Past Life Hippies Unite! ;)

Wow...I love this site.
People sound exactly the way I do, it's kind of scary.
About the issue of present day vs. the 60's, I'm kind of divided. While I've cried about the sorry state of affairs in the world today and wished that I could go back, the (small!) practical part of me realizes that that can't happen. So I think that we need to do the best we can of recreating that magnificent time period. I know that it probably can never fully be done, but we can try. So while it's okay to ponder about how different our lives would have been in the different decade, we can't forget about creating the best future that we can.

 

It's easy to forget how short a time that really was. I grew up in Austin during the 60s and 70s, and by the time I became a teenager in 1974, that world had already largely passed away. Oh sure, the style had become pervasive, but the substance of the movement to change the world for the better was giving way to an exhausted and fatalistic introspection, a mood captured perfectly by John Lennon:

God is a Concept by which
we measure our pain
I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in Tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in Mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in Yoga
I don't believe in Kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me...and that reality

The dream is over
What can I say?
the Dream is Over
Yesterday
I was the Dreamweaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John
and so dear friends
you'll just have to carry on
The Dream is over

Many who did not share in the fight to win new freedoms cynically and self-indulgently abused them, creating an opportunity for reactionary backlash, which came to fruition with the election of Reagan in 1980. How many remember what a crushing blow that was? And now, we have people who want life to be better but can't recognize the difference between the Democrats and Republicans! Well, I don't want to go there... What I do want to say is that it was hard work to create those spaces in the 1960s that were safe for and fostered true creativity and real change for the better. It's great to draw inspiration from the '60s and early '70s - I used to a lot and still do to some extent - but as many others who were there have said on this thread and elsewhere, we who are living now are here for a reason. We are the only ones who can do what needs to be done now. This may not be what many want to be, but I think we are living in a time more akin to the 1930s and 1940s, and we just need to face it that we do not live in easy times (the '60s were not easy either) ; our time is less "fun" than the '60s in many ways, but if we want to create pleasant oases of decency, we are going to simply have to do it ourselves. Walmart and all the rest of the big corporations have their own ideas of utopia, and let me tell you, theirs are what will prevail everywhere if all we do is wax nostalgaic. I know you know that. Let's remember that we are in a conflict, a conflict we didn't ask for, but have to deal with none the less. While most of the nation is hypnotized by the fight against terrorism, a terrorism that was inspired in large part by the foreign policy and culture of Reaganite America and beyond, we could be using every ability we have to try to figure out any way at all to improve this country from within, with the long-term goal of making America an inspiration to the rest of the world and not an object of fear and loathing. We are opposed by the most effective propaganda machine in history. They never stop consolidating power, and thinking of ways to discredit anyone who stands in their way. Their vision for America and the world is a technocratic feudalism. Frankly, there has never been a more honorable fight, and it is a fight that is best fought with the weapons of mind and heart and spirit. That is our destiny, for those brave enough to take it on.

 

spirit lives on...........................richie havens.FREEDOM

 

You speak the words of my heart redhatter and I love your spirit.
So many people here feel like giving up, but they really need to be made of stronger, tougher stuff.
I think we can do it, but we have to be so confronting, so charismatic and so unexpected that it will shock people out of their apathy.
We need to be creative!
Remember the first pictures that came out of people who chained themselves to trees etc. We need things that strike the public imagination. We need to brainstorm this.
Hell, people used to stick placards on their bodies saying "the end is nigh"...and then walk around the city. And sure, they may have been 'out there' in more ways than one, but they said what they wanted to say.
Maybe we need to have some "love-ins". Get people together in parks and beside rivers and have people speak from their hearts about the kind of world they want to live in.
Maybe we need a Peace & Love concert, or buskers who sing songs about the environment and raise money for good causes.
Maybe we need random acts of kindness...or small groups chanting for peace in the streets (a'la hare krishnas)...come on you guys...all it needs is one person to start something up, then come back and tell us how it went (so you can inspire the others to do the same). It will be a cool adventure and these little things will build up your courage for the bigger issues.
I wrote the lyrics for a song, but I am not a musician...It's called Silver Mystic and its environmental...but I need someone who can put it to music.
Maybe someone else here can print t-shirts with slogans or peace signs etc. There must be a lot of creativity and intelligence right here amongst us all. I am always happily amazed at the level of intelligence and integrity the young hippies have (although I am an older hippy).
Come on you gorgeous people!

