Looking for 60s Activists!

Discussion in 'Activism' started by skip, Nov 19, 2007.

  1. skip

    skip Founder Administrator

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    We're looking for activists from the 1960s & 70s to join this group to help inspire new generations of activists. I'm compiling a list of activists email addys and will be contacting them about this idea. The few I've researched already are quite an interesting collection of writers, professors and still active activists!

    One thing I'd like to do is profile each one, discuss what actions they were involved with in the 60s, what they have done since, and what they think we should do now.

    So much of what happened in the 60s is repeating itself again. This is because the "movement" never finished what it set out to do. Well now we have one last chance to change the world.

    Are the activists from the 60s ready to finish the job with several new generations of activists alongside them?
     
  2. Libertine

    Libertine Guru of Hedonopia

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    Skip,

    Libertine is in!

    I am ready to get together a program to begin working on REAL change in America.

    As far as I am concerned, the Bush/Cheney dictatorship has thwarted our freedom and made a mess out of both our domestic and foreign policies.

    Change happened in the 60s because people stood up and took these wingnuts to task!

    It is well PAST time that we do it again. NOW is the time!
     
  3. flmkpr

    flmkpr Senior Member

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    so sorry peace love? im sorry?? what sell out! are you talking about? yours? i am so ready to make you understand that you are in the way so get on the train or i suggest get out ouf the way!! the times they are changing, AGAIN!!
     
  4. DQ Veg

    DQ Veg JUSTYNA'S TIGER

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    Well, I was a (early) '70's activist, and one that is quite disillusioned with the state of things today, and the widespread apathy about things that would have sent hundreds of thousands into the streets back then. Count me in.
     
  5. earthmother

    earthmother senior weirdo

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    Absolutely! Need music?
     
  6. Littlefoot

    Littlefoot Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Skip wrote:

    "We're looking for activists from the 1960s & 70s to join this group to help inspire new generations of activists. I'm compiling a list of activists email addys and will be contacting them about this idea. The few I've researched already are quite an interesting collection of writers, professors and still active activists!"

    How about those of us who vote with our lifestyles rather than placards
    and X's in ballot boxes?

    I don't have a car and eat only plants, most of them from my own garden.
    I haven't brought any children into an overpopulated world teeming with
    desperate orphans. I live at less than one-half the official poverty line
    and own almost no material posessions. I have no weapons. I don't
    call for help from people who do, like the police. (I am anything but
    defenseless.)

    "One thing I'd like to do is profile each one, discuss what actions they were involved with in the 60s, what they have done since, and what they think we should do now."

    I wasn't a protester or political activist in the '60's. What did they accomplish?
    Ending the Vietnam War after millions were dead and the country was virtually
    destroyed.

    Founding an environmental movement that has utterly failed to even slow
    down the rate at which we are maiming the planet.

    Only in the national civil rights arena did they accomplish anything, but
    we still exploit the hell out of people of other races around the world, on
    a larger scale than ever before.

    I moved onto a commune after high school where we tried, along with
    many other communes, to create a decent society.

    As you point out below, we failed. And that's the only real unfinished
    business from the '60's. The basic nature of this civilization creates
    all of the problems that the progressives have been trying to fix for
    decades. They won't accept that simple fact and that's why they
    keep failing.

    "So much of what happened in the 60s is repeating itself again. This is because the "movement" never finished what it set out to do. Well now we have one last chance to change the world."

    "Are the activists from the 60s ready to finish the job with several new generations of activists alongside them?"

    I'd love to be a part of that. But most of the so-called 'radicals' won't even
    do basic things like adopting a pure vegetarian diet and adopting
    kids instead of breeding them. Or getting rid of their cars and using other
    means of transportation.

    They have bought into the myth that has retarded all real progress since the
    '60's: That this is basically a good system being mismanaged.

    It isn't. It is rotten from its foundations.

    They choose to believe that they make profound changes in the world
    without making profound changes in their own lifestyles.

    Here's a perfect example of the typical modern 'radical' at work.

    In the early 1990's, before the first Gulf War, all these young men
    and women were lined up in front of the federal courthouse with
    signs that read: "No Blood For Oil".

    When blood for oil became a reality, I rode by on my bike and
    asked them if they were going to be giving up their cars.

    Surely they wouldn't be willing to put blood in their tanks.

    They just stared at me, and I continued:

    The corporations don't give a tinker's damn what you SAY.
    Talk is cheap.

    As long as you show up at the pumps they couldn't care
    less what you say.

    Know what happenned? They attacked me. Physically.

    For daring to suggest that they walk their talk.

    We are going to have to do better than that!

    Littlefoot

    "The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a
    comfortable living from a small piece of land."

    -- Abraham Lincoln
     
  7. earthmother

    earthmother senior weirdo

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    I do agree that folks need to live their ideals as much as humanly possible, otherwise they are "hippycrites".

