We were gonna change the world...what happened?

Here's the thing. Granted I've only read the first few and last post on this thread forgive me for not having the time and patience to read all 581 posts. After reading a little bit of Ken Wilbur and studying Buddhism it breaks down to action vs. intent. If you want to change the world why do you want to do so? Is it because you se how wrong and unjust it is and there were those who were/are on that trip than cool. But are you in it for ego gratification i.e. to say look how we changed the world, and I think that there were more on that trip. And while I'm not saying that the job was always easy It's just that when it came down to brass tacks when it got real hard the scene split. Jerry Reubins copped out for cash not because he wanted to change the system from the inside but because there is very little ego gratification in being a broke revolutionary. And people followed him into that world. The status symbol of having long hair and speaking out against the system was rereplaced by the status symbol of having money and a big expensive car. Hey the Seeds were planted and when the time and conditions are right they will grow. How did you raise your kids? What type of values did you instill in them? How was it different than when you were raised? See you did change the world it just was in a subtle way. Not the giant Earth shaking way that is more gratifying for the Ego.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

I was sitting in the living room, looking through the window of old-style glass with some stained glass and some nice wavy imperfections in the clear glass to go along with the shimmer of my vision, peaking, so high, and there was a whole Earth Catalog there and I opened it to something titled, Think Small by Wendell Berry and I was reading things like try to be a better parent and a better neighbor and grow a garden and I knew it was the truth and I started that day digging a garden and I've been at it ever since - and baking bread and somewhere along the line took the boddhisatva vow and that's been my path for the past 35+ years.

I met Abby Hoffman and some of them guys and I thought they were full of themselves, like you say. I dug Allen Ginsberg, Stephen Gaskin, Stephen Levine, and others as true brothers, loving the world. Being that way.

I was raised in abusive family and left when I was 16, in 1961, before people were doing that kind of thing. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I would have been an angry abusive person, like my father, but then ...

Then you got high
Deep sigh
Wonder why
Where's the door

Hear the old prayers,
Find the wise players.

And I didn't scream at my son, nor did I hit him or intimidate him. All this and more = why I say, we - hippies - did a pretty good job. Personally, I owe so much to LSD and to a good wife.

 

You have no idea how much hippies changed the world. Maybe no one sees it but I do. Think of how stifling life was in the fifties. Then the sixties and seventies came. After that it only got more free in every aspect- sexuality, expanding our minds, the way society sees us. So many things. There of course are drawbacks to it but I think that everything that happened culturally and socially in the US is due to the hippie movement.

 

My dad got out of the Navy in '75 quit cutting his hair and shaving. Built a house on the coast of Maine and went back to the land even though it was a short trip. We allways had different people coming to the house. That hippie environment is a great one to grow up in. I went through my Punk faze and realized that alot of them were just Hippies with attitude problems. Although I haven't read any Steven Levine I read his son Noah Levines first book entitled "Dahrma Punx" and he has another book called I beleive "Swimming Against the Stream a Guidebook for Spiritual Renegades." That looks pretty interesting.

One of my flaws and I become aware of it when I reread some of my posts is little attempts to be provocative. I think it is a hangover from my Punk Days. I hope I haven't offended anyone on this post by doing so.

I also wanted to say liquidacrobat I appreciate your insights.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

I think mostly we changed ourselves and the rest followed. It was a simi peacefull change, a mind expanding peek over to the otherside while we peaked. A phychidelic revelution of the first kind.

We tripped the light fantastic across the universe of our minds, we found certainties that changed our minds about who we were/are. We lassoed the stars and captured them in our eyes. We saw truth through our new eyes, we found The Devine Essecents of Human Beings, in the rapture of the Higher Spirit in us all. We connected with our source and became one, as it was meant to be.

We joined together in brotherhood and pledged our alience to ourselves in unity. We caused a reaction to our actions and ppl took notice and began to listen. It changed ppls minds about themselves and opened up thier hearts to new posibilities. Thus the change began.

As we old ones return to our source we leave behind a legacy which has only occured once. There comes another but it is on a political platform and that is where the positive enegry needs to be channeled towards. For all ppl.

sh

 

Far out Reverand JC, I'd never before heard of Noah Levine. Dharma Punx, yeah. I was saying here or somewhere how happy I was to find all those young hippies at the Coalessence Fest - people your age, younger, some older, a few my age.

So there's this whole green & sustainable thing going, consciouness and so on and besides everything else, even some very good parties. Can you imagine what a gathering of several thousand people would have been like in 1959? I'd rather not. So hippies got the party going, too!!!

Noah Levine doesn't look much like his Dad and you may not look your Dad either, but if you're at Sonic Bloom this year, sitting toward the back and an old man leans over and says, "Don't bogart that joint, younger brother," I think you'll know what to do. He'll pass it right on back, that's for sure.

 

I also wanted to clear up when I described my fathers trip back to the land as short I ment in distance not duration. He grew up on a farm then went out into the world. He now runs a school for sustainable living in Maine.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

To change the world, you have to first change yourself..

 

That's the way that I see it.

 

Hey mosaic,

Well i'll allow myself to speak on the behalf of the "youth". Of course i'm not some general voice, but i feel at last that i am the proof that there is some feeling going on in the youth; that things must chage. But i'm not from the US, i'm don't have first hand experience on how things are there, and seeing i'm only 17 i don't know enough of the college kids and educated kids who could be the catalysts to the change, but at least it says that the movement global, as i'm from France, and i'm sure people feel like i do all over the world, but don't talk about it enough, and seem to be too fiew. Sadly i don't see much of the "positive" spirit around me.

