On the Bus or Off the Bus

December 27, 2012 — 2 Comments

Merry Praksters

There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all – suspicion. –Demosthenes

How can we cultivate a healthy sense of disrespect and suspicion that is mindful of and careful with  the opinions of others?  We see no mature examples set by politicians.  Religious leaders all teach healthy disrespect for worldly authority.  Some religions teach that all worldly authority is to be shunned because of the wicked nature of it.  The nuns on the bus dissing the Pope showed healthy suspicion of politicians trashing the poor to be elected by the rich. There was a saying that resonated back in the hippie world.  “You are either on the bus or off the bus.”  The phrase came from the book The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test by Tom Wolfe.  We also talked constantly about revolution, and the end of the empire.  Bob Dylan, The Dead, Angela Davis, Black Panthers, SDS….. it was all very meaningful….and then it faded like morning dew in a folk song.  Perhaps these nuns were hippies who never lost the baby faith.