    I'm from an activist family. MY activism started as a child. We went to peace marches, black churches, Martin Luther King memorials, politicked for George Magovern(SP?). My dad was a political writer. Now I am. But there is an awful lot more one person can do as an activist. I would need to sit down and think and make a list of things I have done towards the good myself. And you're right, folks need to do a lot more than just go to demonstrations and hold posters and yell, altho THAT is one way for us to find each other and the world to actually SEE that there are people with a different perspective. When the world can SEE the energy, not just partake in some of the nice things activists have done without seeing behind the scenes, THAT is what moves more folks towards the light.

    So, SKIP, what do you really have in mind?
     
  8. skip

    skip Founder Administrator

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    My responses are in BOLD.

    Skip wrote:

    "We're looking for activists from the 1960s & 70s to join this group to help inspire new generations of activists. I'm compiling a list of activists email addys and will be contacting them about this idea. The few I've researched already are quite an interesting collection of writers, professors and still active activists!"

    How about those of us who vote with our lifestyles rather than placards
    and X's in ballot boxes?

    I don't have a car and eat only plants, most of them from my own garden.
    I haven't brought any children into an overpopulated world teeming with
    desperate orphans. I live at less than one-half the official poverty line
    and own almost no material posessions. I have no weapons. I don't
    call for help from people who do, like the police. (I am anything but
    defenseless.)

    Well that is living up to your responsibilities as a human being and resident of this planet. It's being proactive, but that is not what being an activist is about. Being an activist means getting others on board by highlighting what needs to be changed.


    "One thing I'd like to do is profile each one, discuss what actions they were involved with in the 60s, what they have done since, and what they think we should do now."

    I wasn't a protester or political activist in the '60's. What did they accomplish? Ending the Vietnam War after millions were dead and the country was virtually destroyed.

    You can thank all those activists and protesters that WE HAVEN'T HAD A DRAFT SINCE THEN. Otherwise many more kids would be dying today, kids who DIDN'T want to be mercenaries.

    In fact one could say the LACK OF PROTESTS and the smaller size of them have allowed the Iraq war to continue this long!

    And at the very least the Vietnam era protests awakened a consciousness in people that exists to this day in older folk like us. Imagine how fucked up things would be if those protests had never taken place, and a whole generation (ours) had never exposed the Imperialist policies of Corporate Run America?

    The only reason things "failed" is because the MEDIA is in cohoots with the gov't repressing the truth and spreading propaganda.

    Founding an environmental movement that has utterly failed to even slow
    down the rate at which we are maiming the planet.

    How much more fucked up would our country and planet be if we didn't have that environmental movement. We wouldn't have the NEPA, the Clear Air Act, cleaner water, the EPA, catalytic converters, coastline protection, fuel economy laws, etc. etc.

    Unfortunately the present Administration has tried to undermine each one of these and turn the clock back. But that's their fault, not environmentalists.

    Only in the national civil rights arena did they accomplish anything, but
    we still exploit the hell out of people of other races around the world, on
    a larger scale than ever before.

    Actually I think this is STILL a FAILURE, unlike you. Racism is alive and well in the US. Just cause legally there are more restrictions, racism lives on in families and still gets passed down generation to generation, and now there are new boogymen to hate (muslims, islamofascists, terrorists, etc.)

    I moved onto a commune after high school where we tried, along with
    many other communes, to create a decent society.

    As you point out below, we failed. And that's the only real unfinished
    business from the '60's. The basic nature of this civilization creates
    all of the problems that the progressives have been trying to fix for
    decades. They won't accept that simple fact and that's why they
    keep failing.

    I disagree here too. We didn't fail. What happened is the SYSTEM failed us by not providing any accomodation for alternative lifestyles. A country like Israel was able to start and support dozens if not hundreds of Kibbutzim because they made that an important element of their society. They saw the value in having small intentional communities, not just to the greater society, but to families and children, and so they made it a big priority.

    If we had done the same here, the gov't helping support ICs, they would have prospered beyond belief. So again, it's a matter of changing the SYSTEM, not a failure of those whose communal "experiments" didn't bear fruit. BTW, there still are a LOT of successful communes and cooperatives around the country, many have been around for 20-30 or more years.

    "So much of what happened in the 60s is repeating itself again. This is because the "movement" never finished what it set out to do. Well now we have one last chance to change the world."

    "Are the activists from the 60s ready to finish the job with several new generations of activists alongside them?"

    I'd love to be a part of that. But most of the so-called 'radicals' won't even
    do basic things like adopting a pure vegetarian diet and adopting
    kids instead of breeding them. Or getting rid of their cars and using other
    means of transportation.

    One thing that's good to remember when tempted to adopt that attitude towards "radicals". We are all from generations that were raised to consume from birth. We cannot be expected to change our lifelong program overnight. Most important is educating our CHILDREN that there are viable alternatives to the comsumerist lifestyle.

