An open letter to young hippies

I'd be interested in hearing a little more about this. What do you mean you were 'chosen'?

 

I was chosen =
I was 18yrs and a 1/2
Draft lottery held December of 69- #050 - (July birthday)
Yr at Fort Hood Texas- some medic training
In country - 1970 +

 

Oh, haha
I thought you meant picked by Jesus as the messiah for some holy role in life.

 

HaHa- Might have taken that option-> but thier were plenty using that one

 

Wow that made me feel better, thanks. Someone somewhere out there that actually understands this. Its scary that there are so few.

 

Perhaps.

Actually, no. What I'm is anything a person does changes the world and that would include "changes in consciousness". Thus every individual needs to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions.

Again, no. The "heart" needs to be changed before any exterior changes can be made.

You seem to have missed what I have been talking about all together, kind of like you are blinded by a "certain positivist-materialist viewpoint".

 

Sorry about the headache but still it was a fun read. :2thumbsup:

 

If anything a person does, in fact changes the world, then a person is responsible whether they "take responsibility", or not.

Individuals may be competent or not in affecting the change they would like to see.

 

It's a never ending cycle which we all are required to participate in regardless of our willingness to do so or our ignorance of the process.
it goes like this;

Experience brings Knowledge
Knowledge imparts Responsibility
Responsibility demands Action
Action brings Experience

and thus it begins again.

That cycle of learning applies to every aspect of life.

 

I agree. A required curriculum. The time you take to learn it is optional.

I would say knowledge is being shared.

Knowledge flows freely into an open mind.

I need do nothing. I am constrained by the self organizing principle of life.

To be responsible as in culpable, is a distortion I think. To be responsible as in the sense of competent, has real meaning for me as well as for the curve of learning

 

Here is something to think about. Everything you do changes the world. Every action you take changes the trajectory of some chain of events. Every action that you don't take changes the trajectory of some chain of events. Enough subtle changes adds up to real change.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

That's me, adding my subtle changes to the growing real changes.

 

This OP is put very well. I don't consider myself a hippy - I am just a person who happens to be interested in actually knowing the truth behind the world while maintaining the basic principle of human integrity and solidarity. Frankly, I dress like a businessman and have a buzz cut.

But that is the point. I never got why people (young folks) yearn over the past, be it the '60s, '20s or whatever. As a person truly matures, they realize that it is incredibly harmful to spend one's mental energies on ruminating about the past and the future. It is only logical to simply embrace whatever the moment offers and fully devote yourself to it. It took me seven years to figure this out after my 'cookie-cutter' life was brought down by severe Schizoaffective Disorder. I had to mature...and I had to do it fast.

The generation between the ages of 16 and 35 is incredibly egotistical. Like I eluded to, I used to be this way before my illness. It is a very easy trap to fall into and even those who claim to not be selfish exhibit secondary behaviors which clearly indicate their self-centered nature. The OP's mention of racism and classism are two good examples. Most people in the generation I speak of that are white upper-middle class have never faced death or poverty and they don't want anything to do with it because it might 'upset' their precariously-balanced lifestyle.

Honestly, every day I struggle to keep myself from returning to the behaviors of self-centered-ness and living in the past or future. Most people in the world promote such behaviors so it really takes every day to force yourself to not get sucked 'back in'. I think I have done decently in keeping my head out of the muck during, say, the last two years or so. Luckily, my Schizoaffective Disorder is under control, and I am back 'out-the-other side' a much more mature person. The only reason I even mention myself is simply to show that sometimes it takes a tragedy to spark a change.

I just hope that for other young people, they can free themselves and change WITHOUT having to face death so closely.

 

i agree with the comments about the 60s and 70s being an era of mass mobilization and thought contagion ... it was revolution in amerika in a profound way. society is experiencing revolution now ... 2011 was the year of revolutions around the globe, but part of the problem is what the rev identified when he started this thread ... people are egotistic, apathetic, and isolated in a time when there is the opportunity for so much more interconnectedness (the internets, our smart phones, and on). people inclined to disagree with the way things are pay attention, while those who trust the government or who identify too much with a party but which won't take it to the extreme to foist a change that could cause the tipping point to revolution simply don't get involved and stave off the chance of any thought contagion. too many people now engage in isolated, egoistic individualism, and yea lots of those who fantasize or are nostalgic about the 60s (or any other hip era) do so because of the thought of partying, togetherness, and belonging or other more individualistic-focused reasons and not because of challenging societal norms, creating a better future, and addressing injustice or other such reasons that contemplate belonging to more than a little isolated world, belonging to a society and a human race. i still, however, hope and wish for some sort of thought contagion or some horrible political or environmental situation that will actually be the tipping point ... actually force peeps to have their rampant postmodern individualism shattered and to have people remember that we each, and every one of us, are in some way responsible for the pain and problems out there in the world. we are not isolated and alone, but rather are all in this together. there is an invisible spiderweb of interconnectedness. and yes, our actions beget other actions. it is important to be aware of that, and to try to act for the good and the greater good rather than for the self and the self interest.

that said, i do think looking back to the past can serve as inspiration for the future. it is amazing that peeps rallied against what the government was doing and what society was tolerating to create more space for justice and equality. yeah, those concepts are intangibles, but progress was made. then, progress halted while eras shifted and people became content to roll in the dough, climb the social ladder, move away from the angst that was youth and the immediate societal ills that provoked revolution and mobilization. looking back can remind us that the postmodern is not the end all be all of society, that the village mentality is a brilliant one as it reminds us of our interconnectedness, and that past revolutions were not enough and that more education, change, and hope is necessary if we are ever to imagine - and implement - a different and hopefully better world. gotta take lessons from somewhere, methinks.

 

Very well put, jenniferjuniper. I once remember Ram Dass teaching that the basic test of moral actions was whether they acknowledge/embody the Truth that we are all One, or whether they reinforce/embody the paranoias of separateness, isolation and ego-individuality.

Of course it is difficult to tease apart which actions do which, but I think basically that is a very good starting place for moral action, either at a societal or personal level.

Along with that, I've always held the "give folks the benefit of the doubt" principle pretty strongly; I tend to think that the "hip" or "nostalgic" folks who venerate the 60s are doing so for the right reasons rather than assuming that they are doing it for the yucky reasons. Undoubtedly it is a mixture of both.

 

It doesn't have to be 1970 for me to be happy.
When we get nostalgic for the hippie age, it is because we want some (not all) aspects of the life that young people of that day aspired to.
Unless there are some people out there who have some weird calendar fetish, nostalgic for the past simply because it was the past. Not me!

 

I've seen the truth and I know its coming, not too soon, not too far away.

Looking back on the 60's gives me hope, makes me feel excited of what may come for us, the fact that so many people joined hands and did what was right and so very peacefully made an impact on many lives, and they are still making impact on lives now.

And when we finally have a peaceful world, all of us that have been waiting so so long for it, lifetimes even, get to enjoy everyone's faces almost like our prize for holding out and not giving in to this way of life. The gaze's of amazement at what they have been missing will be my prize, I so look forward to it. Then I can rest

 

I am teen but I don't want to live in 60's, but i wold like to go camping in VW van

 

If you keep your requests reasonable, (and this is not too extreme a request) the tooth fairy will leave you a set of VW keys under your pillow some night soon!

 

I would like to live in the 60s... can I get a time machine? Please? :sunny: