This past year I finally got around to reading Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream, in which author David McGowan suggests that the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene was a PSYOP created to distract young people from, in part, protesting the war in Vietnam. McGowan is unable to definitively prove his case, but he does provide quite a bit of circumstantial evidence. I had encountered his work years before and found his ideas both amusing and dubious, but the book provides some persuasive evidence. It’s definitely a mind-bender to consider the idea that “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” wasn’t so much “sticking it to the man” as originating from the man.
Frank Zappa Mothers of Invention 1971.JPG/ Wikimedia Commons
The hosts of the podcast Psyop Cinema reference McGowan’s book in their discussion of the film Under the Silver Lake, which I found far more interesting than the film itself. In their introductory episode, the two cineastes explain that they created the podcast in order to explore mind control and cultural engineering in film, having been “traumatized by their obsession with transgressive art in the past.” They recognize the difficulty of this endeavor during our current era of “stigmatizing people whose beliefs fall outside the approved worldview.”
Movie audience (1924).svg/ Wikimedia Commons
Both the creators are PhD students at Rice University. According to Thomas Millary’s student page, “His research focuses on the role played by occultism in 20th century spycraft and the rise of the surveillance state. Thomas' work also investigates cultural engineering in Hollywood, as related to both espionage and esoteric spirituality.” That intriguing description almost made me want to return to academia. Brett Carollo’s research areas are listed as “Ancient Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition.” Both identify as Orthodox Christians, which strongly informs their perspective.
Laptop-spying.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
While I remain wary of organized religion, continue to believe transgressive art can serve important purposes (although admittedly I can no longer stomach portrayals of violence), and frequently sense that the hosts are “reaching” to confirm their perspective, I enjoy their podcast. It has almost been physically painful at times to reassess popular culture through a “flipped” lens, but it has provided me with an extra layer of analysis. At the very least, I will never look at Jared Leto the same way again.
This brings me to the beauty of libraries. There are always new ideas waiting to be discovered on their shelves. Libraries are currently under pressure from censorship efforts by the public and “decolonization” efforts by some staff; in the face of these pressures, they should continue doing what they do best— updating their collections with new and diverse perspectives, mimicking a healthy mind.
Top photo: Jared Leto, Thirty Seconds to Mars 03.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
Why on earth is this Qanon bullshit lol