In 1983 a biotechnology research scientist, Kary Mullis, dropped a dose of LSD as he was driving along the coast of California. The trip induced vibrant images of coils of DNA unfolding, with the strands stretching out and separating. The vision triggered a Eureka moment. If the strands of the famous double helix could be similarly unzipped, Mullis realised, it would accelerate the tedious process of duplicating DNA. According to futurist Peter Schwarz, this ‘whacked-out insight’ led to the discovery and implementation of polymerase chain reaction, a biotechnology breakthrough. Kary Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize.
While baby-boomers have been laying down their weary tunes and fantasising about communal psychedelic retirement yurts, though probably destined for nursing homes reeking of urine, several new generations have taken the stage. It is easy for us ancients to pour scorn on irritating youngsters with six-packs, fussed-over hair and an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop lyrics, giving the world a makeover one step at a time with their fabulous food, reality TV, cheap travel and web-twitter. Out of the corner of my eye on Bondi Beach, aimlessly flicking through a newspaper and with my trousers rolled, I’ve watched the millennials frolic on the sand, mobiles flashing, poses snapped and phoned into Facebook. Technology fosters intimate networked friendships, innovation and knowledge, all of which may come in very handy when the chips are down. Another piece of the picture is the rumbling desire to punch a hole in the Matrix.
Numerous activist groups are springing up, recruiting members and gaining momentum. Blogs bloom as the mainstream media bleeds. The conglomeration of formerly diversified outlets into half a dozen global behemoths has drained newspapers of independence and irreverence. Not surprising, as their boards are often stacked with directors of brands that are bad for you and the manufacturers of weapons. (On Disney/ABC sit Boeing and Halliburton; on the Washington Post sits Lockheed Martin; on News Corp/Fox News sits Rupert Murdoch.) Big Media carefully filters the horrors inflicted by coalition forces on civilians in war zones. While there are brisk reports on the extermination of wedding guests in Afghanistan and the drone-delivered assassinations of families in Pakistan, the images of burnt and shredded victims are confined to oblivion. Questioned at Davos in 2007, Murdoch admitted his media empire set out to ‘shape the agenda’ for invading Iraq. As yet, none of his outlets have sought to investigate the number of civilians killed, maimed, displaced or driven mad by the prolonged occupation.
The fiscal meltdown peels away another veil of illusion. Forget free markets. Washington will keep the cogs of commerce spinning by any means necessary: printing money, privatising profit, socialising debt. Actions initiated by governments since the events of 9/11 reek of deception, pushing us into the witching era, when, in Hamlet’s words, ‘churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to the world’. Participants at the anti-G20 protests in London were depicted as anarchists, as if to ram home a warning that those who oppose unbridled capitalism are coming to eat your children. Ssshhhh! Go shopping, renovate the kitchen, stare at the screen. As we gouge coal and defile the atmosphere, governments pretend to go green while furtively preparing for war.
Last April, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails distributed a free track on the internet about weapons of mass deception. Recipients were encouraged to remix it, post it, podcast it or give it away.
The sky is painted black
The smoke pours out the stack
One hand upon your heart
One hand behind your back
You train us how to act
You keep the fear intact
The imminent attack
Everything is right on track
And we are letting you get away
We are letting you get away with it
Fifty years on from CND, hippiedom and saving whales, some of the worst fears held for society’s future direction have materialised. Do any solutions still slumber in the graveyard of philosophies we toyed with back then, when it all seemed like a game? Well, yes. Today the ideas seem prescient rather than hilariously nutty and are bubbling into the mainstream with scenarios such as the following under discussion:
• Acquisition will cease to be central to human existence. Recovering shopaholics already exchange pledges to abstain. Some families refuse to buy anything new until something old is given away.
• No longer master of the universe, the ‘economy’ will instead be its servant. Today’s high-flyers in Ferraris will get mud on their Armanis as they plant acres of fruit trees and turn weeds into diesel. The new economics will nourish a fruitful life without corporate theft, workaholism and orgies of consumption.
