Desperation
Consciousness III stands in real
jeopardy today. It makes desperate
those who cannot understand it —
men like Chicago 8 prosecutor
Thomas Foran, who declared that
America's children have been lost
to "a freaking fag revolution." In
the process, the new consciousness
becomes more desperate itself, feels
threatened, arms itself and otherwise
emulates the worst of Consciousness
I, while proving itself
inexorably tied to the dehumanizing
aspects of Consciousness II.
In long, sympathetic, and not
wholly convincing digressions on
bell bottoms and rock music, Mr.
Reich's book gives off the best
vibes of the Aquarian Woodstock.
But, as Mr. Marin's appraisal makes
clear, Woodstock was not a beginning
but rather an end, and this
new thing we find upon us has few
of the reassuring idyllic certainties
of Michael Wadleigh's film — that
Max Yasgur's "half a million kids
can get together with nothing but
fun and music." The Ohio National
Guard and heroin and My Lai and
Angela Davis' tragedy (and on and
on) have put an end to such simple
childhood pleasure, replaced it with
grimmer realities.
So it becomes difficult to see
justification for such optimism as
the book postulates, hard to understand
how by waiting in passive
contemplation of all the madness,
any end to it may be hastened or
ever realized at all.
Will the corporate state Mr.
Reich deploys stand idly by and see
itself destroyed by time alone? If
not then what force will suffice to
dislodge or realign so much power
already vested in the state lords and
turn it to better goals?
These are questions Mr. Reich
glosses over with an incredible lack
of sagacity. He may be kidding
himself (and us) for the sake of the
picturesque and the hopeful illusions
of security.
But for exactly this optimism
and good will the book must be
appreciated. If it is to be discounted
for a simplistic view of
future possibilities, then it must be
valued as a moving, living picture of
a phenomenon we have yet to feel
completely. The coming of Consciousness
III is occurring at an
accelerating rate which boggles the
mind.
