Did Jim Morrison’s Father Inadvertently Start the Vietnam War?
- by Sam Kemp
The older I get, the more I think that the one thing that unites most countercultural icons is that they were all walking, talking paradoxes. Forgive me if I sound cynical, but it seems that every figurehead of the hippie age was talking out of their arse.
Consider George Harrison and John Lennon: men who were encouraging their followers to forsake worldly possessions while earning phenomenal sums and eyeing up million-dollar homes. Or what about Jack Kerouac, who pondered the meaning of freedom in the modern world while living with – and occasionally stealing money from – his house-bound mother. It’s a problem that’s equally if not more ubiquitous today.
Think about the number of musicians, artists, writers, etcetera who like to slam ‘gentrification’ while continuing to pump their hard-earned cash into trendy bars selling craft beer and wood-smoked almonds. I mean, how the hell do you smoke an almond anyway? It’s practically made of wood as it is. Alas, I digress.
I think if I was forced to name one of the most surprising examples of hippie hypocrisy it would have to be Jim Morrison: a notorious opponent of the Vietnam war, who was the son of a man who not only served in the conflict but played a hand in starting it.