 

I wish I lived in a time where people walked around kamonos and had samurai swoards.

 

But nobody cares anymore. You can't change and influence people if they don't give a damn. My soul aches for a better time.

 

Bravo redhatter, well said.

Do you people seriously think it's gonna happen if you wish hard enough? I'd love for that to be so but that's just not gonna happen. I think wishing without doing is just releasing a lot of sad and hot air into the wind. It's sad to read and frustrating.

Here's a thought: Maybe those of you who are just prepared to wish aren't really serious about it after all.

If everyone on this thread who wished it was the 60s joined the Society For Change we can both wish AND be a lot better off. More people are joining up every day. The Society For Change is THE place for wishing - and putting those dreams into reality. Let's do it, goddamn it! You are no longer just a lone voice in the crowd wishing for change... Let's round up everyone into the one place and get something happening!

Reminds me of one of Jim Morrison's songs... "They got the guns but we got the numbers" If we get the numbers we can't fail.

 

I think the exact same thing everyday. I feel so different from a lot of the people I meet these days.

 

I wish more people cared about each other and the world, and less about money and material things. "If any large group of people desired their own happiness more than the unhappiness of others, that would be paradise."

 

See the girl in the orange shirt looking up at Robby? That's me in a past life.....

 

Imagine it is inevitable!

9


now


wow


love!


who?


I don't know anything silly.

We won?

what?

world peace!

when?

NOW!

Love is all


I'm at your feet universe!

 

me and my group of friends...actually pretty much just two of my friends think the same way. we both wish we could live back in 60's. him and a group of my friends get together for sessions and i always pretend its the late 60's. they don't really get into it as much as i do though. one of my friends dad is Tom Shipley from "Brewer and Shipley". I don't know if you've heard of them but one of their famous songs was "One Toke Over the Line". but he's cool to talk to. i get to play with his equipment from back when he recorded his songs. its amazing to think he actually lived through the 60's and was part of a famous band. playing with people like jimi hendirx, and bob dylan.

 

That I was born too late; that I should have been born early enough to experience all that has past. I disagree. I was born at just the right time to appreciate all that has past and to bring the lessons, both good and bad and terrible, to the now time so the future is not a repeat of the past.

Yes, I still wish, despite the ugliness against black people, that I had lived the bohemian lifestyle between '65 to 1970. Gone to those great rock shows, played circles, seen the Beatles, or the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors at the Whisky, Jimi rock the center of the Woodstock world. The hardest I think would have been trying to stay clean in a time were psychodelics were considered a must to have a way out mental experience. Right now, it is very easy to just say no as I get high on life. Being here, reading other's messages, playing in drum circles free of any chemical enhancement just blows my brain. Still though, to have drifted though the streets of H&A during the summer of love, drinking in life happenings, experiencing the closeted hatred (yes even that!), connecting with people of all colors while dipping into the cauldron of the dreamtime for spiritual experiences beyond reality.

Part of me feels I had been there, brieftly experiencing life before moving on to this one. Who knows man....who knows.

urby

 

I was a youngster in the 60's (Beatles everywhere...) and a young activist in the 70's,

but for all the young people here...remember...:

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late

 

You know, As much as living as the 60's would be cool why does it have to end. There is still hippy communities now I am going to do my best to live it up in modern world as a groovy guy.

 

my sis can still remember her past life as a cheetah!

 

I agree with everything yall are saying..

I HATEHATEHATE these times and i'd do anything to go back!
Haha
But really, theres no use in hoping...
I've gadda do the best I can with what I've got...

 

I agree with you...

 

its a shame to think that a ton of the hippies who were around in the 60s are now corperate dicks... a lot of them once they hit the eighties just lost their sence..

 

I tend to think it's a matter of a lack of sense in their actions in the 60's. Really they acted with a guise of "peace, love and equality" when all they really were was a grouping of people who wanted to partake of the pleasures the hippie lifestyle alloted them. Easy sex, easy drugs, and a sense of belonging. Sadly there is a large tie-dyed and scruffy haired bandwagon that is unrightfully associated with the hippie movement.