As an avid student of Generation X, I eagerly followed their much anticipated rite of passage — the celebration of their unique identity and the well-publicized gathering of the tribe at the 1999 Woodstock.

The concept of masses of young people getting together for three days of fun, music and fellowship is a litmus test for that generation and a validation of their essence. The Woodstock gatherings happened in 1969 in Bethel, New York; in 1994 in Saugerties, New York and again in 1999 in Rome, New York. The 1999 Woodstock, like the others, was intended to promote peace and harmony through music. Instead, something went wrong at this gathering of the clan. Something was different, and like some crazy, retro time warp, Rome did indeed smolder and burn.

I had the good fortune of being at the original Woodstock Nation in 1969. I had some time on my hands before entering college and simply drove to Bethel, New York, and Max Yasgur’s farm, along with 400,000 other wonderlust citizens of Earth. My sole motivation was to see some bands that were not at the Atlantic City Pop Festival, held several weeks earlier. They included The Who, Jimi Hendrix and the cult-like Grateful Dead. I had no idea that the concert would turn out to be so big, so significant, and in retrospect, so much larger than life.

We were idealistic then, and yes, things were different. The 1969 version was a spontaneous explosion of colors and musical experimentation. As members of the Woodstock Generation, we felt empowered by the sheer masses, by the unstoppable movement of social consciousness. Those who were there might remember Jim Morrison’s “They got the guns but we got the numbers!“ We felt that we had the power, the authority to stop the war, to protest and rage against an unjust government and an evil President Nixon. We attempted to do this through music, through protest and, unfortunately, through the so-called mind expansion of illegal substances.

At Woodstock ’69, there was indeed anger and frustration and teenage angst, but it was a controlled rebellion, a proper and correct social protest. We were trying to put an end to the Vietnam War (the government termed it a “conflict” ) and life, at least for that magical two-year period, was a psychedelic, rose-colored, drug-induced vision of life’s possibilities. We hoped to make our world a better place, to solve the disease of racism and to advocate for civil rights.
In 1969, we were, as scripted by Joni Mitchell, trying “to get back to the garden.” Music and drugs fueled that idealism. I know that “a drug is a drug,” but please consider that during that psychedelic time the drugs of choice were a more mellow marijuana (with 20 percent less THC content than the pot of the 1990’s ) and a host of hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline and magic mushrooms. It was peaceful and gentle and simple ... and then it ended.

Woodstock 1969 signaled the end of the idealism and of the magic. At some point reality set in as people began to quickly die and others became addicted and died more slowly. Heroin and methamphetamine emerged as players on the scene, and organized crime, bikers and Jamaican posse’s realized the equation between drugs and money. Suddenly America was confronted with a drug problem that would consume our society like some mythological monster, not just in the 1960s but far into the 1990s.

This was the legacy that we begot — Generation X, along with our sacred music. It was Crosby Stills Nash & Young who sang “Teach Your Children Well.“ Thirty years later the musical creativity of The Who, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and guitar innovator Jimi Hendrix remain a solid part of the musical landscape. Note, too, that Hendrix, Who drummer, Keith Moon, singer Joplin and Grateful Dead guru Jerry Garcia are all dead, all victims of excessive lifestyle and drug addiction.

The 1999 version of Woodstock, bringing together 250,000 members of Gen X was different. It was about commercialism, materialism, consumerism and capitalism. Woodstock ’99 was devoid of the purist, altruistic, albeit magical qualities that were so much a part of the legendary concert some 30 years hence. Many, in retrospect, blamed the high costs of water, pizza and other staples as being the smoldering fuse that eventually exploded into an ugly, angry expression of anarchy and violence. The Woodstock of Generation X was peppered with ATMs located more conveniently and cleaner than the Port-A-Pots and Job-Johnnys that were equally in demand.

We can debate the root cause of their mob anarchy, but the graphic symbols, as viewed on the evening news, said it all. Arson fires raging in the night, rampant vandalism, disrespect of women, rapes and mindless violence — 12 tractor-trailers engulfed in flames after a propane tank explosion. These were the calling cards of Gen X and of their celebrated gathering — an example of the best that they were able to do, given three days of music, 90-degree heat and drugs, as they congregated at the abandoned 3,000-acre former Griffiss Air Force Base, each paying $150 for the experience.

The music, much of it a combination of heavy metal and hip-hop, with pile-driving percussion and angry lyrics, only served to underscore the belligerent anti-social attitudes that today’s society has embraced. The world has become a cold and unfriendly place, represented by the standard sarcasm and violence of American icons Judge Judy, Jerry Springer and a host of idiots from the WWF. The tragic bloodletting in Littleton, Colorado, by troubled members of Generation X, is only one part of this diseased social structure.

Fred Durst, lead singer of the popular band, Limp Bizkit, needs to take responsibility for his mindless call, as he encouraged the audience to “ smash stuff.” The mob, like a horde of red army ants, needed little encouragement to tear down, burn and deface everything in their path.
Woodstock ’99 wasn’t about going back to the garden. It was about the desecration and attempted destruction of that sacred place.

Maxim W. Furek, MA, CAC, is Coordinator of a Drug and Alcohol Program in Northeastern Pennsylvania and is currently researching Generation X.

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