    Yes, being a model of that new, ecologically healthy lifestyle is something we can all aspire to. But again, that is NOT what being an activist is about. We can't just say "I'm doing my part" and let it go at that. We must take on the responsibility of educating EVERYONE we come in contact with about their CHOICES and the impact such choices have on the planet.

    They have bought into the myth that has retarded all real progress since the
    '60's: That this is basically a good system being mismanaged.

    It isn't. It is rotten from its foundations.

    I definitely agree with that statement!

    They choose to believe that they make profound changes in the world
    without making profound changes in their own lifestyles.

    Here's a perfect example of the typical modern 'radical' at work.

    In the early 1990's, before the first Gulf War, all these young men
    and women were lined up in front of the federal courthouse with
    signs that read: "No Blood For Oil".

    When blood for oil became a reality, I rode by on my bike and
    asked them if they were going to be giving up their cars.

    Surely they wouldn't be willing to put blood in their tanks.

    They just stared at me, and I continued:

    The corporations don't give a tinker's damn what you SAY.
    Talk is cheap.

    As long as you show up at the pumps they couldn't care
    less what you say.

    Know what happenned? They attacked me. Physically.

    For daring to suggest that they walk their talk.

    We are going to have to do better than that!

    Again, you can't expect immediate change from ppl whose lives have been thoroughly programmed from birth. What is needed first is VIABLE ALTERNATIVES to the point where the Alternatives make more sense (economically, ethically, environmentally, politically, socially) then anything else.

    Then they won't need to defend their use of polluting technology because the alternatives will be more attractive, logical and economical. That is the state we need to be in BEFORE you can really criticize others for what they do.

    We are heading there and with the GREEN BOOM that is coming, there will be more alternatives available than ever before. So there is a LOT of hope there.

    But we must first UNITE before the BIG CHANGES can occur. If we tear each other apart over trivial bullshit, we will NEVER achieve anything.

    Just remember that many of those who would STOP the protests will do anything including infiltrate and malign those who would step into leadership positions or raise their voices loud to where thousands can hear it.

    So we don't need to add personal attacks from the Left to those already coming from the right. We might consider taking the rules of these forums out into the big world when we go protest the system. NO PERSONAL ATTACKS!

    We are on the same side, and making things personal doesn't advance our agenda. The issues are too big and too much is at stake now to wallow in ecological oneupmanship.

    Instead of asking "Why are you still using your car?"

    you should be asking:

    "What will it take for you to abandon your car?"

    That is more constructive and can lead to a progessive dialogue instead of a fight.
     
  9. skip

    skip Founder Administrator

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    At this point, I'll be happy to provide a platform from which older Activists can reach out to younger generations. What they say and do is up to them.

    I think the Hip Websites have grown and evolved to the point where this is an important function for them.

    As I said this was the original idea behind hippy.com, to find the old hippies and get them active again.

    In the beginning it was the younger generation that responded because they were most familiar with the computer and online technology. They were looking for answers. We got so many questions about the 60s that I had to write a book about it. A book that has now been read by 250,000+ people.

    But now, at last, we have much of our generation online, looking for "action".

    I'll let the Activists decide for themselves what actions need to be taken.

    But I think we need to start where we left off. We need to get some NEW grass-roots organizations happening.

    Everyone should go visit Hippy.com and look at the articles I've been posting about the 1960s. Then there were groups organizing for Everything! And they didn't even have computers and the internet then. They spent a lot time, sweat, footwork, elbow grease, etc. putting together alternative magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc. that published alternative views to those in the MSM.

    In fact, these were so successful and popular because the MSM at that time was so out-of-touch, just as it is today.

    Yet it's difficult to be seen and heard today if you have an alternative view. If not for the Internet, the US would've already become totally fascist, the Constitition but a memory for us.

    So we MUST take advantage of this technology and not allow the fascists to control it. If we do, we are doomed!

    It's bad enough that everything is being monitored 24/7 anymore by our gov't without oversight. Who knows what files are being compiled on us from this very thread?

    THINK ABOUT THAT, PEOPLE!

    What does it mean to just post on this website, on this forum, in this thread?

    Will it go on your "Permanent Record"?

    How can it be used against you in the future?

    Oh, you're an Activist, eh? Ve have vays of dealing with people like YOU!

    Our liberties and privacy are being further curtailed every day.

    By coming on this site and protesting the activities of our gov't YOU ARE BEING AN ACTIVIST.

    By coming here and organizing groups, coordinating activities, scheduling actions, spreading the word, YOU ARE BEING AN ACTIVIST.

    By getting OTHERS to come here and participate in these activities YOU ARE BEING AN ACTIVIST.

    We no longer have the streets as our stage because we are intimidated, ignored (by the media) and beaten up when we take to the streets.

    Fortunately we have begun to see the start of Internet Activism take hold, and it is very promising.