Sometimes i get the impression i was just born 50 or so years too late, but my parents lived the hippie era and i'm here to continue what they started. They are persuaded that a revolution is coming, we just need good music to unite the people, the problem is main stream music today is absolute trash, only the underground is showing good stuff, but it's so hard to access that it couldn't possibly touch the masses. So the music is lagging behind the problems, i mean we have all the problems we need today to protest against, but we don't, it's so paradoxical sometimes i want to cry about it.

So if you could all give us some advice on how to try to unite the youth it's really what we need, you lived and and need to pass us on the knowledge, because i don't think the youth today is made of stone, i think they do feel certain desires for change, but don't act enough.

Anways to answer your question, i do feel like you all did change things. for example people i find are more and more interested in food, organic farming, local farmer's markets. the new revolution if there were one would definately have and ecological stand. People are more and more ecologically conscious. I can't immediately visualize the impact your movement had on society today, but there was one, even if not very consistant or drastic, it is there. In terms of music i can only envy what you had, and in terms of social unity and love.. well... we still have some work to do... but i'm an eternal optimist and feel that everyone needs to feel implicated for this to work, and we can't just wait for it to drop in our laps.

Peace

Peace

 

Think of it like a virus. It starts with you. Your ideas your philosophies your lifestyle. You share it with others either in person or on bulletin boards. On the net etc... Other people read it listen or listen to you you listen to them to their Ideas and Philosophies and you build on your own and they build on theirs and then you keep the chain moving. This is classic Grassroots organizing.

I'll use an example from my life I have a long complex theory about the news and human biorythms that I posted on this site. At first I was bummed out because I got very few responses to the post. But then I looked at how many views there were for that thread and saw that 165 people read it. Once I got my ego off how nobody was responding to me I got to see how many people at least read it. I know not all of them agreed with me. But only an Egomaniac needs everyone to agree with them. But I'm sure some people read it agreed with it and passed the info on. So it starts.....

You can do the same thing. I'm just some schmuck sitting on his livingroom floor half naked typing into a machine.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Thanks alot for your response, I know what you mean. But the thing is you read so much stuff on the internet these days, and kids are bombarded with information in all directions. The question is will my posting my ideas and sharing them reall have an impact on people? or at least a sufficient impact to make them want to become active in a similar movement? i mean i share my ideas with people all the time, and i count on trying to broadcast some, but the question i ask myself is : is the youth ready to take responsibility and stand up for things they believe in ? because for the moment i see no unity... and no good music to unite us!

 

I totally hate to sound condecending and I don't necessarily beleive that older is wiser. But I am about twice your age and all I can tell you is don't worry about weather or not you are being heared and binding the crowd. you kind of have to have a little faith that once you put it out there you've done your job. At this point in your youth you are still a little ego driven, and that's OK. I mean no offense. You have your whole life to figure it out.

I'll share with you something I have read and expounded upon. Independance is an illusion. If you don't believe me look at your food. From the time it grows to the time it hits your table think about how many people have had contact with it. You are simply a part of a complex interconnected web of interdependance. You rely on a lot of people and a lot of people depend on you. Most of them you never met. Yes what you say and do matters. Do what you can and you're off the hook. I don't know if you have any spiritual conviction but I watched a documentary on Ram Dass and his guru told him something I found very inspiring:

"Serve others,
Feed others,
Remember god.
This is the path to enlightenment."

Another way to put it is do things for others because it makes them feel good. Not because it makes you feel good.
Peace Out,
Rev J

 

I beg to differ about the music part. Behind all of the garbage rap and gibberish music, there is plenty of great stuff waiting to reunite everyone. And I still believe the smallest things can affect anyone in a big way. Someone could be reading this thread right now and becoming inspired. It takes only one to start.

 

Well Principessa you are kind of reiterating what I've said. As far as music go's there wasn't just one Music that rallied the hippies for the cause. And ther has been other great protest music since. Starting with the Sixties: you had Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Lovin Spoonful etc... doing Folk Rock. You had the Greatful Dead, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane etc... doing Psychadelic Rock. You had Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchel, CSNY etc... doing Folk. And that was just the late sixties/early seventies. Some of these performers were political some weren't. After that you had Peter Tosh, Bob Marley et al doing Reggae, The Clash in the punk movement, Public Enemy doing rap, Rage Against the Machine doing Rap Metal, Black Stalin doing Calypso, Michael Franti doing Rap. I could do this all day. But I've made my case and then some.
Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Principessa I'm sorry if I was a little smug at the beginning of my last post.
Plants a homework assignment for you. Find some protest music that turns you on from any time period. Time is just an Illusion. If you have access to a CD burner make a CD of said protest music. Play it when you are hanging out with your friends. Read interviews with your favorite musicians putting out the stuff you like find out what they're into and check it out. Also if you can find it there is a fantastic Documentary called "Playing for Change." Check it out.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Maybe. But it's all good. Just putting my two cents in, in my own words.

 

Cool, I was trying to finish a post before work. I hate to feel like I'm abusing large words.
Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Define large words.

There are no small words, only small people

 

Large words to me are words that have alot of letters and aren't commonly used. I think that there are some people that use them unnesessarily. I usually find them thoroughly pretentious and usually are trying to sound more intelligent than they are. Example who the fuck says interdependant.
Peace Out,
Rev J