Jerry Rubin: From Yippie to Yuppie
With the release of Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, a film based on the 1969 trial of seven defendants, arising from the protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Jerry Rubin’s life after these events should serve as a lesson for many disenfranchised today.
“All money represents theft. To steal from the rich is a sacred and religious act. To take what you need is an act of self-love, self-liberation. While looting, a man to his own self is true!”
In an interview for Did It! From Yippie to Yuppie: Jerry Rubin, An American Revolutionary, Pat Thomas talks about Rubin being vilified when he popped up on Wall Street in a suit and tie in the ’80s.
“What I really want to do is to bring capitalism back to America.”
Thomas notes Rubin’s path from rebellion to responsibility, was one a whole generation dealt with, “with Jerry being such a public figure, his transformation seemed more dramatic than the average Joe’s.”
“Contrary to what a lot of people think, he did not become a Republican and endorse Reagan. Rubin was not selling shares of Exxon. He was trying to get people to invest in solar energy. He’s been forgotten because people thought he went to ‘the other side’.” — Pat Thomas
The former Yippie hustled on Wall Street for the John Muir & Company, then left the firm to form Jerry Rubin Salon Party and Catering Service Inc [offering tax shelter advice, real estate and venture capital deals] according to The New York Times, holding networking social events in his Upper East Side apartment.
Ironically, on the morning of August ‘67, according to Smithsonian Magazine, Rubin and Abbie Hoffman cemented their reputations and guerrilla theater as a form of protest, when they showered bundles of flaming cash to befuddled traders at the New York Stock Exchange.
On his reputation as one of the codefendants in the Chicago 7 trial and the criticism received for ‘selling out’, Rubin defended his ‘creative inconsistency’, saying to The Washington Post, “Who cares? You can’t smoke it, you can’t eat it, you can’t take it to the bank.”
“I’m a good organizer. And I’m a good motivator. All the qualities of a good businessman I have. I mean, the ’60s were like a business — you know?”
After several years indulging in primal scream therapy, yoga, acupuncture and drinking so much carrot juice that his leg turned orange, Rubin explained his metamorphosis to adopting an ‘I don’t know everything’ attitude and avoiding to judge others for their views.
“We were entranced by the mystique of violence, we glorified youth, we lost touch with our bodies, we oversimplified reality, we became images to each other while playing the theater of protest. We lost control of our own energy. We manipulated ourselves into premature confrontations with men who used guns and brute force. We needed to stop-and look. It is vital for us to go inward and see how similar we are to the society and the parents against whom we are protesting. Changes cannot be made on the political level alone, or the society we are changing will be repeated. We must examine our own process.” —Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven
In an interview with Winthrop University, Rubin claimed that the most revolutionary and radical idea would become entrepreneurialism.
“Business self-reliance: responsible for your own financial security.”
In the ’90s, Rubin was promoting vitamin drinks Omni-4 and WOW!, in multi-level marketing campaigns in classified ads for a company called Omnitrition, according to the Chicago Tribune. Once confronted by his life’s contradictions, Rubin laughed in thinking where his hucksterism would lead him.
“I mean, I could become a capitalist and then write a book saying that I was right all along, Capitalism Is No Good.”
