flâneur

From Satori to Silicon Valley

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When this essay was first written for the Alvin Fine Memorial Lecture at San Francisco State University in April 1985, I was not fully aware of how much the times had already changed since I wrote The Making of a Counter Culture in 1969. But I soon learned. A few weeks before the lecture, a student in the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State called me to arrange some campus publicity. He had a question. "Where's Satori?" "What?" I asked. "Your lecture is called 'From Satori to Silicon Valley,' " he explained. "I know where Silicon Valley is. But where's Satori?" "The Zen state of enlightenment ... you never heard of that?" "Oh. I never took any courses in Oriental religion " I started to explain the term, spelling out its once obvious connection with the counter culture of the sixties. "Counter culture," he interrupted. "That's ... hippies. All like that." Suddenly I felt one hundred years old. I often feel that way these days. I teach students now who have no clear idea what a

by Theodore Roszak Copyright 2000 by Theodore Roszak. All rights reserved. The Times They Keep A-Changin' When this essay was first written for the Alvin Fine Memorial Lecture at San Francisco State University in April 1985, I was not fully aware of how much the times had already changed since I wrote The Making of a Counter Culture in 1969. But I soon learned. A few weeks before the lecture, a student in the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State called me to arrange some campus publicity. He had a question. "Where's Satori?" "What?" I asked. "Your lecture is called 'From Satori…

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