It’s 1968 and young Chuck Thegze makes his way down from Dartmouth to NYC to audition for the Broadway production of Hair so that he can dance around naked with other young nubile people on stage and get paid for it. As his audition piece he sings and dances to The Beatles’ song “When I’m 64”. When he’s done a voice calls out from the back of the theatre “Have you had any singing or dance lessons?” Chuck answers no and the voice replies, “I thought so. NEXT!!!” And Chuck goes back to Dartmouth disappointed but not until after his date with another Hair reject.

Now this anecdote is told to me during my weekly Saturday morning conversation with Chuck as I’m relaying my thoughts about seeing Hair performed here in Istanbul by an enthusiastic but totally clueless group of people. Clueless because it is obvious to me that they know nothing of the times–1960s America–from which that musical sprung and just why it was so important to my generation that you could not go to anyone’s home without finding the original cast album of the show. We all could sing along to numerous songs from the show. There was so much going on in those days, those turbulent days, and Hair touched on much of it. But as I watched this show this past Friday night performed here, all I could feel was sorrow for it brought back such memories of those days, those nights, the madness that was the 60s and even the early 70s that I did not especially want to revisit. Why I went to see the show still mystifies me. But I couldn’t help but reflect on the difference between the times and culture that shaped me and the times and culture here that is shaping these young people and how very different that is.

In the program notes many of these young performers mention how happy they are to play “hippies.” This, too, disturbs me because it is something I find wrong with the show itself. Not everyone with long hair who protested the war and worked for civil rights for minority groups was a hippie. As a matter of fact, most activists were primarily reform democrats , referred to as The New Left, working toward the election of people like Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy, and later George McGovern. Hippies were not necessarily politically active. Many moved to communes or their own enclaves in out-of-the-way places and dropped out of any involvement in the process that many of us were engaged in to change our world. I had long hair, a Fu Manchu mustache, wore bell-bottoms, moccasins, protested, and chanted in groups “We Shall Overcome” like so many others of my generation. I won’t lie like Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled but drugs were not a part of my lifestyle. I preferred wine, later whiskey, and The Rolling Stones to The Grateful Dead.

My point here is that not everything in the play Hair was a true representation of people who protested. Long hair was a political statement, an act of rebellion, not a badge of hippiedom. And so that alone was enough for me to wonder why I was attending the show but then watching these young people who are not politically active play at being politically active was upsetting. And here is where a cultural difference lies. Trying to tie Hair into the protests that rocked Turkey starting with Gezi Park is also misleading. The protests here, which, I should add I am in total sympathy with, are really against a man who has assumed too much power and control of people’s lives here. Though they started on one issue, Gezi Park, they escalated into a movement again Erdoğan. And unfortunately the people of Turkey have become divided into primarily two camps: those opposed to his style of leadership and those quite comfortable with it. He has caused division here and this is what angers and scares his critics. And believe me, it should anger and scare them. But the counterculture movement in the US and other countries around the world during the 60s was much different because it was about issues, not personalities. Though some political figures were vilified, like LBJ and later Nixon, the protests were still primarily about the war, with other social issues being championed, too. And those issues are absent from the core of the protests here. So the analogy, for me, does not really work.

It also brings me to this “free love” business. I don’t know about anyone reading this post but I for one never found love to be free. It has always cost plenty. And I’m not talking about monetary value, though that sometimes plays a hand on its expense, but in emotional commitment. And there’s nothing free about commitment. And love takes many forms: between husband/wife, parents & children, siblings, extended family, friends, lovers, peers, members of what could be called “your tribe”. And love in all those forms is never free. The open relationships many fell into during the 60s and 70s damaged the ties that bound people together and caused much of the confusion and eventual estrangement of many couples and families during that time period with far-reaching after effects that still reverberate today.

And drugs which were supposed to expand one’s consciousness only destroyed many of the fine minds of my generation and the children that followed. There’s nothing glamorous about addiction, whether it be to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. But I don’t think I need to weigh in here since there’s enough documentation available to confirm that. But it did bother me to see it being glorified in this show.

Anyway, I became increasingly sad while watching it and am still rolling from the mixed emotions the show caused in me. Members of The New Left, hippies, and later yippies, too, wanted to change the world. Many of us struggled both within and from outside the system to achieve that goal. It is a struggle that never ends because the forces of repression and status quo are always present and well financed. What the people of Turkey need are not the platitudes of the hippie generation but the conviction of The New Left. It’s not about dropping out here but hanging in and fighting for the soul of your country.

And America, that once beacon of liberty, is a major disappointment in this struggle. I felt ashamed during the protests here because my country which purportedly stands for democracy turned a blind eye to what was happening here. It chose instead to remain friendly with a self-styled dictator and ignored his abuses of power, the violence perpetrated on the people defying him, and still remains blind to the injustice here. American political leaders love to point fingers at easy targets but remain silent when allies that are deemed too valuable to criticize flagrantly drag the ideals of a free, democratic society through the mud. American leaders call for boycotts against Iran, North Korea, will even stand up against Russia over the Ukraine, but are mute when it comes to Erdoğan and Turkey. And since most of the people who visit my blog are from the US, I ask you to please look at what’s still happening here and raise your level of awareness to the plight of these citizens. Turkey is an old, rich culture with wonderfully warm people who would, I believe, raise up in greater numbers in protest if they only were not kept in the dark by a government that supresses not only its media but even parts of the social media. The US supposedly is against human rights violations. Well look no further than Erdoğan’s Turkey for flagrant examples of that.

And Turkey forget Hair as an analogy to what is going on here. A better analogy is All The Presidents’ Men. Put some songs to that and play it loud and clear. The real heroes to celebrate are a free press and an informed public. Now that would be something to sing about here. That would be cause for dancing in the streets.