Op-ed piece from "Jackson Hole ????" (not News) dated July 6, 1994 OPINION ======= Abendwonk by Richard Abendwonk Dialectical rainbowism, ideals spawn contradiction On Monday, while strolling through Snider Basin and the various camps of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, dressed casually in my favorite Lands End madras shirt and spaghetti-sauce-dotted Banana Republic khakis, I couldn't help but feel slightly out of place. Maybe it was all the rubber-necking I was doing, the double-takes at each bong-beating hippie, each loving, smiling, spaced-out face, each call of "Welcome Home." Maybe it was the curious expression that crossed my brow whenever a naked amn or woman passed me. Maybe it was the way I sniffed the smoke in the air, and asked a bit too loudly, "Hey, is that marijuana?" Or maybe it was the rat pack of media maggots with whom I strolled. Whatever it was, I felt the burn of a thousand pairs of eyes on me and could swear I heard snickering as I passed by. It bugged me out a little. After all, I always thought of myself as leaning toward the liberal side of the spectrum, always felt I had an open mind, accepting of all varieties of lifestyles and life choices. I figured I was perfect Rainbow fodder, thought it would be obvious to all these hyper-sensitive, self-actualized earth-children whose blood-hound noses could smell someone like them as easily as I could catch the whiff of patchouli in the crowd. Instead, in a mob of iconoclasts, I ended up feeling like a freak. It couldn't have been worse if I had dressed in a three-piece silk suit and begun trading stocks over my cellular phone and fax. Feeling so out of it and alienated from my brothers and sisters, I took none-too-subtle counter measures. I cornered a skinny guy who called himself Spider Barking On The Log. He stirred a 55-gallon drum full of tofu vegetable medley and blinked a lot as I jumped down his throat. "So, this is the Rainbow Family, where 15,000 sanctimonious freaks from all across the country converge to pray for world peace and study their constitutional rights, eh?" "That's right," said Spider. "We also practice communal living and try to minimize our impacts on the earth as much as possible." "And you guys all say you love everyone - all the people, the left-wingers and the righties, the police and the politicians, the status quo, the middle class, the upper class - all of them, not just other free-heeled free-wheeling folks like yourselves." "Yeah, man," Spider answered. "But we still hang in places like this to get away from all that negative energy in Babylon - you know, the hate and strife and delusion. We can channel our energies more efficiently and heal ourselves and the earth much better. "Because, you see, man" he continued, giving his pot of medley a few studious stires, "out there there's nothing real, you know? Out there there's just corruption and bad karma and people taking our rights away, and it's all gonna fall. It's all gonna fall, and the Rainbows will be here to pick up the pieces, see." I saw an opening and made my move. "You're going to pick up the pieces? How can you do that when you don't beleive in any laws except the ones you choose to believe? And how can you repair the current order of things with anarchy? And how can you retreat from 'Babylon' and scarf up food stamps? And how do you expect to survive on love and idealism and communal living after 'the fall' when all any desperate person will really want is your food and your shelter and will be willing to commit all sorts of atrocities to get them? And how will you govern when you don't believe in government? And don't you see this whole scheme is full of holes and hypocrisies? And don't you feel foolish and shamed and silly now that I've pointed out so many blatant gaps in your logic? I mean, you're after utopia! Get real! I've never heard of such an example of naive, idealized, unrealistic thinking." Spider blinked some more and stirred some more. And then at last he said, "How 'bout this, man. How 'bout a society in which everyone educates him or herself about the issues and then participates and has his or her say and then votes and lays out a course of action for the leaders. "Or how 'bout this one: a society in which everyone takes personal responsibility for him- or herself and stands on his or her own two feet and works hard for what he or she wants and needs and doesn't rely on others for hand-outs or help? "Or how 'bout one where the people elect representatives and those representatives serve the masses and only the masses and are motivated only by their duty to the people and their sense of service and altruism?" "Well," I said, "sure, that all sounds awfully ideal and sort of naive too, I guess. But who out there is proposing all of that?" "I think it's called democracy, Bro," said Spider. "I think its what the free world is supposed to be based on." Oh. Yeah. It's tough living by ideals. Even the smallest spots seem like huge ugly stains. But, like our favorite khakis, we take them out and wear them just the same.