In the soft glow of our most recent discussion, we continue our conversation with Kit Laika, and explore the imperfections of language as a communication tool, and the linguistic similarities between Germans and chimpanzees that have been taught sign language.
Plus, we talk about the first moments of realization that the reality of the voices on the radio were much less cool than the picture in your head.
And come to think of it, what is cool, anyways? Is there a way to make young people think you’re cool? All that and Punks versus Hippies, too!
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Whooooooooooooooooooah. When Mike started talking about how we might not actually truly understand what a writer was thinking and we’re just interpreting the words with our own minds reminded me of late-night dorm room conversations in college after the consumption of much pizza, sodas, beer and possibly other stuff…
By the way, how did those chimps know about the bird-eating going on at Thanksgiving without some human explaining it to them? Unless they could see into people’s dining rooms from their observation post…
Apparently, they would give the chimps some turkey on Bird Meat Day. Here’s a link to the Ape signing project from CWU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee_and_Human_Communication_Institute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nRrFMZEIk
It’s since been discontinued, and the chimps now live in a sanctuary. But I went years back and the people there talked about Bird Meat Day (Thanksgiving), finger bracelets (rings), and Face Hat Day (Halloween).
Ah, that’s makes sense.
Also, I feel the need to come to the defense of hippies a bit (#notallhippies).
And remember, way back when the Dead Kennedys warned us about a certain swastika-loving sub-group of punks…
Okay, duly noted and admired. I’ve just had so many bad experiences with pretentious Oly punks and hippies and, admittedly, I grew up pretty blue collar and conservative. You are one of the few listeners I would concede to readily, Edo. Mea culpa! 🙂
Generally, my disdain (if not outright dislike) of hippies in general comes from my years in Green Party activism (2004-2008), both at the national and local level. This was during the height of the Bush years where torture, domestic spying, unlimited detention without trial, racially targeted police surveillance, and endless foreign wars were being normalized and the national sentiment was probably the ugliest I’ve ever seen — even worse than now.
But at the height of that, the hippies among the Greens were mostly angry at other Greens because someone brought donuts or soda to a meeting’s refreshment table. They always seemed far more upset that a fellow activist was drinking a Coke product than the government torturing people or our neighbors being targeting by national security for their religious beliefs.
My experience with them was of people who were much more interesting in public displays of moral judgement of others’ buying habits than of the literal world going to hell around us. As if the world’s problems were going to be solved through consumer buying habits. Also, when it came time to sent up a tent at a local fair, get volunteers to work an event or get someone to help gather signatures, they were never to be seen. But they had plenty of judgmental words for the people who DID show up.
On the other hand, Punks, as you say, are much more effective at dealing with Nazis infiltrating a space than Hippies ever have been.