• The left/right dichotomy will be transcended by a global mind shift towards intellectual fluidity, empathy, adaptability and foresight. Farewell to actor-politicians mouthing platitudes while secretly colluding with lobbyists. (Mrs J. Clarke-Neville: ‘And farewell to crypto-intellectuals who write about global warming but never have time to sort their own garbage!’ Mr R. Neville: ‘Rubbish!’).
• The rise of renewable energy will ease the West’s addiction to oil and its need to pillage the Middle East. The laying bare of the human and environmental cost of invasions will trigger widespread revulsion. The noble mission of tomorrow’s military is to repair the ecosystem.
• Of necessity, vegetarianism will globalise. Obesity will decline. Resilient communities tending kitchen gardens will raise carbon neutral children; fulfillment will come from creativity and achievement. Some communities will aim to be self-empowered, non-reliant and off the grid.
• Courts will embrace Earth Jurisprudence, a philosophy of law and human governance that is based on the realisation that human societies should regulate themselves as members of a wider Earth community. Also known as Wild Law, it will stretch our understanding of governance and democracy to encompass the whole Earth Community, including trees, animals, mountains and rivers. A kinship with all life.
• The inescapable transition to sustainability will be hotly contested, especially by a traumatised corporate media clinging to the growth/spend/Lear Jet paradigm and playing dirty. Expect incessant calls for war. Expect reports on future wars to be sanitized even more than today.
• Although ‘being green’ has gone mainstream, the environment continues to decline, largely because of economic activity. This decline is linked with the wealth gap and a scarcity of resources. The stately shift to post-growth economics will not be end of the world – it will be the re-birth of the world.
If the above strikes you as laughable, you might be living in the past. How can we survive a climate crisis without a flip of consciousness? All of us will be affected at the deepest level. The rollercoaster ahead will shake our souls, bringing out the worst and the best in us. Perhaps the ideals and pipe dreams of my generation will make a modest contribution to the solution. After all, not everything is going in the wrong direction.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book is subject to the frailties of memory, the rule of law and the vanity of the author. Two trunks of contemporaneous press clips, letters, diaries, court records, photos and journals provided the grist. Scores of participants were interviewed, and their collections of sixties memorabilia plundered.
How can I claim to report conversations of the distant past? Some, by their nature, are unforgettable. Others are drawn from letters, ancient journalism and recent interviews. Being an editor at the time, many of my discussions were designed to elicit copy, and the result has served to enhance these recollections. Of the various records of the London Oz trial, including my own notes from the dock, I chose the versions which best suited my purpose.
Twelve major figures in this book were sent the manuscript. Germaine Greer, as is her right, sent it back. ‘I shall not read it. Ever.’ The rest offered valuable corrections: Jim Anderson, Caroline Coon, Felix Dennis, Louise Ferrier, Andrew Fisher, Jenny Kee, Jill Neville, Geoffrey Robertson, Martin Sharp, Albie Thoms and Richard Walsh. Sharp provided a swag of documentation, the use of his ca
rtoons and midnight-till-dawn reminiscences. Susan Hill, Jane Mills, Luke Leitch and Penelope Tree read the manuscript and suggested improvements.
Other innocents were roped in, including neighbour Stuart Coupe, whose sixties archives hint at a magnificent obsession, and Stuart MacFarlane, who sorted out computer glitches. Emerald City Multi-Media in Katoomba was an apt choice for cyber-wizardry. Sources of colour and detail were Jonathon Green’s Days in the Life (Heinemann) and Nigel Fountain’s Underground – The London Alternative Press (Routledge), Roger Hutchinson’s High Sixties (Mainstream) and Tony Palmer’s Trials of Oz (Blond & Briggs). I drew on (and embellished) a couple of scenes from my 1970 book, Playpower.
Creating Hippie Hippie Shake was no dance party. At Bloomsbury, David Reynolds and his assistants, Charlie Hartley and Monica Macdonald, were supportive throughout, and creative beyond the call of duty. My agents Ed Victor and Jill Hickson were always a phone call away, no matter what the crisis.
