Do you ever see the 60's making a comeback?

Hippies never disappeared altogether, as a real hippie doesn't care whether being a hippie is trendy. If the hippie lifestyle suits you then go with it rather than follow the crowd.

Lately there's been somewhat of a resurgence of hippies, at least in some places. Like in the 60s we are fighting an unpopular quagmire of a war with no end in sight, presided over by a corrupt president and his government. We've seen many of the gains we made in the 60s being gradually eroded away. When the culture becomes increasingly negative the counterculture grows.

 

Oh don't be. I understood what you mean.

A counterculture as big and public as it was like in the 1960s might return... and it may not. It will depend on a lot of factors: the political climate, the attitude towards that by the youth and their willingness to do something against in on a large scale, among many others. The political climate is of course already worsening, a fertile ground for activism on a large scale. Now all we gotta do is wake up today's young people out of their apathy.

But I think it will not be as psychedelic as it was in the hippie period. People have a different style now, and I think dressing like the hippies did isn't going to make activists look more serious. Plus, it's been done before, and rehashing all that tie-dye and dropping acid in the middle of the street sounds really nice, but it was spontaneous back then and I don't think we should try to model a new counterculture after a previous one, just let things run their course and see what it looks like. All we can do is to keep trying to make people aware of the world around them.

 

in my opinion, i dont think that the hippie era will return. because i think that september 11 has changed the world in the sense that security is more tight, petrol prices has gone up etc. if that tragedy with the world trade center hadnt happend i personaly think we may have been in wid a chance with things being more open and free... like they used to.


and seeing as some of you have posted on here about the vietnam war, i just thought i'd share my conection on that case. i have an uncle who i think did one or two i cant remember duties of veitnam and i think its scewed him up. not that i was alive prior to him joining the war, but from what my mum has told me he lives at the rsl and drinks... and my other uncle has a friend who is afraid to fly cos of that war.... i personaly think that australia nor america and wichever country was involved in that war should have been involved in that war or the one we're fighting at the moment with iraq.

 

I recently made a very good friend at a small private bar in my neighborhood that was a sniper in veitnam. He's shared with me some very personal stories about the war which I won't get into here.

But the most telling thing he told me, is that when he got back he was really screwed up, and the one thing that he needed, that they took away was the ability to love. He was constantly put in situations where he had to defend himself or die. Kill others or be killed. After a long enough time of that it's hard to go back to normal society.

He said the greatest thing his (ex)wife did for him was slowly teach him how to love again. He also mentioned that a lot of his good friend were never able to get back to society. They are currently dug in, living around the local reservoir and hopping around the city homeless and in shelters. He visits them sometimes.

 

thats the thing wid the vietnam war as opposed to the 1st-2nd world war. the soldiers that came back from korea and vietnam were not helped as much as they should have cos it wasnt classed as an actual war or so i have been told. if i'm wrong please recorect me.

 

The mentality of the 60's was not to ask this question, but to answer it with a yes. That is, a hippy from the 60's transported to today would have to answer "yes, because I will be a part of it".

Anything is possible, I will more than happily join the movement!!!

 

You are just referring to the urban hippies, the wannabees.

All show and no go. Not getting a haircut and dressing up in costumes
and taking drugs and waving signs and having a lot of sex are not
grand accomplishments.

The real culural revolution of the sixties and seventies took place in the
rural areas.

According to historian Charles Pierce LeWarne in his 1975 book,
"Utopias on Puget Sound" there were approximately 3000 hippy
communes in 34 states in 1970.

Sure, a lot of those communes were just places for the urban hippies
to hang out and dabble at gardening and offend the locals and party.

But there was a solid core of communes that were seriously working
on creating a new society. That became more and more self-sufficient
as time went by.

These communes scared the hell out of both the straights, and the
urban hippies (who had no intention of doing anything but play the
role) and were deliberately destroyed by the use of un-Constitutional
laws. Like excessive building, health, and safety codes and land-use
(zoning) restrictiond and home-schooling bans.

Much of that is documented in this book:

"The Owner-Builder and The Code - Politics of Building Your Home"
Kern,Ken; Kogon, Ted; Thallon, Publisher: Owner-Builder Publications

America had to destroy the movement without admitting to the world
that it wasn't a free country. So it couldn't do the honest thing and
just ban them, they had to sneak around and stab them in the back.

