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

Here I am!

 

The general consensus here is that the freaks did change the world.
Not as much as they had hoped, but they were VERY optimistic, VERY far-reaching in their goals. Was that a good thing? Would they have even been able to achieve what little they did (little compared to what some of them wanted) if they had not reached as far as they did? Maybe there's a lesson there. Maybe the only way to bring about the change we want is to imagine the highest, the high high highest, stretch our minds to imagine the greatest world possible and say 'We are going to do this, we are definitely going to change the world extremely'
And if the results fall short, we cant get depressed and give up. Some changes arent visible right away. Some never will be. We dont know what kindof world it would have been without the hippie movement. Perhaps if it hadnt been for that movement we would have been living in a nightmare world right now; perhaps a little relaxation (sexual and personal freedom, etc) was what the society truly needed to keep it from going over the edge and becoming something even the Nazis would have flinched at. We'll never know.

 

I am too young to offer my opinion. I have one question though.


Do you ever feel guilt? Was everything motivated by love? Were all your gifts honest?

 

feel this please....i grew up in your garden - i played in those weeds - don't forget - kids pull up dandelions to make crowns for eachother - we are still out there playing - we are still chaining daisies and eating clover - every plant is beautiful - even if you didn't mean it to grow there - it has a purpose - even if it's just to create the need for removal - we could never live in a perfect world because we would forget and let it fall apart completely - if i may continue the metaphor for one more line......if nothing else - the weeds keep the gardners in the garden with their hands in the dirt!!!!!

 

Well, we certainly changed ourselves. But, yeah, all these little things like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, the ACLU, the SCLC, the Panthers (grey, black, white), Krishna Consciousness, etc.

I just remembered something that happened then. I do not know how or when, but I ended up in a house whose inhabitants were mostly SDS, Weathermen, etc. Me, I had just gotten turned on to both acid and pot two months before.

I remember sitting buck naked in the midst of all the so-called radicals. 7 oir 8 people there and they had naught to say. It was like, "Hey, radical, little brother." What else CAN one say, if one professes radical change, and is then confronted with it?

Cowardice won out, and the consensus was: pay no attentionm to the man behind the curtain. He's not there.

YOU CAN EVEN GET NAKED IN FRONT OF THEM, AND THEY WILL STILL IGNORE YOU.

What kind of brain-washed Nat-zi is like that? This describes the true believers on both sides, although I like to think we lefties are hotter.

to be maybe continued.

 

interesting question. of course I feel guilt sometimes, especially in the areas of "selling out" or conforming to the very society I was trying to change. was I always motivated by love? Yes! Were all my gifts honest? I hope so! Were all of the folks involved in the movement of the 60's and 70's honest and motivated by love? of course not. Maybe that is the crux of the problem, we are all human. The 80's proved that greed prevailed.

 

Being responsible for our actions seems to be a big lesson now...how'd we get so many weeds and bushy things in the garden and why do the stores sell all that crap?



*Yes, well spoken!

 

We did make a lot of changes. The draft is gone, legalized discrimination based on race, sex or religion is gone, people recycle more.

So we didn't overthrow the government. We didn't all turn on, tune in and drop out, embrace socialism and form communes everywhere. We didn't get marijuana legalized. Basically we settled for a compromise, grew older and joined the real world. But the influences of growing up in that era have stayed with us.

Change is, as they say, two steps forward and one step backward. Right now we're fighting that step backward. And with GWB's approval ratings down below 40% we're making progress. We're changing the world again, I just hope it comes soon enough.

 

yeah they got numbers and guns
and it did start up again for iraq
yeah

 

Did you change the world? Yes. You changed my world.

I'm a 19 year old girl from a small southern town. I live right on the Mason-Dixon line. Racism is still prevelant, as is sexism. People are backwards, and close-minded. Other cultures are studied in school as if they occured long ago and have no effect on life on my town now. I grew up in this, feeling different and alone.