    Howard Dean's campaign, Moveon.org, and other websites have shown that the grassroot movements are coming online with a vengence. And that's another reason why people don't feel the need to take to the streets. We can vent our anger and dismay online and often reach more people than marching in the streets.

    I'm hoping the 60s activists can help organize and inspire others to take action. They can share their own experiences which still are as relevant today as back then. They can suggest actions that will be effective in raising awareness. They can caution about tactics being used on demonstrators then and now.

    Some of them may be able to contribute materially towards organizations and actions if they have the means.

    Certainly any famous icons of the 60s who might come on board would bring a lot of attention to whatever is going on, and perhaps even catch the eye of the MSM.

    It would be great if we could at least get a few who participated in groups like the Yippies, SDS, Black Panthers, White Panthers (John Sinclair is a good possiblity as I know him), Young Lords, etc.

    Of course I won't be surprised if some of them are now successful Capitalists without any agenda these days. But none of the activists I've researched or contacted so far have sold out.

    One thing I have noticed is that they ALL feel somewhat unfulfilled and let down by their 60s activism. Sorta like Littlefoot's previous comments. They see it as a failure.

    But that is the fault of HISTORICAL REVISIONISTS, who only focus on what was wrong about the 60s and not all the things that were accomplished.

    As I said in my previous response to Littlefoot, we accomplished far more than the MSM and History has acknowledged. That was another main reason I wrote my book. To set the record straight.

    And that is something I will do here, and I hope other 60s activists will do - SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!

    We might not have achieved every goal we set out to accomplish, but we DID change OURSELVES into something other than what we were programmed to do.

    And we did leave A LEGACY behind of NO DRAFT, Environmental Awareness, DISTRUST of Government and Capitalism, Alternative Lifestyles, Communes, Health Consciousness, Eastern Philosophy, GREAT music, Great concerts & festivals, the PERSONAL COMPUTER, the INTERNET, Mind Expanding drugs, etc...

    If you think that's nothing, tell me what subsequent generations have to brag about?
     
  10. Littlefoot

    Littlefoot Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Except that all the activists I've seen live like everyone else and refuse
    to make any changes in their own lifestyles until everyone else does
    it with them.

    Thus, nothing changes.

    The activists are rightfully seen as annoying hypocrites.

    Since Vietnam, we have killed millions of people around the world, directly
    and indirectly (through arming and financing despotic regimes).

    You have a point.

    The reason that things have failed is that everyone in America thinks they
    have the God-given right to accumulate as much material wealth as they
    can get away with.

    That it's perfectly okay to consume many times more than you produce.

    And the ones that call themselves "progressives" pretend that this can be done
    without exploitative (of the environment and poor people) industries and and
    military imperialism

    The "evil corporations" are invested in by the common people, (insurance -
    banks - pension funds) who also work for them and buy their products.

    What's on the Media is what people want to watch.

    They want all the benefits of brutal imperialism and Earth-raping industries
    and de facto slavery and to be told that they are the World's Good Guys
    who can do no wrong.

    They don't make any difference at all in the big picture. What the 'environmental
    movement' has caused is the exportation of most of the environmental damage
    that we do. That's one of the main reasons that so many industries have
    moved "offshore".

    We want the benefits of Earth-raping industries but we don't want to trash
    out own land.

    On the world stage, which is the one that counts, there is no clock to be
    turned back. It stopped a long a time ago.

    This is a civilization BASED upon pillaging the planet. That's what we DO.

    There are NO environmentalists among us. And that includes me. I am
    closer to being one than most people, but that's all.

    Yeh. But this is an exploitative economy. When you consume more than
    you produce, you have to exploit someone. Since it can't be the people most
    like you it must therefore be someone else....

    Those Kibbutzim, like the hippy communes, aren't anywhere close
    to being materially self-sufficient. They are completely dependent on the
    mainstream economy.

    They aren't seperate from it in any sense that matters.

    We failed because we weren't willing to make the final break.

    Economic withdrawal is de facto secession, and America would never
    allow that.

    America attacks, one way or another, anyone around the world that
    is not dependent upon its economy.

    The hippy communes, in order to succeed, would have had to go
    underground for the forseeable future.

    We didn't have the courage to do that.

    Those communes are just country retreats. They are completely dependent
    upon the mainstream economy.

    They are elitist projects, because not everyone can live like them.
    Someone has to work to make all the manufactured things they are
    dependent on.

    They take good care of their own land and turn to a blind eye to the
    fact that corporations are trashing the planet elsewhere to make the
    things they consume.

    A REAL hippy commune is materially self-sufficient. It takes care of
    its own land AND doesn't participate in the destruction of land elsewhere.

    I think that's just a copout. Our children are going to be what we are.
    "Do as I say, not as I do" never works.

    Again: If you are telling people that they need to live in a way that YOU
    aren't living, you won't be taken seriously.

    [/QUOTE]

    They have bought into the myth that has retarded all real progress since the
    '60's: That this is basically a good system being mismanaged.

