Will Economics Revive the Dreams of the 1960s?

You’ve probably heard George Carlin died this seek. With his passing goes one of the last counter-culture icons of our time. Carlin was an early and enduring darling of the 60s generation. Irreverent to a fault, Carlin always refused to kiss the imperial ring. As America moved into the post-Vietnam era, trading bell bottoms for Brooks Brothers, Carlin maintained his loose and casual style. He turned gray but he never grew old.

HBO is playing a special this week of vintage Carlin performances, and while I could do with fewer f-bombs, he still seems relevant. As he wound through one of his anti-war, anti-church tirades on how killing people is applauded while having sex is a sin, he paused shook his head and said something like, “We’ve got a great country here, but a ridiculous culture.” Like I said, he’s still relevant.

But the positive values of the 60s haven’t totally passed away with Carlin. In fact, they are enjoying a rebirth right now thanks to the oil crisis. As Paul Krugman of the Times pointed out this week, the environmentalist community -- itself a remnant of 60s values -- has welcomed higher oil prices as a motivation for burning less fossil fuel and developing less polluting forms of energy. Citizens struggling to make ends meet will no doubt have difficulty sharing their joy. Indeed, a few might wish they’d join Carlin wherever he’s gone.

Eventually we may come up with forms of energy and transportation that allow us to return to ever expansive consumerism and materialism, but in the near- and mid-term we may be witnessing the best shot in decades for real spirituality to make inroads. Some may not see the logic of this, but it seems self evident to me that the more our lives are tied up with material objects the less room there is for the spirit, for enjoyment of God’s creation, or for the true expressions of self which are part of our nature.

Near the beginning of Jesus’ most comprehensive belief statement, his Sermon on the Mount, he says the first step to being filled spiritually is to hunger and thirst. In other words, if you want to be full, first you must be empty. Near the end of the sermon he returns to the subject, speaking more specifically of the risks of a life focused on filling up with material. To paraphrase, he says, “look I know you need some things, I know you can’t live like a bear in the woods, but if you want to feel the power of the Spirit in your life, you need priorities. Seek God’s realm first, and enough stuff will come to you. If you go for the stuff first, there’s no chance you’ll ever know the spirit.” It won’t matter how much of you toss in the plate on Sunday.

So maybe we are at a time of opportunity, although I’m not sure we can get there from here. In the 60s, spiritual exploration grew when war and a national admission of racial injustice caused us to question our values. But in the long run spirituality was no match for the consumer culture. Who knows, maybe this time shifting economic realities will open room inside us for the true life God intended. We can always hope, and like George Carlin taught us, laugh at our failures.