The Yuppie and the Yippie

In the late 1960s, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were, among other things, guerrilla theater players, cofounders of the Yippie Party, radical antagonists of the powers-that-be and, eventually, defendants in the ”Chicago 7” conspiracy trial that followed on the heels of the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention here.

But time moves along. In the mid-1980s, Jerry Rubin runs a networking organization for businesspeople and proudly proclaims himself a Yuppie. Abbie Hoffman is still an activist on environmental and other issues, still practices civil disobedience at times and still gets arrested at times. But he also works in what others would consider more orthodox ways, and he worries about paying for medical insurance and putting children through college.

If you can make judgments based on one conversation with each man, both Rubin and Hoffman have changed, but in different ways. The two will be appearing in Chicago Thursday for what is being called a ”Yuppie vs. Yippie” debate, although neither really claims to be a Yippie today. The Chicago appearance is one of several debates Rubin and Hoffman are holding around the country. Following are question-and-answer sessions with both in which they discuss their differences and their lives today.

Who: Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman

Where: Chicago Lakeshore Hotel, 600 N. Lake Shore Dr.

When: Debate at 8 p.m. Thursday; separate workshops conducted by Hoffman and Rubin at 6:30 p.m.

How much: $12.50. Tickets available through the Learning Annex, 280-7575.