    It isn't. It is rotten from its foundations.

    I definitely agree with that statement!

    They choose to believe that they make profound changes in the world
    without making profound changes in their own lifestyles.

    Here's a perfect example of the typical modern 'radical' at work.

    In the early 1990's, before the first Gulf War, all these young men
    and women were lined up in front of the federal courthouse with
    signs that read: "No Blood For Oil".

    When blood for oil became a reality, I rode by on my bike and
    asked them if they were going to be giving up their cars.

    Surely they wouldn't be willing to put blood in their tanks.

    They just stared at me, and I continued:

    The corporations don't give a tinker's damn what you SAY.
    Talk is cheap.

    As long as you show up at the pumps they couldn't care
    less what you say.

    Know what happenned? They attacked me. Physically.

    For daring to suggest that they walk their talk.

    We are going to have to do better than that!

    Again, you can't expect immediate change from ppl whose lives have been thoroughly programmed from birth. What is needed first is VIABLE ALTERNATIVES to the point where the Alternatives make more sense (economically, ethically, environmentally, politically, socially) then anything else.

    [/QUOTE]

    Yes. But you can't create a viable alternative in America. It wouldn't be
    allowed.

    Building codes, and zoning regulations would prevent it.

    An Earth-friendly economy is utterly inimical to one like this. They share
    nothing in common.

    The so-called "ecovillages" I've studied the plans for aren't Earth-friendly
    at all. They are completely dependent upon Earth-raping industries, which
    just coincidentally, of course, don't appear on those plans.

    You couldn't build one for people to see and visit. And you could write
    a book about it, but no one would buy it.

    If you formed a movement that got large enough to be influential, you'd
    be shut down by the secret police (FBI, etc.) so fast that it would
    make your head spin.

    Telling people that they shouldn't work for, invest in, and buy the products
    of the corporations is a good way to get dead.

    As long as you are a 'lone nut' or a small group, they don't care.

    There is absolutely no hope there. "GREEN" is bullshit. Weyerhauser
    Corporation was given a GREEN rating a few years ago by a leading
    environmental org.

    The best thing that they do is turn endless square miles of forest into
    tree farms.

    The "Greens" are a bunch of yuppies-in-denial that think they can
    have their Earth and eat it too.

    They maintain the illusion that this is so by making sure that the
    Earth-raping industries that support their priveleged (in world terms)
    lifestyles are tastefully out of sight, usually in another country.

    I'll unite with people who are willing to actually make fundamental changes
    in their lifestyle.

    I wouldn't even consider taking someone seriously who wasn't a pure
    vegetarian.

    Anyone can talk, we need to actually CHANGE.

    They are only interested in keeping those groups from actually doing
    something real. They don't care about thr protests at all. They just
    want the protestors to THINK that they do.

    That keeps them from even considering doing anything real.l

    Okay. But a lot of people take any kind of criticism as a personal attack,
    when it isn't meant that way.

    I get attacked all the time here. I try to just ignore it, but it can be hard.

    [QUOTE

    We are on the same side, and making things personal doesn't advance our agenda. The issues are too big and too much is at stake now to wallow in ecological oneupmanship.

    [/QUOTE]

    I agree with your goals, but I don't think your methods will succeed. They've
    been tried for 40+ years now and haven't gotten us anywhere.

    That's not a personal attack. I just think you are wrong.

    I think we need to just walk away from this civilization, because
    it is an obvious socio-economic failure.

    So you are for plan A and I am for plan B.

    Are we really on the same side?

    First of all, I don't have a car, so I can ask that question and it means something.

    Second-of-all, what I'd really like to do is to refuse to do business of any
    kind, directly or indirectly, with anyone who has a car.

    Words are all very fine, but people really pay attention when you tell
    them that you won't do business with them because they are engaged
    in a criminal activity.

    The answer you would get to that question, from someone who actually
    thinks, would be that the car is an incredibly important part of this economy,
    providing countless jobs, retirements, charitable donations, and taxes,
    and they have a car because they need to do their part to keep
    the economy that they are dependent on healthy.

    Littlefoot

    "The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a
    comfortable living from a small piece of land."

    -- Abraham Lincoln
     
  11. earthmother

    earthmother senior weirdo

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    Ah Littlefoot, you are not wrong, but yet you are VERY wrong. Simply because of the defeatist attitude you possess and the way in which you try so hard to have others adopt your defeatist attitude by preaching that it's no use. Not meaning to be picky, but it SOUNDS like you are saying that nobody has it right but you and you don't want anything to do with anyone who is not living as you do... That is NOT realistic, nor very neighborly, and certainly will NOT help to make the world a better place. You are so very quick to point out that if someone has it "better" than someone else, they are "elitist". But that would make you, due to your thinking that you are more "together" than others, the DEFINITION of a word you seem to like to use as fuel for your "no use" attitude. And, supposing we could ALL start over tomorrow, each and every one of us, with 10 acres and $500.00. Can't get any more equal than that. But, by the end of the DAY things would already be changing, and some would figure out how to do it better than others. And then you would have your "elite" all over again. You have to work WITH NATURE to accomplish goals. And we already know what human nature is.

