Pigs, hippies, Apple stocks and millions: Jerry Rubin, from the dock to the glory of Netflix

In one of the most talked about and recent Netflix premieres,

, director and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin turns his eyes to one of the most controversial moments in recent American history: the trial against a group of activists who During the 1968 Democratic Convention, it caused a series of riots that polarized the country.

Among that diverse group of men who sat on the bench was one who ended up representing better than anyone the transformation of his nation during its most turbulent decades, Jerry Rubin (Cincinnati, 1938-Los Angeles, 1994).

The famous phrase of the Democratic candidate for those elections Hubert Humphrey, "there is nothing that does not solve a good haircut", was prophetic for him.

Little more than a decade after being the

of the American counterculture, Rubin cut off his hair, donned a suit, and went from flipping bills into the air on the New York Stock Exchange to investing them in newly issued Apple stocks.

The "cut your hair, change your life" from Xixón Sound could have been inspired by this hippie, turned into yippie and later into yuppie, who was ahead of everything, even social networks.

Rubin was clear from his childhood that he was interested in spreading his opinion: he was the editor of the school newspaper and when he was still in high school he began to write articles about sports in

.

With that background he arrived at the University of Berkeley and Berkeley, in the sixties, was synonymous with activism.

It came in his genes: his father was a bread delivery man who had been actively involved in making the working day go from six to five days.

At Berkeley, Rubin quickly dropped out of his graduate degree in Sociology to focus full-time on activism.

The first protest he participated in was against a grocer who did not hire African Americans.

The next one was organized by himself and brought together 30,000 people to protest the Vietnam War.

In those demonstrations he met his soul mate, the activist Abbie Hoffman.

The press compared them to the comedy duo Abbot and Costello: Hoffman was tall and outgoing and Rubin short and more rational, but together they formed a tremendously charismatic couple that personified the essence of the counterculture.

called them

, they became the parsley of all revolutionary sauces and together with the humorist Paul Krassner they founded the International Youth Party (YIP).

The

not intended to be a

party.

They just wanted to publicize their revolutionary ideology, they thought that the more extravagant their messages were, the better they would look on television and for this they had Rubin's media experience and Hoffman's innate originality.

In the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam one of his most media initiatives was to levitate the Pentagon to exorcise it.

So, as is, as in a David Copperfield trick.

The first idea had been to occupy the Capitol, but Rubin sensibly thought that would send the wrong message to the nation.

According to

magazine

“they asked for a permit to levitate the Pentagon 300 feet above the ground and explained to the authorities that by chanting ancient Aramaic exorcism rites while forming a circle around the building, they could make it rise into the air, it would turn orange and vibrate until all evil emissions had fled and then the war would immediately end.

The manager kindly gave them permission to raise the building, but only a maximum of 10 feet. "

More than 100,000 people flocked to Washington to join the event.

There were Norman Mailer, who gave an account of it in

;

LSD guru Timothy Leary;

the satanic-obsessed filmmaker Kenneth Anger and the poet Allen Ginsberg, who was commissioned to recite during the levitation.

Shouting “Get out, hell, get out!” According to

, Mayan-clad healers spread cornmeal in circles while artist Michael Bowen distributed 200 pounds of flowers to the crowd.

"When the military police and the bailiffs confronted the protesters, the images of gun barrels filled with daisies became the iconic photographs of the day."

Among those images is that of Jan Rose Kasmir inserting a daisy into a rifle, captured by photographer Marc Riboud, which became one of the most celebrated symbols of pacifism.

680 protesters were detained, including Norman Mailer, 50 were hospitalized and an unknown number claimed that the Pentagon had levitated.

One of the first ideas the

had slipped into

was that they intended to poison the city's water supply with LSD, but clearly they preferred to keep it to themselves.

Suddenly,

were on the front page of the newspapers.

And that would only be the first act.

His next move would be to paralyze the New York Stock Exchange by throwing counterfeit bills into the air that many rushed to collect, which caused armored glass to be placed from then on to protect against future attacks.

When these riots brought Rubin before the Committee on Un-American Activities, he appeared in a disguise of the American Revolution, proudly claiming to be a descendant of Jefferson, and blowing soap bubbles.

"Nothing is more American than the revolution," he told the media.

The second time he came in bare-chested and trousers from the Vietcong uniform.

The third, dressed as Santa Claus and armed with toy guns.

The

appearances

were a delight for the press.

But no event provided them with more publicity than the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Chicago, city of pigs and banners

If the United States in 1968 was abuzz with the Vietnam War and the economic crisis, the hottest pressure cooker was Chicago, a city oozing with corruption and in which inequalities and racism generated constant tension.

With President Lyndon B. Johnson unexpectedly withdrawing from the race for the nomination as the Democratic nominee and front-runner Robert Kennedy shot just a couple of months before the convention, delegate votes were divided among supporters of the pacifist Eugene. McCarthy and the

candidate

Hubert Humphrey.

