When thousands of American youths dropped out of mainstream society and descended on San Francisco in the mid-1960s convulsion known as the counterculture, Peter Berg and a small band of like-minded subversives were there to greet them.
Calling themselves the Diggers, they dished out free food in Golden Gate Park, opened a free store in Haight-Ashbury and staged free street performances — guerrilla theater, as Berg named the impromptu events. Through such provocative actions the Diggers sought to create a sense of community in the middle of a cultural maelstrom.
Several years later, Berg found another consuming passion, but the idea at its root was the same: to foster a radically new way of living.
Berg became the champion of an environmental movement called bioregionalism, which stresses identification with one's community, awareness of its natural resources and commitment to restoring them.
