All the "wonderful conveniences" promised in the 50s have turned into excuses to keep us too busy to cook our own food, make our own music, play with our own kids. Busy, busy, too busy to think . . .
Too busy to think. Perhaps that's the reason. Why should they give us time to think? We had time to think in the 50s and 60s. More of us than ever were going to college, and there was so much time that articles were being written in popular magazines about the coming of the four-day work week and how to enjoy one's leisure time. Hobby magazines proliferated and so did social organizations.
So did social commentary. Although it was subdued by the pressures of the cold war, social criticism flourished. For example, we don't even talk about noise pollution anymore. In fact, the word "pollution" is somewhat passe, and we only speak up about it when our awareness is caught by a particularly egregious plunder in our own neighborhoods, such as fracking. Concepts like the alienation of individuals from the human community, war resistance, free love, moving back-to-the-land, mind expansion, addressing poverty, racial integration, and other issues in the popular press of those days have been drowned out in an explosion of techno-toys, constant media stimulation, two income families, and the fear of economic collapse. Who has the time to think about social issues anymore? Who is still able to sustain attention enough to read thoughtful commentary?
We had enough time in mid-century America to be reading and thinking and protesting. We started to make our own music and discover our own gods, and the common people, or at least their children, were becoming a little too independent for dominator taste. One way to keep us down was to take away our time.
Cannabis is a god who gives us back our time. "Slow down," it calls to us. "Slow down and consider things deeply. Take the time for love." We need to take time for Cannabis, and Cannabis will give us the gift of time.
Best to all,
Puny
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