The Diggers, “Time to Forget,” San Francisco, c. Fall 1966
The Diggers circulated this poem as a message to the rest of the countercultural community in San Francisco about the danger of living in a shallow, drug-addled society. While some hippies chose to merely “drop out” of the mainstream, the Diggers sought to create a better alternative. The Diggers believed that social engagement and activism were crucial to enabling a “free” society. As the counterculture evolved in the mid- to late 1960s, divisions and competing ideals arose.
Sensationalist reporting of the counterculture in the mainstream media contributed to the frustration of the Diggers. In 1967, a year after this poem was circulated, the Diggers staged a theatrical funeral, which they called “Death of Hippy/Birth of the Free Man.” A parade of people marched through the Haight-Ashbury district, with a large coffin to challenge the media’s portrayal of the counterculture.
Time to Forget:
FORGET the war in vietnam. Flowers are lovely.
FORGET America’s 3300 military bases. Make music.
FORGET Wichita Vortex Sutra. Words are stronger than flesh.
FORGET planned war with China. Beauty is Carnaby Street.
FORGET the Dominican Republic. Todo Todo Hassan Sabbah.
FORGET police Brutality. The cops are your friends.
FORGET upheaval in negro ghettos. Spades ain’t hip.
FORGET the Rumford Act. Show love.
FORGET the National Guard. Positively Fourth Street.
FORGET inmates on deathrow. It’s a long time passing.
FORGET hypocracy [sic] of business. The merchants are your friends.
FORGET U.S. billion dollar investment in South Africa. Money is.
FORGET HUELGA DiGiorgio. We all live in a yellow submarine.
FORGET organized crime. Eternity is long and, sometimes, wide.
FORGET HUAC. The sun’s not yellow, it’s chickon [sic].
FORGET concentration camps for subversives. It’s a bummer.
FORGET FSM, VDC, SDS, SNCC, MARK COMFORT. Big Brother and the Holding Co.
FORGET Mime Troupe, Lenny Bruce, The Beard. Strobe lights are groovy.
You’re free to forget. So forget! Follow the calm business tactics of the Psychedelic Shop, the I and Thou, and all other marketeers of expanded consciousness (Moe’s Bookstore is important, really!) and dig yourself. Touch reality only for sex, only to eat, and only to join the Artist’s Liberation Front for your own safety.
Afterall, expanded consciousness is a selfish hippy kissing the system’s ass for the greater glory of the lonely dropout, isn’t that right, Uncle Tim!
THE DIGGERS.
Source: The Diggers, “Time to Forget,” San Francisco [Catalog No: DP006], c. Fall 1966, http://www.diggers.org/bibscans/dp006_m8.jpg. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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