December 5, 1995
The North Rim – The Good Rim
Well, no one ever accused me of being an “Abbeyist” before, whatever that is (a monk? a stonemason? Hoffman’s biographer?), but I was at the North Rim Rendezvous and experienced the delights of twinklers.
It seems that soon before the rendezvous that year, the Rainbow Tribe held their gathering nearby and decided to crash our party. I don’t know if you’ve ever encountered the Rainbow Tribe, but they’re a usually harmless bunch of hippie wanabe’s, very PC, very sensitive, very Newage. It seems they feel the common western practice of banging hands together to signify approval is hopelessly rude and crass. So instead of clapping, they raise their hands and wiggle their fingers, a practice they call “twinkling.”
Now this wouldn’t be too bad if that’s a far as it went. Some of them were kinda cute, especially those who eschewed clothing. But they dominated the proceedings and turned the rendezvous into a clash between proper beer-swilling, cigar chomping tree spikers and Newage, consensusing Twinklers. No a pretty site.
That proceedings, among other things, drove a spike into the Earth First! movement. Foreman was looked on as too macho, too insensitive, too male. Foreman’s emphasis on wilderness preservation and restoration was viewed as inadequate in view of the political reality of world development and corporate colonialism. The group fractured, eventually resulting in Foreman’s flight to New York, of all places. Rendezvous after that were dominated by the PC crew, the Journal staff mutineed and everything went to Hell. ’92 was the last time I went, the last time I went Outside. Even the Journal is a shadow of its former curmudgeonly self. Dear Shit fer
Brains turned into something less confrontatory. Earth First! become a
club. Too bad. It’s was kinda fun while it lasted.
GWH