The manuscript would not have lasted the distance without the help of Jim ‘bookdoctor’ Anderson and my wife Julie Clarke. Jim’s return to Sydney was timely, and I am indebted to his seasoned editorial expertise, dedication and round-the-clock wordplay. Julie also provided consummate editorial skills from the start to the drawn-out finish, vigorous criticism, counselling and more. To everyone who assisted in so many ways, including my children, Lucy and Tootsie, a thousand thanks.
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FAST FORWARD
Jim Anderson became a born again Australian after two decades in Bolinas, the alternative hippie haven in California, where he edited the local paper, became a ‘festival dancer’ and cultivated marijuana. Now a septuagenarian bush walker, Jim haunts the outback trails and the Sydney arts scene with his camera. His second novel, Escape from Leisure Beach, satirises the therapeutic excesses of the counter-culture.
Michael Argyle retired from his controversial judicial life in 1988 after being reprimanded by the Lord Chancellor for inappropriate racist remarks in connection with his role as president of the British campaign to restore the death penalty. In 1995 Felix Dennis sued the Judge over an article he published in the Spectator which depicted the Oz defendants as drug pedlars. The case was settled out of court. ‘Convivial’ in private life (even during the Oz Trial), Argyle died in 1999.
Birgitta Bjerke has returned to her beloved art of crochet after 26 years in Hollywood designing costumes for blockbusters and indie art films, picking up a slew of awards. She is now reconnecting with ‘long time no see or speak to friends’ and retrieving her creations for a forthcoming ‘jaw-dropping’ solo travelling retrospective, ‘The Fine Art of Revolutionary Crochet’. Birgitta inhabits the remote mountains east of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Caroline Coon became involved in England’s punk rock scene in the seventies and continues to work as a figurative painter and collagist. She has exhibited in many London galleries including Saatchi and the Tate.
Stan Demidjuk remains a hard-driving radical. From his base in Montpellier, he combines his ‘antiliberal’ activism with cultural and artistic pursuits, describing himself as a Marxist-ceramicist.
Felix Dennis is one of England’s most idiosyncratic millionaires. He combines publishing with philanthropy and the performance of his poetry (‘Did I mention the free wine?’). His Forest of Dennis in Warwickshire is a public resource that continues to expand, like his imagination. In 2008 he told The Times, ‘I’ve killed a man’, then changed his mind. Felix spends much of each year on Mustique, his ‘Island of Dreams’.
Mick Farren resides in Los Angeles, and writes cyberpunk fiction and a column for LA Citybeat on matters cultural and counter-cultural.
Louise Ferrier lives in Sydney and continues her long association with the Aboriginal art industry. She has a daughter, Lillian (after Lillian Roxon), who is a singer-songwriter.
Andrew Fisher died in a Blue Mountains nursing home in 2008, the serenity of his departure contrasting with the onetime chaos of his personal life.
Jon Goodchild continued to work for Rolling Stone in California. He shared a house with Jim Anderson and was popular with locals for his involvement with the radical Bolinas Border Patrol that removed all highway signs to the town. At the time of his death in 1999, he was working on the design of the re-launched Whole Earth Catalogue.
Germaine Greer remains ever Germaine, only more so.
Warren Hague has not been heard of since a sighting in a Vancouver steam bath many years ago now.
Jim Haynes, author of Thanks for Coming, taught Media Studies and Sexual Politics at the University of Paris 8 for thirty years. He continues to travel widely and to keep up with his numerous ‘friends and lovers’. His 691st Newsletter came from the October 2008 Frankfurt Book Fair. http://www.jim-haynes.com/
Lee Heater spent time in San Quentin and San Luis Obispo Correctional Facility.
Abbie Hoffman remained an environmental activist and humorist until 1989, when he committed suicide. Of the Sixties: ‘Dope will never be that cheap again, sex will never be that free again, rock and roll is never going to be that good again.’ His nemesis Izak Haber became a millionaire selling t-shirts in Thailand and is now a writer and world traveller.
