How can the peace, love and respect of the hippies heal humankind in this day and age

The best thing one can do is be an example of how you wish everyone would behave.

 

People say religion is the problem, and why I do not doubt there is an element of truth there. The problem lays in an un awakened mind and lost connection to ourself, our humanity to others and our connection to the universe. Love is all you need

 

So much of current media portrayal of that time period is treated as simply humor for entertainment. In fact, now that I think of it, even at that time the occasional 'news story' was all BS and demeaning. No effort was put into presenting the attitudes of the movement in a serious light.

I was there, coming of age in the late '60s. While I never affected the full "drop out, reject society, create a new way for human interaction" attitude, I fully accepted and embraced the underlying message. And also did many of those of my age. While always a minority, we chose to live in that current society, but not be OF it, to find ways of expressing the new ideas and behaviors without being blatant about it.

Occasionally one finds the idea that "the Boomers" (yes, my time period) as they aged into their 30s, were to blame for the rise in materialism in the '70s and '80s. Unfortunately a good bit of that is true. But there was/is still a minority of us who attempted to live our lives employing the ethics of the mid to late '60s. Often lately I feel like I hear the last few lines of the play Camelot, "For one brief, shining moment there was a place ....."

By the way, I hate that damned media-created word 'hippies'. Those of us who, before it became 'cool' to look funny and act out, took our attitudes of leaving 'the old ways' behind very seriously. I blame the media of that time and today, as it usually does, for taking a good idea and turning it into 'entertainment' for ratings.

 

Also along those lines, with modern technology we now have easy access to more Knowledge than in the entire history of mankind. And what does most of society do with it? Commercial television (one half-hour gets: 18 minutes of lightweight content / 12 minutes of commercials). Social media with so much wasted time and misinformation spewed about. Electronic games taken to the point of fetishism. Entertainment focused primarily on violence, death and destruction. Societal factions that present half-truths for their political benefit.

"The best of times, the worst of times"