But when the time came for the vote, all eyes were on the street because that was where the action was taking place.

"We knew we couldn't influence the Republicans on Vietnam, so we wanted to pressure the Democrats."

tells Tom Hayden in the documentary

, produced by Tom Hanks and available on Movistar.

And the way to put pressure on them was to call an Intercultural Festival that would attract thousands of people from all over the United States and all anti-Vietnam War ideologies, from the

and pacifists to the Black Panthers and feminists like Gloria Steinem.

On August 23, the

arrived in town with their own candidate, a 70-kilo pig they christened Pigasus The Immortal ("pig" was the way they disparagingly called the police).

While the pig screamed in panic - today, at that convention, the animalists would also be there and the pig would be a stuffed animal - and in his name, Rubin promised a fair electoral campaign and assured that if Pigasus won the elections they would eat him (goodbye to the immortality of Pigasus).

He claimed that it was a way of turning the usual "that the chosen pig ate the people", as reflected in

by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain.

According to

two pigs and a sow named Mrs. Pigasus were confiscated by the police during the convention and all were safely taken to a farm by the Anti Cruelty to Animals Association, although the

preferred to spread the word that the Pigasus family had ended up at a policeman's table.

But the mayor of Chicago, Democrat Richard Daley, was not willing to make his city the laughing stock of the country and made it clear that his slogan, "law and order", was more than a mantra to please the ears of the most conservative .

Daley, who had not granted permits for a demonstration that he knew was inevitable, had the police charge at the stunned protesters who shouted "The world is looking at you!"

while suffering the effects of the batons and tear gas.

The victory of Vice President Humphrey in the Convention did not matter to anyone because what everyone was watching on television was the excessive violence that was being used on the protesters.

“I have never seen

coverage

of a demonstration.

It doesn't matter what they say about us.

The image is the story, ”Rubin had previously declared, picking up the theories of communication guru Marshall McLuhan.

Rubin's biographer Pat Thomas stated that there were a few reasons why his client's protests were so successful.

“Jerry had a background as a journalist, so he knew how to work with the media, and he knew that an outrageous statement was more likely to make the front page than a story about why we are in Vietnam.

He was funny and charismatic, but mostly connected to youth culture.

It was the age of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and I knew if I used that angle, I could politicize hippies and turn them into

. "

The result of that

protest was some 1,500 people injured between police and assistants and a media trial along the lines of that of Charles Manson, which was held simultaneously.

The (other) trial of the decade

Jerry Rubin was tried alongside Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale, a group that became known as "The Chicago Seven" (although the number of defendants varied during the long trial).

The group consisted, in addition to the famous

couple

by students, pacifists and a member of the Black Panthers who had not even participated in the event, but who scared the spectators more than a group of young people who could have been the more or less wayward children of any American.

In a disproportionate show of force by the new Richard Nixon administration, they were charged with terrorism and incitement to violence.

The president, who had prevailed over the Democrat Humphrey at the polls by only half a million votes - which for many were lost due to the painful images linked to the Convention - wanted to make it clear that after the chaotic end of the decade there was a leader at the helm. command of the situation.

With the world's attention on them, Hoffman and Rubin turned the trial into a spectacle.

As Hoffman engaged in sharp dialogue with the judge, Rubin marched by shouting "Heil Hitler!"

(both Rubin and Hoffman were Jewish).

At one of the sessions they showed up in robes and when they were removed by order of the judge it turned out that they were wearing blue Chicago police shirts underneath, which earned them a few convictions for contempt.

Ultimately, all convictions were overturned by an exhausted Justice Department stigmatized by a trial that never had to happen.

To collect his ideas in the early seventies he published

(by the way, the first book published by the Spanish Blackie Books), a countercultural manifesto in the first person through which you can dive into the idiosyncrasy of the

movement

.

A book prefaced by the leader of the Black Panthers Eldridge Cleaver and written, according to Paul Krassner, under the influence of Ritalin.

The book influenced thousands of young people, including and also according to Krassner, the heiress and symbiotic terrorist Patty Hearst: "That book was Patty Hearst's favorite, the one that radicalized her."

In 1972 he returned to participate in protests in both the Republican and Democratic Conventions, but after the 1972 elections he withdrew from political activism.

One of the main mottos of the

had been "do not trust those who are over 30".

He had to reinvent himself or no one would trust him.

A huge apartment, a small penis

In the mid-1970s Rubin tried to become a self-help guru.

In doing this, he had the enthusiastic support of his wealthy new wife, Mimi Leonard.

From a luxurious apartment on the Upper East Side he wrote the

in which he detailed his experiments with inner change.

“From 1971 to 1975, I directly experienced EST –some 60-hour courses on personal development–, Gestalt therapy, bioenergetics, Rolfing, massages, jogging, tai chi, Esalen, hypnotism, modern dance, meditation, Silva Mind Control, Arica, acupuncture , sex therapy and Reichian therapy ”.