Danne Hughes came out as a lesbian and poet. She lived a literary life in Key West for many years before returning to Australia. She made her home in the Blue Mountains to be close to her son Danton, who took his life in 2002. Danne died in 2003 from a brain tumour.
Robert Hughes remained art critic for Time magazine for many years and has published many acclaimed books: Barcelona, The Shock of the New (also a successful TV series), The Fatal Shore, The Culture of Complaint, American Visions, Goya, Crazy Like a Genius. His memoir Things I Didn’t Know appeared in 2006.
INK lurched from crisis to crisis, expiring in February 1972.
Francis James was released from jail in China in 1973 and returned to Australia. He died in 1992.
Jenny Kee blazed a trail in the Australian fashion industry for many years and was prominent in the environmental and republican movements. More recently she has published her autobiography A Big Life (2006) and has developed a signature line of homewares for a retail chain.
Brian Leary turned up at the 1991 Oz Reunion ‘Obscenity Ball’ and shared a slice of erotically themed ‘Jailbait of the Month’ cake with all comers. ‘You were all so nice,’ recalled Mr Leary.
Fred Luff retired from Scotland Yard and now lives in Majorca.
Michael X (Abdul Malik) was convicted of murder in Trinidad in 1972 and sentenced to death. His lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, took the appeal to the Privy Council and won, eliminating capital punishment from the statute books in all Commonwealth countries. Too late for Michael X, who was hanged in 1974. (The 2008 film The Bank Job depicts a far more sinister side to Malik than was apparent to his hippie associates).
Sue Miles continues her stellar career as a food consultant and restaurateur.
John Mortimer, a long-living literary and libertarian monument (his oeuvre includes over fifty books, plays and scripts for film and TV), died in January 2009 at the age of 85.
Otto Muehl founded a commune in Germany and continued to develop the staging of group gropes until 1991, when he was convicted of indecent acts with underage girls and jailed for 7 years. On release he moved to Portugal and began a new commune experiment. Despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he ploughs on as an ‘artist’ and film maker, exhibiting at MOMA, the Tate, the Louvre and Pompidou Centre, with major retrospectives in Hamburg and Vienna.
Jill Neville, novelist, playwright, poet, died in 1997.
The Oz Schoolkids all survived their editorial ordeal and the trial.
Charles Shaar Murray is a popular culture columnist and broadcaster of high repute. His books include musical biographies of Jimi Hendrix and John Lee Hooker. Deyan Sudjic founded and edited Blueprint, the monthly architecture magazine, and later was editor of Domus and Architectural Digest. Recent publications include The Edifi
ce Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World and Future Systems. Peter Popham wrote a book about Tokyo, The City at the End of the World, and covered wars and disasters for the Independent before moving to Italy as its Rome correspondent. Colin Thomas is a successful photographer. Trudi Braun became a senior editor at Harpers. Vivian Berger, actor and computer programmer, lives in Connecticut with his wife and children. He still thinks the concept of Rupert Bear was ‘good.’
John Peel remained a legendary BBC radio DJ and broadcaster until his death from a heart attack on a working holiday in Peru in 2004.
Neal Phillips died of a drug overdose in the streets of Mumbai.
Angelo Quattrocchi was regarded as the last surviving psychedelic anarchist in Italy, where, with warmth and humour, he continued to disseminate alternative ideas until his death in June 2009.
Dr Geoffrey Robertson QC is a highly respected international human rights lawyer. Mr Kathy Lette’s recent books are The Tyrannicide Brief, Crimes Against Humanity – the Struggle for Global Justice and The Justice Game.
Marsha Rowe Without Oz (and a stint on Vogue) Marsha says she would never have co-founded Spare Rib, the iconic magazine of British second-wave feminism, or become co-founding director of Virago. She went on to write and edit freelance. Her own publications include the fiction anthologies So Very English, Sacred Space and Infidelity and, with co-author Mike Pentelow, Characters of Fitzrovia. Marsha is currently writing her own kiss-and-tell revenge saga.
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