OH! WOODSTOCK!

I believe that this kind of a phenomenon as as it has been called is both symptomatic and symbolic of the malaise which affects our young people today. Uh it it denotes their rebellion against society. It denotes their boredom, their fear of perhaps the Vietnam War, and many other things that affect them. It was for them a kind of celebration of their identity. You know, in a society that is increasingly alienated and sort of materialistic, you have a group of people who really like themselves and who really enjoy themselves. We talked about the lack of materialism, except most of them arrived in very nice cars, and most of them are probably middle-class and quite well-off and amongst the more privileged individuals in our society. There's more than one way to view the same scene. The same Woodstock Festival looked very different from the adult side of the generation gap. Only a small part of the crowd was the musical migrant society that has been reaping the rock concert harvest around the country in recent years. There were also older people and babies, but by far the majority were middle-class white young people in high school or college prepared to spend about $50 for the weekend. Tickets alone cost $7 a day or 18 for three. The festival was less than they bargained for as well as more. The admission charge was dropped when the crowd could not be contained, food supplies ran out, sanitation and health facilities were inadequate. If some called Woodstock the new world, others called it a disaster. What was Woodstock? It depends on whom you ask. We invited five adults to watch the same film and then to give their thoughts on what Woodstock was about, why it happened, and what it means. Dr. Daniel Whitesner, New York psychiatrist who attended the festival by chance. I was delivering one of my children to my mother's bungalow, which was about a half mile from the festival, and picking two others up, and happened to get bogged down in about the greatest traffic jam in the history of Western civilization. About 3 days later, I returned uh somewhat wearied, but also in in certain ways enlightened by the experience. Dr. Martin Keeler, a psychiatrist who has done much research on drug use among young people. Most of the marijuana used in this area is so inert that I really doubt if the heavy use of drugs, marijuana in the weak form that it was used, really had much to do uh with the events. Councilman Joseph Modugno of Queens, who called for an investigation of the festival after his son returned from it with a stomach ailment. I believe it is highly objectionable. It is against the public interest and against the best interest of our of the youth of our city, state, and nation. Dr. Frances Cheek of Princeton, New Jersey, a sociologist engaged in drug research, and a mother. I went to Woodstock with my daughter, who is 19, because I wanted to share it with her, and we were both interested in what was going on in the psychedelic and hippie and rock music scene. And Rabbi Jacob J. Hecht of the Committee for the furtherance of Jewish education. I think if we don't stop this real fast, we're going to have a generation of moral cripples. I believe the time has come for us to look ahead and plan so that we develop a generation of youngsters from whom we will we really be able to be proud. We're trying to build up in a society. What do we want them to be? Mirrors of what we are? I think that our society is a colossal set of bores. We, you know, the middle-aged. I think we're quite dull. And I think they are right to be bored with us. We are boring. The thing that would concern me the most is that we seem to be generating a system where each particular group feels that the only way it can have a meaningful personal experience is to isolate itself from the rest of society. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the music. I don't see anything that one could really be critical about in terms of they're going to the festival and going to hear the music. They like that kind of music. This is their their personal pleasures. I can't stop them. I'm not interested in stopping them. They can shake from now to doomsday. But many adults do care. In the history of modern popular music, each generation has been assaulted by the music of its children. The generation that loved the Charleston hated the jitterbug, and the one that loved the jitterbug is now affronted by rock. The sight of youngsters dancing by themselves and transed by the noise puzzles their parents when it does not pain them. Perhaps in historical perspective, all the generations will prove to be right. Drugs at Woodstock openly challenged the rule of law. If I were a member of organized crime, I can see this as a very fertile field for the further sale of my wares. We are providing the dope pushers with an opportunity to create a new market. I'm uh really not much for drugs, but one has to differentiate between a marijuana, LSD, STP habit of degrees. Question of degrees. and a heroin habit. Uh well, you can say everything is a question of degrees. But the thing that the councilman is speaking about are all of one family. And we feel that one will automatically bring to the other because you end with one thrill and you go on to the next. That's nonsense. Well, I simply not true. Simply not true. Simply not true. The only people who maintain It's not completely untrue. It's not You can't prove this. This is my statement against yours. I think that in my profession we certainly have seen enough young people who take marijuana and stop right there. And don't we have to pay some serious attention to why the kids are saying these are religious, aesthetic, creative, important experiences? When you use that word religious experience, I being a man of religion, would like to get your interpretation as what you what stands for religious experience. What is religious experience for them is they experience God. Sometimes they see God, they feel themselves to be in the presence of God, they feel the love of God. What do you What is their concept of God? They don't even know what God is. Look what's going on over here. This is what you call a new experience. We see people now bathing, right? They're swimming without clothing. Would the council or the rabbi please tell me what is so awful? What is so terrible about what they're looking at? Indecent exposure. that mean? What does that mean? That means that we are human beings and we don't expose ourselves and and and and our organs before the people of other sex and before the public. Period. indicate That's not a That's not a question of damage. It's a question of a sense of a person's personal respect and dignity. You know, the extremes that are taken in this whole thing just amaze me. You know, doctor, all of these things happen because there are individuals like you and the other doctor who you believe in these things. God help our society today. say I was in favor of them. You're misquoting me. I don't think it's a particularly marvelous thing. But you're not fervently against. You see, that's Well, how can I be against it? Most of them are back studying in school. I want to tell you something. If someone does something wrong in a clandestine or a hidden way, that proves that the person knows they're doing something wrong. But here, when you come out blatantly and you make an open display of this filth and immorality, you can't tell me that this is an What is a new experience? Sure, it's a new experience because in my days we wouldn't permit it. And I can't see how society what is the worst thing about the whole thing? So long as we have individuals who condone, explain, justify this kind of action, our society is Well, this is exactly the point. So long as there are adults who do that be philosophical about a jerk. So long cancer in society and that's it. How can you make judgments about, you know, it's an awful thing. I think the thing was poorly organized, there's no doubt about that. You know, if you want if Councilman Medunio, for example, wants to be critical of the organizers of the festival, he's quite correct. They probably made a great deal of money, although they're disclaiming that that they did. But these kind of moral judgments about a phenomenon like that, I think are rather absurd. Well, there's been summer festivals before in which uh there was a lot of fun, a lot of satisfaction down of against summer festivals. Will you let me finish? Go ahead. Uh there have been well-run summer festivals. We're not exactly like life in the street of New York and there's a lot of satisfaction had by all. This one happened to get way out of hand. I don't think because it got out of hand, it should be called the beginning of the new world. Also, I don't think because it got out of hand, all summer festivals should be done away with. Nobody said that. talking about this. This is not the subject. Nobody said that. Woodstock. Was it correct or was it not correct? Can we go ahead with it or not? The answer is no. Nonsense. It's a relatively neutral phenomenon. It's a bunch of kids who went up And everything that's wrong. What is wrong? According to your lights, it's wrong. I say that you're Rip Van Winkle. You're talking as though you were back in 1940 or somewhere. Well, I'm not back in Yes, if you're back in 1940, it was wrong. Why is it right today? What's wrong about it? History may remember 1969 for the moon, the Mets, and Woodstock. We understand about the moon and the Mets. They were triumphs for the spirit of man. But what was Woodstock? It depends on whom you ask. This is Edwin Newman for New York Illustrated. My generation. My generation. My generation. My generation. Never again.