That book opened a LOT of eyes.
I was with you until the banjo. As Mark Twain said, "A gentleman is someone who can play the banjo, but doesn't." Or something like that.
Ah, to be 17 again, when one's ignorance is surpassed only by complete confidence in one's perfect and superior knowledge. Sadly, that used to be me; I'd heard early on that Democrats were for the poor man, and Republicans for the rich, so who wouldn't want to be a Democrat? Then 9/11 happened, I started reading, and the rest is history.
Ah, college. I loved how we were all working so hard to out-rebel each other…breaking our asses to be different…just like everybody else.
Cool post, Greg.
How do you fact-check common sense values? If an immigrant is illegal, he gets shipped back to whatever hell hole he comes from until he/she can do it the right way. That SHOULD be a fact, but in our "tolerant" society of lawbreakers and "diversity" douches, it is considered racist to even speak the truth. I am sad that I have written that last sentence and that the comment is true. That is also a fact. Check me CNN, I am just a humble blogger doing what I think is right.
Zappa started out making fun of hippies and conformity. I recall a concert when he told the crowd, "Everyone in here is wearing a uniform and don't kid yourselves." The crowd applauded – they didn't seem to know they'd been exposed as frauds. In the end, we all tend to scorn people who conform to ideals we reject. Frank did, too, from what I heard in his interviews.
By the way, do you recall Steve Martin's non-conformity pledge? "Okay kids, repeat after me. I promise to be different! I promise to be unique! I promise not to repeat things other people tell me to!"
It's kind of like an ex-liberal anonymous in here. Is this our 12 step program Greg?
Some of us got it right from the get go.
Wow, I was never a rebel and never will be a rebel, was in the military at 17 in Beruit then college 21-25 to gain a marketable skill & working hard since. But I am very surprised that there are that many converts. It gives me a good feeling that the fascist will be gone in four and will loose the ability to rule by decree in the mid term elections.
I loved Andrew describing his epiphany, while watching the Thomas hearings. If you'd care to share, I would love to hear yours. I love hearing them to gain perspective. Because I am just the opposite, never a Democratic bone in my body, and had a countdown calendar for the first time I could pull the lever…..for Ronald Reagan.
Unfortunately, the Naked Guy IS one of those mentally ill people from Berkeley who killed himself without any non-conformists around to tell him how cool he is.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/...
Went to Berzerkley in the mid-70's. I left the day I saw a naked hippie sitting in a tree on Telegraph, doing bird calls. I haven't been back.
in "the loo sanction", the late great trevanian wrote a great mini-scene in which skinny hipsters, all dressed alike in their cool t-shirts and blue jeans, were having to move: had been evicted for not paying the rent, and were moving to another place where they'd not pay the rent.
he said they were taking "identical paths to nonconformity".
Bummer. Not surprising, but still a bummer.
keep on keeping it real with the banjo! the subversive's secret weapon. Just ignore pete seeger when he stops playing and talks
There is no such thing as a Berkeley rebel. Berkeley is full of the most narrow minded conformists and
non conformists (conformists that conformed to non conformist) people gathered together in one place. You have created a nice bubble for yourselves. Did I hurt your aura?
Hey, I went from 78 to 83. I was an engineering major so I missed most of the liberal indoctrination.
Hey Greg! So you did drama class and learned to play a banjo, huh. Did you play the little redneck kid with the banjo in Deliverance? You were very believable. Yuk, Yuk, Yuk!
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