Country Joe McDonld

Country Joe McDonald's "I Feel Like I'm Fixen'-To-Die Rag" is a satirical criticism of the Vietnam War. He points out the ridiculousness of the Vietnam war. His matter-of-factness points out in a humorous way, the sad and despicable results of the war. He expresses the same feeling that many people felt, wondering why we were in Vietnam. He then answers that question with what the government told us, that it was all the fault of the communists. I thought it was funny the way McDonald talked about the money made during the war and alluding to the use of nuclear weapons, hoping that of a bomb was dropped it would be droppped by the United States. He also brings up another good point, about how mnay people were gung-ho to send their sons to war, but not as enthused to have them come home in a coffin.

Richard Kampf

Richard Kampf's "Hey Mr. Newsman" is a typical example of the angst felt by many students at Berkley. He focuses on the hypocrisy of people ignoring the protests. It also brings another point of view, was the way the young people of the time protested actually effective at all? It's interesting to think that if the protesters e onh the short hair and clean shaven faces, if they would have been taken more seriously. ON the other hand Kampf's lyrics do show one frustration that the students felt. No one was willing to accept that things had changed, that they were no longer in the fifties. People would have to change the way they see the world, because if they didn't it would fall apart.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson’s essay provides an interesting look at the environmental apocalypse that could one day, or at this point has already spread across the Earth. It’s an interesting contrast from the article written by Valerie Solonas. I always find it interesting to see how much environmentalism has been ignored. Carson’s essay could have been written yesterday. It goes to show how there have been only small steps in the environmental movement when there needs to be gigantic steps taken to solve the problems we currently face. His essay makes one point, which tends to get lost in the discussion of the environment. It seems that the idea of green house gases and the like over take the idea that as human beings, we are the direct cause to the current issue with the environment, and we’re the only ones who can stop it.

Valerie Solanas

Valerie Solanas’ article is something of an extremist viewpoint from the perspective a feminist. If it were to be viewed as a satirical work, it might have been taken more seriously than it originally was. It doesn’t read as a criticism of the male dominated world, but as a full on expression of hatred toward the male gender. Some of her arguments do seem valid but they’re masked in the ramblings of a lunatic. She is right that the world is dominated by men and unjustly so. Men do not have anything that makes them superior in anyway to a woman. It is a shame that so many causes are lost in the lunacy of the person leading the way. It becomes so easy for “the other side” to discredit their opponents when their arguments are expressed in the way Solanas’ arguments are.

Tim O'Brien

Tim O’Brien’s passage is a vivid look at the psychological distress a soldier went through during the war in the Vietnam. His description of the dead Viet-Cong soldier provides a terrifying example of the violence that took place. Movies rarely portray the accuracy of the violence and its effect on soldiers. His repetition of the details of the mutilated corpse only serves to burn the image into our minds. We can almost see O’Brien standing there staring at the corpse, trying to imagine who the man is and what he would have become. It shows that war isn’t killing people from far away, never seeing their bodies. The Vietnam War was fought up close, they saw the people they killed. This was something that made it even harder on the soldiers. They discovered their enemy was just like them. They were normal people caught up in a war that neither of them wanted to be in.

Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary's article was an interesting look into the life of the man who brought LSD to the masses. It reads more like carefully plotted prose than a stream of consciousness retelling of what happened. I really found his inclusion of the quote from The Lord of the Rings interesting. That his discovering of LSD was a burden that he must carry, that he and the rest of his crew are the "ring bearers." I really felt that including the lines of Ginsberg's poems enhanced the feeling of tripping on acid. It also added to the article by showing the result of that day from the perspective of someone else. It was very interesting to see his interaction with his daughter. One minute he's feeding mushrooms to his guests, the next minute he's scolding his daughter for not reading under brighter lights. The whole thing was comical.