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There are a lot of factors contributing here, but kids today, probably more than in Leary's days, need to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
by inquisitor19 7y ago
There are a lot of factors contributing here, but kids today, probably more than in Leary's days, need to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
- hi41 7y agoI have heard this phrase several times before - "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Could you please give more context and explain more. I don't understand this phrase. Please note that I did not grow up in USA. Turn on to what? Radio? Tune in to what? A radio music program? drop out from what? From high school or college?
- madman1444 7y agoFrom Timothy Leary's 1983 autobiography, Flashbacks (via Wikipedia): "Turn on" meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers engaging them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. "Tune in" meant interact harmoniously with the world around you—externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. "Drop out" suggested an active, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. "Drop Out" meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily, my explanations of this sequence of personal development are often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity"
- hi41 7y agoThank you! I find this happening with acronyms and truisms that get shortened to look like captions. Outside the in-group, people don’t understand the meaning. With times passage, the in-group slowly fades and the usage and meaning that is generally understood is incorrect like the one you mentioned about getting stoned and do nothing worthwhile.