How I became a right-winger at the Rainbow Gathering
Thursday, July 10, 2008
By Judd Grossman
How did a groovy musician, like myself, become a raving right-winger (just to the right of Attila the Hun)? Well, I learned an economic lesson at the Rainbow Gathering.
My first Rainbow Gathering was in 1983 in Michigan. As I made the trek into the woods and passed the sign that said “Welcome Home,” I did feel a deep sense of being truly at home. I fell in love with the Rainbows and their effort to create a self-reliant community that completely rejected most aspects of dominant society, including private property and money.
I remember meeting an incredible character at that gathering. This guy was wearing a long white robe and no shoes. His hair was in cornrows with beads and bells tied to each strand. All he had in life was a sleeping bag and a tambourine.
I asked, “How did you get here?”
He said, “I hitchhiked.”
“How did you get a ride?!”
“It wasn’t easy, but I always got the right ride.”
I was (and still am) so inspired by the radical independence of the Rainbows and the way they “let their freak flag fly” and didn't care what anybody thought about it.
At that Michigan gathering, I realized I was being pretty tame in my radicalism, so I tried out quite a few clothing configurations - dresses, batik skirts, turbans - and of course non-clothing options (I got the nickname of Mr. Naked from one resident of Wenzel Lane).
I spent the next three years hitchhiking around the country, going to Rainbow Gatherings, visiting communes and working for nuclear disarmament. I was extremely ambitious in my non-conformity and radically independent.
My conservative epiphany came at the 1985 Rainbow Gathering in Missouri. I threw myself fully into helping with the makeshift kitchens and into digging latrines - doing everything I could to make the gathering work. I wanted this counter-culture society to last year round, not just two weeks every summer. But the harder I worked, the more there was that needed to be done. As fast as I dug latrines, other Rainbows would fill them up. I started to take notice that about 10 percent of the folks were doing 90 percent of the work, while the rest of the gang was just hanging out.
I started to realize that in a world without private property, where you got what you needed whether you worked for it or not, there would be an overwhelming majority of folks who would do very little or nothing, and a small minority of folks who would be called upon to carry the load until they got burned out.
I realized that people won’t reach their full potential unless they are rewarded for making an effort, and that the free market is the fairest way to implement that work vs. reward equation.
I’m writing this editorial from my secret camping spot in the Gros Ventre Mountains. I planned to write naked in honor of the Rainbow Gathering, but it’s a bit chilly tonight. I’m still a freak inside, but I keep it mostly under wraps. I try to dress like the natives and behave properly (out of courtesy), but I’ll never forget the lessons I learned at the Rainbow Gathering.
Judd Grossman and his wife, Mary, are the publishers of
Planet Jackson Hole.
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How I became a right-winger at the Rainbow Gathering | Planet JH News Article: General News
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