"keep the faith, baby" quickly spread and gained popularity, and soon, most everybody forgot that it ever had anything to do with adam clayton powell, jr. and its meaning changed (if, in fact, it ever had any meaning other than to adam clayton powell, jr.'s supporters who thought it meant "let's hope adam clayton powell, jr. gets away with it.").
what it came to mean was, well, whatever the hell you wanted it to mean.
pinpoint - right there........right there........the moment absolutely everything fell apart.
you would think that "keep the faith, baby" would have a connection to, well, faith. and not just any faith, but Christian faith - seeing as how it was a Christian clergyman who came up with it. but, of course, you would think wrong.
"keep the faith, baby" came to mean anything you wanted it to mean - as long as you didn't want it to mean -gasp! - faith. (remember - this was the '60s - and apart from a brief appearance by a handful of "Jesus freaks," faith, as in religion, had no place in anybody's "consciousness raising.")
no. we raised our consciousness against faith (because that's how sophisticated we were. still are - most of us).
we raised our consciousness against faith and towards ourselves. towards ourselves and our own desires and whatever the hell it is we wanted to do. and we wanted to do a lot of stupid, immoral stuff. and we did it. consequences be damned.
i am ashamed of my generation and of my contribution to my generation's decline. (and believe me - i contributed to its decline.)
"keep the faith, baby."
how about get the faith, baby, first.
we can worry about keeping it later.
