Hooray for the Yippies

Hooray for the Yippies

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/hooray-for-the-yippies/story-e6frg7fx-1225956720759

Phillip Adams
November 19, 2010

CONTEMPORARIES of the hippies, the Yippies were a small group of
satirical subversives who persuaded the media and the FBI they were a
mass movement.

They did this by initially holding press conferences outside stadiums
as crowds left rock concerts. Then they became one. A few of the
originals remain friends of mine and, half a ¬century later, our
phone conversations are still listened-in-to by the FBI. This is
understandable given the Yippies' successful invasion of Disneyland,
their rabble-rousing activities at the Democratic Convention in
Chicago, their unsuccessful attempt to levitate the Pentagon and
their threat to put LSD into the water supplies of major cities. An
attempt to gridlock Washington DC on May Day 1971 by crowding roads
and bridges led to the largest mass arrest in US history. Oh, I
almost forgot. They tried to run a pig for the Presidency.

One of my favourite Yippie stunts involved a few sneaking into the
visitor's gallery at the New York Stock Exchange and tossing handfuls
of dollar bills over the railings. Here, in the belly of the
capitalist beast, rich men in suits trampled each other over a few
crumbs from the table, and the place had to be closed down. Before
spending billions on the bail-out, Obama could have tried the same
approach ­ to dramatise Wall Street's insatiable greed.

As well as tossing money, the Yippies tossed pies. They reinvented
cream pies as a potent form of political protest ­ weapons of mess
distraction. Public figures up to William F. Buckley Jr were targeted
by Yippie hitmen. And if the Right didn't like the Yippies, neither
did the traditional, humourless Left, who saw them as foolish and
embarrassing. Exactly right. That's what made the Yippies so marvellous.

I remember telling Spike Milligan in the late '60s that he was one of
the Yippies' inspirations. Spike was, of course, very proud (founding
members had heard pirated Goon Show tapes on campus), although US
comic Lenny Bruce gets more of the credit. As do the Marx Brothers ­
the Yippies sometimes calling themselves Groucho Marxists. But their
official title was The Youth International Party and during the
Vietnam War their freewheeling anarchism attracted growing support
across the country.

Their most famous members were Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, who
came to sad and sticky ends. Having captured the spirit of the
movement by publishing a volume called Steal This Book, Abbie would
commit suicide. Even worse, Rubin, to the horror of the Yippies, went
to the Stock Exchange to be on the receiving end of cascading
dollars. From Yippie to Yuppie. But he was severely punished for this
ideological transgression ­ killed by a car while jay-walking. I'd
like to think he was crossing Wall Street.

While a hint of their '60s' spirit was on display at the
Stewart/Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the Washington
Mall on the eve of the midterms, it's time to bring the Yippies back
as a major force. With the Tea Party mass-producing Maddies, the US
needs the Yippies urgently. They really should pour LSD into the big
dams that serve the cities. And try once more to levitate the
Pentagon. And that dome on the Capitol Building.

LSD in the water! That would be a huge help in a US teetering on the
brink of total political meltdown. But it might also help in the
Murray Darling row. Pour some in at the head of the Murray and have a
trickle-down effect. I'm going to register a new party for that. The Yabbies.

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