It's kinda funny in a perverse way how people of Antelope were railing about their way of life being destroyed by newcomers without even thinking how Americans destroyed the way of life of Native Americans. The Mayflower mentality, as Sheila put it. If only those hicks had the sense of just leaving them alone and letting those people live their lives the way they wanted, there wouldn't have been any conflict. They never wanted to take over anything, yet every step of the way they were confronted by bigots and racists. And when patience doesn't work, when love doesn't work, when nothing works, what do you do? You devolve into chaos and violence. Very predictable and tragic.
It was really hard for me to watch sometimes, because racism and hatred won, the old white men and women in glasses won, and they keep winning, simply by dragging everyone into their gutter. And an idealistic movement of extreme individualists lost. It was painted as a cult for years and eventually became one. It was painted as a public menace for years and eventually became one. I'm sure it wasn't perfect, and I'm sure it was no paradise on earth, and I'm sure it would have eventually collapsed anyway, as all idealistic constructs do, but why all the hatred? Why do these morality-obsessed people have this insatiable need to tell others how to live their lives and destroy those lives if they don't get their way? Those are rhetorical questions, and the scariest part is that they are as relevant today as they were almost 40 years ago.
It was really hard for me to watch sometimes, because racism and hatred won, the old white men and women in glasses won, and they keep winning, simply by dragging everyone into their gutter. And an idealistic movement of extreme individualists lost. It was painted as a cult for years and eventually became one. It was painted as a public menace for years and eventually became one. I'm sure it wasn't perfect, and I'm sure it was no paradise on earth, and I'm sure it would have eventually collapsed anyway, as all idealistic constructs do, but why all the hatred? Why do these morality-obsessed people have this insatiable need to tell others how to live their lives and destroy those lives if they don't get their way? Those are rhetorical questions, and the scariest part is that they are as relevant today as they were almost 40 years ago.