The real communitarian movement is the only important aspect of the
hippy revolution and is what we need to revive..

What did the urban hippies accomplish? Ending the Vietnam war
after millions had been killed and the country had been virtually destroyed?
That's about it. Not very impressive.

No, what are called "communes" and "ecovillages" on these forums
are not what I'm talking about. These are elitist country retreats that
are utterly dependent upon mainstream civilization.

As were many of the original hippy communes.

A true hippy commune embraces a lifestyle that can be shared
by everyone on the planet.

Littlefoot

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

-- Abraham Lincoln

America! Fuck NO!!!

 

I just have a few thigns to say about the youth.. atleast in America. Just sit bak=ck and watch MTV for a day or two, and you'll get the picture. The youth of America has no direction, and without direction, uness someone steps up, they are lost. It saddens me that so many have become so blind and withdrawn.

 

I have seen this too. It is sad. I think it has something to do with being raised
in environments where the reality they see is contradicted by the words of
supposed authorities: The TV, their teachers, their textbooks, their parents.

For example: Everyone tells them that this is "The Greatest Country On Earth."

Yet everywhere they see miserable and frightened and unhealthy people....

But I don't have a lot of experience in this area and would be pleased if you would
just let it all hang out here.

Littlefoot

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." REM

 

I know. Changing others is not my place... but it's just frustrating to watch.

 

I believe that Ghandi said: "Become the changes you want to see in the world."

Littlefoot

 

I'm not sure, I just don't knwo if hippis have enough numbers to make a comeback. Alot of teenagers are politcally apathetc. However, if we took a lot of the members of this forums and moved them all to one location, we could possibly make a comback lol, if I dont think "hippie hype" will ever return, but i do think we can create OUR OWN culture of love and peace, but it may take a while

 

God, wouldn't it be beautiful??
Knowing what our generations knows now, with technology and all, i don't think it can be done.
see how we are all on te internet?? sending messages back and forth?
it makes it to easy to avoid contact,
when really "we should be together!!"

 

If that culture of love and peace is dependent upon mainstream society, like
most of the hippy communities of yesterday and today are, then it will be
as phony and elitist as they were/are.

A real hippy community embraces a lifestyle that everyone on Earth can
share. It's not a country retreat that requires ugly factories and mines and
de facto slaves and wars to maintain.

Littlefoot

 

Do you mean the 60's and 70's are over?

Damn, musta missed it, been living as a hermit in the Aussie bush for many years.

In all seriousness, those days can never come back again, same shit different era. They call them greenies and conservationists now. Love will remain.

 

We can do better than we did then. If we'd just accept the simple fact that
this civilziation can't be tweaked to become Earth-friendly, peaceful, and
non-exploitative. It has to be shitcanned..

By-the-way, they say that if you remember the 60's, you weren't there.



LIttlefoot

 

well it's up to us isn't it?

 

There was a period in the last half of the 18th Century, known as the Romantic Era, that was very much like the 60's. In music, prose, and other art, artists were evolving their styles in radical ways.

Also, the subject of most art was anti-industrialization and a return to nature. It was the time of Wordsworth, Beethoven, Goethe. Lord Byron wrote "Don Juan" which was (for that time) sexually explicit and very unconventional. Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes" was so full of lust, his publisher made him tone it down before publication. Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" as a protest against the Industrial Revolution.

The Boston Tea Party and other acts of rebellion were not unlike the protests of the 60's. The events that led up to the Boston Massacre and the killing of the protesters on the streets of Boston were unbelievably similar to the events leading up to the Kent State Massacre and the killing of the protesters on the campus of Kent State University. Women protested their subjugated roles in society and there were anti-slavery sentiments in most industrialized areas.

The social upheaval of the Romantic Era forever changed the world. It gave us democracy, liberty, and equality and it gave the poor and downtrodden hope for a better life. As did the social upheaval of the 60's.

When the conditions are right--and I am sure they will be right again--there will be another era like the 60's and the Romantic period.

 

I forgot to mention in my last post that communes were formed in several areas of America.