Prologue
Through its access to entertainment and the general media, Hollywood has earned a reputation for setting trends, for laying the groundwork for what becomes the American consensus regarding everything from fashion to philosophy. This notion, weaved together with the old spirits of Manifest Destiny, has made the whole West coast something of a rallying point for countless young people in America for more than half a century.
For a while I thought those times were over as I heard crashing waves from the Atlantic; which, despite their growing louder, only seemed to indicate how California was becoming a land of young wanderers and dreamers who somehow no longer sought the truth, but avoided it.
But that was all until last week, when reports echoed of crowds forming in downtown Los Angeles and in San Francisco.
It seems those waves have finally crashed down upon the West coast in some triumphant release of pent-up fury, so that a rising generation of young people now stand united from east to west with a passion and sense of identity unlike any they’ve experienced before.
Ren Michael 