    It takes ENERGY, DRIVE, MOTIVATION, and ACTION to be an activist. It also takes HOPE. You don't seem to have much.

    Being a "strict" vegetarian has absolutely minimal meaning as far as activism goes, it's only personal opinion. It's a side track. Being such a separatist as to totally deny the culture you live in does nothing to actually HELP any cause other than your personal one. Ultimately, the goal would not be to totally alienate the rest of "your world", but to work within the greater scheme of things for EVERYBODY to benefit from. Things will only get as good as they will, but we can either TRY or not. and seeing how "CAN'T" never got anything accomplished, I think we should toss it out of our vocabulary except for possibly very adverse times.
     
  12. Littlefoot

    Littlefoot Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    What I have said is that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

    The problems that we face: War, abject poverty on a large scale, the
    wholesale destruction of the planet, are necessitated by the very nature
    of this system.

    The so-called progressives want us to believe that this is a good system
    being mismanaged, and that if we'd just let them run it, everything would
    be okay.

    Well. They've had 40 years now, in which they have exercised a great
    deal of influence.

    And everything keeps getting WORSE.

    There are plenty of people who think like I do. And who live much more
    progressive lifestyles than I do. But they keep a very low profile. You
    can't live an Earth-friendly lifestyle in this country without breaking a
    lot of laws.

    You keep posting falsehoods and then building your case on those falsehoods.
    I've had enough and have deleted the rest.

    You don't like what I have to say, and that's fine.

    But you really shouldn't lie about what I've said.

    Littlefoot

    "The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a
    comfortable living from a small piece of land."

    -- Abraham Lincoln
     
  13. earthmother

    earthmother senior weirdo

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    One thing I am NOT is a liar. I can only read into your words what they seem to say. I have no idea what you are referring to by calling me a liar. I have absolutely not a clue what you mean by saying you can't live an earth friendly lifestyle in this country without breaking a lot of laws. What law dictates we MUST live badly and be polluters or evil in some way? The law of the DEVIL, maybe. I also don't get the label of "progressives". I've seen it used too many different ways. I don't think we are being run by "progressives" anyhow, I think we are being run by barbarians. That is the opposite of progress if you ask me.

    I think you just have a thing SET in your mind, and anything else just doesn't compute. You definitely did not read my post with anything but telling me how wrong I am in your mind, because it appears you either didn't understand what I'm saying, or you choose not to. REALITY IS. The rest is simply opinion laced with attitude.
     
  14. earthmother

    earthmother senior weirdo

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    Well, before we got sidetracked with nonsense.....

    I AM an activist, born and raised. Here are some of the things I have done as an adult, since being a child activist ends eventually...

    I've fed and aided the homeless, I've helped start an Arts and Humanities Council and an arts and crafts festival which is going strong over 30 yeas later. I've attended peace rallys, belonged to "concerned citizens" groups, organized FREE peace/music fests. I can draw and paint, I've designed fliers and pamphlets. I'm not afraid of being in the public eye and making myself into a "spectacle" if necessary. I'm a musician who writes and performs subversive folk music. I'm focused on opening peoples eyes and fighting apathy. I am currently the editor of a local "truth" blog, fighting ignorance (education of the masses of apathetic rednecks!) and fighting the corrupt political system by bringing it to light RELENTLESSLY.

    Even tho I work harder than most folks I know, I have NEVER held a "real" job and always keep money things under the table, so have paid nothing into the "income tax" base. I can live comfortably without electric and plumbing. I NEVER DROVE A CAR until I was 32 (kids make things necessary). Never paid rent anywhere, even tho I've moved 9 times. I can also live comfortably enough WITHOUT a house. Soon, I will own my own home (lived here 21 years), even tho I did not have to pay for it. I can dine from dumpsters or eat at fancy tables with the "elite" if necessary (THAT's balance!) I farmed my whole life, I grow my own everything, can sew, do leatherwork, make brooms and shoes, do carpentry, train horses, quilt, I can even give someone a mean tattoo. I have better stamina and blood pressure than most young men I know. And I have exceptional aim (guns, rocks, darts...) Lots of energy. Put me to work as an activist for sure. I'm not shy. But be prepared, 'cause I'm NOT a follower either. Thanks for the thread Skip. So, let's do something.
     
  15. skip

    skip Founder Administrator

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    Then why are you here on this thread?

    Are you trolling us?

    You make some good points, but those are better addressed in separate threads than here.

    This forum is part of the Activist group, if you're not part of it, then you need to post this stuff up elsewhere.

    Ok, I've fixed that problem now.

    You see this was a problem that Activists couldn't address in the past, people coming into groups with the sole purpose of disrupting or undermining them.