I grew up wondering why black people didn't go to my school. Why my mom didn't have a job and why daddy was allowed to be mean to her. Why no one ever seemed to leave the town to venture out, be different, try new things. When I was maybe 10, I started reading about the hippies and their movement. How you tried to change the world, spark love in every heart, knowledge and acceptance in every brain. Change the government and society. You thought outside the box, unphased by what the rest of the world thought of you. You became my heroes.

Because of you, all of you, I felt the strength to stand up to bullies in my school, defending the token black students, the homosexuals, womens rights. I felt justified in studying and trying to accept other religions and political systems. I felt comfortable enough to think past what my tiny society expected of me as a women and looked for a different road for myself.

You saved me from a fate worse than physical death. You saved me from mental abuse and anguish over my entire life. Without knowing that your movement made a mark, I might still be in my hometown, an abused and uneducated housewife with no money, no means, and children I can't support and raise properly. You gave me the courage to travel outside the south, to live on the west coast. To finally see the ocean.

Don't ever think that you didn't make a difference, my friends. You might not have saved the world in one fell swoop. However, your presence is touching lives all over the planet, and we will carry on your work long after you are gone. You gave us the push, and we'll gain momentum. Thank you for that. We owe a lot to you, our history, our forefathers.

 

"You gave us the push, and we'll gain momentum." Hippyfreek, great post.

I like this line that I quoted from you. because we all support each other, your push gives ME momentum also. It's all in the circle.

 

You sound more depressed with your life then upset over what you think did not happen or go down on the planet.

Many things have been accomplished and many are still happening right now.
Go check out Skips book which is online at this site for an entire list of the things that have been done.
Right now there is also this huge regeneration of The entire Hippy Scene.
Some of us never stopped living it.
Others got very attached to them selves and money.
Peace The Wiz

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Let me second that statement Mimosa and say, Thank you Hippyfreak! thank you for a most heartening post.

The thing I saw in the '80s was when Carter was elected many people seemed to think we had won and the world was changed and they basicly went to sleep politicly not giving him the continuing support that was needed. Instead too many folks converted to yuppies and retired from the fight for a better world for all in favor of a better world for 'me'.
"Two steps forward, one step back." Keep on truckin' folks!

 

you know I think yall did change the world

 

What is a hippie? My mom was a hippie, barefeet in the mall and all..

What is a family? LOVE
I have a family. Self-employed with our art work, trying to change the thinking of the world. Be respectful to everyone, smile when no one else is, look into the passing strangers eyes. Smile at someone who was not expecting it...you just changed the world. I think every positive (and negative) interaction causes a reaction. Will we stand together when the time comes? Our family may be imperfect, but we are true to eachother. I am young, but my mind in old. Be love. Teach love. Show love. The revolution has not even started.

 

sure, there are alot of positives. you have influenced alot of younger kids to do the same thing and keep fighting the same fight. there has been a big wave of hippiedom that has swept over the youth and your generation is responsible for that so, feel good because you've inspired our generation to keep trying. there will be positive results they just may not be immediate or soon and we have to give it time and your suceeding generations of hippys will try to make it happen.

 

here i am posting about the results that are going to come and i didn't even mention the ones that already have. you've affected millions in a positive way already and more hippys are born everyday. thank you.

p.s. who says you have to stop changing the world now?

 

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How much change did you want ? I mean we got a war stopped. You can walk down the street looking like you want. I remember getting chased out of towns cause I had long hair for shit sake,getting turned down in a restarunt, getting hauled in to jail and having my head shaved and getting the shit kicked out of me for the way i looked. Womens rights, gay rights, Pot laws have been eased up and legalized some places.The problem I see is Lethargy and complacency in the younger ranks. We had a chance to get that beady Eyed sombitch out of office and nobody got out and voted!! Oh yea there is another thing I got my ass kicked for getting the 18 yr. old vote. what good is it when these younger generations won't get of there asses and do it. We could have a lot more if people would just get off their asses. But noooo. Oh well I guess I've said enough .gregg