He became so obsessed with natural eating that his legs turned orange from eating so much carrot.

He also became obsessed with his penis.

In 1978 he considered writing a self-help book for men with small penises and premature ejaculation problems.

For this he hired Steven Gaines, who had written a biography about Alice Cooper.

“Having to think about Rubin's little penis for the next few months sounded like a pretty dreary way to spend the summer, but he was intrigued and needed the money.

I said yes."

Gaines wanted to title it

, which Rubin found fantastic, but he also wanted to delve into the theory that his political fervor was motivated by rage over his tiny penis.

The next day he was fired.

The book was published in 1980 as

, co-authored with his wife.

It included chapters like

or

.

Incomprehensible to Rubin, it was not a success.

The Rubin who started the eighties seemed to have broken all ties with the

that two decades ago challenged power with a naked torso.

In the words of Krassner, who watched the change with amusement, "If Abbie Hoffman threw money on the Stock Market today, Jerry Rubin would invest it."

In fact, he joined Wall Street as a stockbroker, sponsored events that included speakers such as the Masters and Johnson or Arnold Schwarzenegger, and organized work meetings at trendy clubs like Studio 54 or Palladium, in which business cards - those that so obsess the protagonists of

-, passed from hand to hand after paying a large entry.

His biographer sees in these meetings the first analogue antecedent of social networks.

“Imagine before the internet, there are probably 5,000 recent Harvard graduates in Manhattan, but they don't know they're all there, do they?

So when it's announced that next Thursday is Harvard night at Studio 54, and that message spreads throughout Manhattan, 1,500 recent Harvard graduates turn up to exchange business cards.

So that's the birth of LinkedIn, that's the birth of Facebook. "

That change was what led to the modification of

for

The

had gone urban, had cut their hair and changed their lives.

They no longer wanted to live off their own consumption, they wanted good apartments in the best areas of the city.

"Money is the long hair of the eighties," said Rubin in his talks.

Goaded by those who ridiculed him for his transformation, he wrote an article in

titled

.

“I know I can be more effective today by wearing a suit and tie and working on Wall Street than by dancing outside the walls of power.

Politics and rebellion distinguished the sixties.

The search for oneself characterized the spirit of the seventies.

Money and financial interest will capture the passion of the eighties. "

The article only generated more mockery, but his biographer defended it: “He became a villain because he put on a suit and tie in the 1980s and appeared on Wall Street.

But contrary to what many people think, he did not become a Republican or support Reagan.

He was not selling Exxon stock.

He was trying to get people to invest in solar energy.

It has been forgotten because people thought it went to the other side ”.

He even tried to get money from that dilemma.

He and his old friend Hoffman held a series of debates dubbed

in which the former spokesperson for Pigasus The Immortal argued that drugs and sex had spawned a culture of materialism and dehumanization within the

movement itself

and that “wealth creation is the true American revolution;

what we need is an infusion of capital in the depressed areas of our country. "

Rubin's differences with Hoffman were more principled than personal.

When Hoffman ended his life in 1989 after ingesting 150 Phenobarbital pills, Rubin was one of the few old resistance colleagues to attend his funeral.

Hoffman had spent the last years of his life in hiding, hunted by the police, with a new face due to surgery and a new name, Barry Freed.

By the time he ended his life he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and his suicide note was a hallucinated cry: “It's too late.

We cannot win.

They have become too powerful "

In the meantime, Rubin had two children, moved to Los Angeles, been one of Apple's early investors - which paid him substantial dividends - and was very successful in distributing a drink made with seaweed, ginseng and bee pollen. .

He had been able to combine the natural lifestyle and money, two of his life passions.

Just six years after the death of his colleague, on November 14, 1994, Rubin recklessly tried to cross Wilshire Boulevard, a six-lane highway jammed with traffic and with poor visibility.

The first car was able to avoid him, but the second sent him to the hospital, where he died two weeks later.

Tom Hayden, one of the "Chicago Seven," then a state senator and Jane Fonda's ex-husband, declared, "To the end, he defied authority."

His biographer Pat Thomas also tried to endow his epitaph with the sense of humor that had always accompanied Rubin: “Having been a New Yorker for most of his adult life, he exercised the right that God had given him to cross the street recklessly in six lanes. Los Angeles traffic ”

In the first sentences of

, Rubin had summed up his conflicting love for the country he protested against: “I am a son of

.

If I am ever sent to death row for my

revolutionary

, I will order a hamburger, fries and a Coke as my last meal.

I understand the big cities.

I love reading sports pages and gossip columns, listening to the radio and watching color TV.

I am looking for department stores, large supermarkets and airports.

I love Hollywood movies, even bad ones, I only speak one language, English, and I love Rock and Roll ”.

He had really always stayed true to his ideas.

It is the advantage of having thousands.

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