    I like Littlefoot, so it's not a personal thing, but having that kind of negative energy disrupting the group, esp. at this stage is unnecessary.
     
  16. Thumber

    Thumber Member

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    As an old road dog from back in the day, I'm now doubtful that life on Planet Earth will continue much longer under the current corporate rule, frustrated seeing all the folks hassled, arrested, fined, and jailed for marijuana, totally amazed at the ludicrous attitudes towards sex that prevail around the world, and incredulous at what demands and restrictions seemingly intelligent people will attribute to a Supreme Being that has never once in the history of humankind given a single sign of existing. Check out: www.grinninsinner.com.
     
  17. Papillon

    Papillon Member

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    Hi You all glad to find your group. Before I start posting let me just say the I am French Quebecois from Montreal. Its cold up here...I have bad eyes and combined with English being my second language and typing with 2 fingers will make me slip in some real bad spelling and grammer I am sorry for this.
    I am 56 going on 57 I was there in the 60ties on Viet-Nam Chilé even the early civil rights movement had stuff happening in which I was involved as an early teenager.
    I am still an activist. I am also a song writer I write in French English and Spanish. Songs about people the world peace the environment are all things I like to write about.
    I see a lot of beautiful new currents in a world that has been rolling down an illogical path for quite some time in my life. Our future
    is not a reflection of the heart and mind of humanity but of exit pols, the media lies and a great hold on everything from education sex to the way we cloth ourselves of a infinitely small minority. A rich one.
    We are online networking and getting some really intense stuff into the culture of those on line. Do you notice a generation phenomena also attached with this.
    But networking is good, Posting things about peace and kindness is good. It is all good but it will not change the world. Because what determines the world has not been the way people think but what the interests of the multi rich and very greedy powerful and effective hold on power.
    If we are to make the world a better place we all need to really start working together. But first we must come to an agreement on the fundamentals.
    I would like to read you an e-mail I sent to my personal friends yesterday. People I did not meet on the internet but people I know well enough.

    But before I paste it here I was thinking of some really great ideas of how we could have a major impact using the tools that the networking revolution is making possible.
    What I have in mind here is a sort of open video discussion with people like you and me and people who really care about the world to discuss our views together. Using youtube and our oun particular streanths to help each other achieve great things.
    About my video it got featured for some reason. I guess it was pretty good. But I didn't do it to win you know I just thought the question was rocking. Not that I believe for one second that the rich and powerful of this world at the summit are really out there wanting to understand the needs of humanity. But to have this challenge on youtube about making the world a better place. That was the whole point.
    So here is my paste again help me go to the video post many comments,

    Have you heard of the Davos Question on youtube.
    Once in a while a really nice thing like this happens where youtubers are invited to upload videos on a common question and then there is some sort of competition.
    I took on a challenge on youtube for the Davos question about the world
    economic forum in Davos Switzerland. So now my musical video has gone
    from a few thousand hits to 80,249 views or more. It may well reach a
    lot but I am thinking it may sort of stay at around 100,000 vies
    at the end of this which is in a week.
    I am getting lots of comments. Nice ones and really hateful ones. My
    song was written in a day but it touched the nerves of some and thats
    what I also wanted. Its ok for red necks to call me hippie fagat and
    stuff but there is very little from the other points of view. . I am being a mass debater. My accent and my style serves
    for some and others hate what I say and so I am reaching out to you as
    a friend not to come and defend me but to add your 10 cents
    cause 2 is just to cheap now for gas. Anyway your more my kind of people and so peace and
    re-Pshychedelically yours
    Rate vote and focalise. Thank you.
    The Davos Question Answer one
    Davos Question Answer 2 very radical
    Papillon
     
  18. Joe Jones

    Joe Jones Hip Forums Supporter HipForums Supporter

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    REPLY= Yes Skip, May God, whoever you take him to be, bless you for looking for the old activists to lead a new movement! The young today have the same energy and style, but it is the older generation of hippies who will provide much needed Substance to the hippies today. Some of the young have grown up under Reagan and Thatcher, and as a result need introducing to collectivist hippie ideals and communalism. I really miss those times! I was only 8 when I saw "San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie on British TV. Some hippies have told me since it was virtually all over by then, although for me it was just beginning. I learned from older hippies (I'm 49, how old are you, Skip?), about the true ways of love and peace, and the heart of true hippiedom has never left me. I would love to be part of a new movement in the UK, only one thing, can we leave out the idea of long hair being a big part of it! I'm as bald as a Coot now, as I'm sure are many older hippies from the 60's and 70's. Maybe it was a bit short sighted to insist on long hair as part of the scene, given so many hippie baldies nowadays! I wore my hair long for as long as I could, now Mother Nature has took over! I was activist in that I wore hippie clothes at school, and long hair, and got in trouble for it. I was always on about World Peace, never supported any Wars, either here in Britain or the States, always on about the need for Universal love etc. I was involved in Student sit-ins when I went to University in England, and have always been left of centre in my politics, sometimes radically left of centre! I want In if you want to start it all up again, I'm not likely to be of much help in America, but can be a part of the British end of things. There are other countries in Europe where hippies were felt too! Don't forget Holland, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden, and even France, remember their riots of 68? Europe wants in, let's get it up and running now. Can I suggest you start a new thread on the Hip Forums? One which talks about the old collectivist values, which I'm sure you know a lot about. Come on Skip, let's go! Joe Jones, Welsh hippie. hippiej@hotmail.co.uk.
     
  19. Papillon

    Papillon Member

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    I am a still active activist.
    I make music and videos .
    My first language is French I am from Montreal Canada.
    I think to want to change the world people must detach from their personal interests and really understand how their daily lives affect the lives of humanity and that starts with family societies and nations. Letting go of personal interests in exchange for global interests in turn uplifts your values and your global quality of life.
    Great disparities between humans such as their exists today between the rich and the poor can not breed peace and happiness.
    This of coarse must be based on a new type of education that is set on higher moral values. Where the culture of winning is less ingrained and the culture of deserving and of excelling is at the forefront. A culture of substance and of ideas rather then tv win it all shows. A culture of beauty rather then a culture of glamor because we want to put materialistic clichés on culture so we can have mindless consumers.. A culture of well being rather then one of power and glory. A culture of thought more then blind religious faith and prejudice a culture of mind openness curiosity and meditation. Rather then one of samurai's. soldiers And knights controlling the kingdoms. I hope that for 2008 humans will tune to their higher selves and declare the end to exploitation war domination and global world inequality. From the pentagon to Al Quaida
    from the streets of NY city to the slums in Pakistan from the European bistros to the farmers in Asia the workforce in India Saudi Arabia. A new hope a new urge
    And answer the Davos question.
    Youtube had a great challenge out at the biggining of 2008 called the Davos Question.
    Davos the world economic summit with people like Kissinger and condolesca Rice joining with many different people of different positions in the power machine meeting suposidly to come with solutions about what to do to make the world a better place. For an activist like me this was an ocasion to bring substance. Youtubers were invited to make a video saying what they thought goverments companies and individuals should do to make the world a better place.
    the question
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDqs-OZWw9o&feature=related
    My answer one
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7P1CBWWzIc
    my answer 2
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGy2cMdJBSo
    reflections after Davos
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNNxm9TM-qk


    The struggling peace movement made up of jewish born citezens of Israel get my respect especially. It is difficult to separate ourselves from the history of our nationhood and religiosity without coming out as traitors. Especially in a context of people blowing up in your school or in the cafe or on the bus.
    I am part French part native like most people in Quebec. My romantic and morale France is the one of Victor Hugo and of the many republics
    the one of fraternity and equality and of mai 68 not the one of the blackfeet of Africa and of the green berrets. Not the one that sank the rainbow warrior and of imperial Indochina. My native soul is the one of connection to madre tierra and the great spirit. Not of the ones who owned slaves and fought constantly against the other tribes.
    I am also a hippie but my hippieness is not the one who sticks his head in a cloud of nonsense saying it's all good. Not the short sided elitest petty bourgeois who feels that he owns the truth because he has been to Harbin hot springs eats expensive organic stuff and thinks he is better or superior to the babylonian beer drinkers because he megadosed that whole summer.
    Earth day is coming real soon. This is our home the mother earth yet she has been soiled and trespassed. Raped fenced sold and burnt. Especially these last 10 years. We think of war, Israel and palestine, Tibet and Al Quaida. But I am here to ask you to be with me for Gaia.
    With gentleness and determination. With all your hippe hearts and love and compassion. Your true warrior souls and your mothering instincts. To help remind all of our place here in this universe as simple children and creators.
    I have 4 groups you ca join. I have sent you the links. But really what I ask is you think of 3 sentences with 2 rhymes or more. That you will write for the earth and your love for the life in all.
    And that you go to the link on my new version of Gaia made a few days ago sang mostly in english this time. And through youtube chanels meaning taking the 2 minutes to register youself as a user if you are not allready a member and that you post your words as a text comment to Gaia. when the time will be right. either Friday night or Saturday I will take all these words people will have written and I will make a video with an instrumental background so we can have it on earth day the 22 of April. If you have pictures drawings and video footage relating to the subject and that could mean your smiling face e-mail them to me I wil use them in the video. You can add more comments aside from your rhyme
    on Gaia.
    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=02gPn9Y93gk
    When you go to Gaia notice all the video reponses you can watch some of those too. I got another eart song in french called
    le coeur des marins.
    Also please join the groups too if you want
    gaia4love on facebook on myspace and yahoo groups.
    http://groups.myspace.com/gaia4love
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gaia4love/
    gaia4love on facebook.

    Peace
    Papillon
     

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