We need a Hippie resurrection.

[kpete]

The Saints Are Coming
by One Pissed Off Liberal
Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 11:08:13 AM PDT
(Cross posted from Docudharma)


If the hippies had won that struggle in the 60s we’d live in a more humane world today.

..............

If the hippies had prevailed, if our society had followed their lead, we'd have a world much closer to being ecologically balanced. We'd have mature alternative energy technologies and organic food grown on family farms would predominate. We'd likely be at peace in a peaceful world and we'd be actively engaged in helping other nations help themselves in purely benign relations with our fellow earthlings. Though the world would certainly still be imperfect, we'd be masters of diplomacy and things would be generally better in this world for virtually everyone. We might have fewer millionaires and billionaires but trust me nobody would miss them.

The important point is that we would not be killing each other - we'd be taking care of each other.

.....................

Oh I know, I'm hopelessly naïve. People couldn't possibly be good to each other. How ridiculous. I should just grow up and face the brutal fact that we are nothing but ignorant and mean-spirited savages.

That kind of thinking is what has brought us to this point. We had choices. Peace, love and understanding are the choices the hippies urged. Fear, war and empty-headed consumerism were the choices forced down our throats by the rightwing. It wasn't inevitable - and it wasn't us. It could've all been very different.


more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/26/14551/3007/504/503938

[WheelWalker]

1. I couldn't agree with you more, comrade. Tune in. Turn on. Drop out.

[kpete]

3. tuned in, turned on

but proudly NEVER dropped out, kp

[femrap]

62. I think of the 'dropping out'

as not accepting the conventional American dream where consumption is queen....as opposed to being a hermit, I guess.

I could use more turning on....lol.

[Echo In Light]

119. Yes, it simply signified a personal form of existential protest via "dropping out" of society

... and exposing your ideas and views to others, especially by way of personal example. But one needn't necessarily flee to the solace of countryside in order to drop out ... although I do do that regularly.

[tekisui]

2. This hippy in NC is doing my part.

[Breeze54]

4. This flower child hasn't given up. (bad link)

Btw? You might want to edit that link... if you include
your log in ID, the link doesn't work correctly.

sessionid= etc. shhould be deleted and use the actual link to that title for that diary.

Sorry!
We were unable to locate that page. Please return to the front page.

[marylanddem]

5. Original Flower Children Rule!

[il_lilac]

6. every time I lecture my kids

they answer "mom, you're such a hippie" My reply is Yes I am! So what's wrong with that? The stigma keeps us from being taken seriously.

[Mabus]

15. My nephews and neices describe me as their "hippie aunt"

I'm the one that knows all their "secrets" too. More than nine out of ten times I end up convincing them to talk to their parents.

And now I'm off to do my hippie stuff for the day. I'm still putting in my garden - some of the plants I grew from seed - and need to go pick up a watering can. Yesterday I found out that the only outdoor spigot we have doesn't work. I need to start hauling water for the plants.

[orleans]

132. that reminds me--i wanted to pull a few sticker weeds up from the

grass before it rains so my dog doesn't step on them.

[Breeze54]

7. Here's the correct link....

http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6275

[Joanne98]

8. I second that!

[G_j]

9. we were so powerful, they have been reacting and fighting back ever since

"they" seek and hold, power and wealth,
we seek peace, equality, compassion, sustainability..

our power, is people power, and we seriously need to use it again.

[ClayZ]

10. PEACE!

We are still here!:hi: :hippie:

One Love


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFWPeVfWB9o&eurl=http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6275



Thanks! K and R

[WheelWalker]

14. WHEN DO WE WANT IT?

[formercia]

16. We want it NOW!

:evilgrin:

[WheelWalker]

19. PEACE! NOW!

PEACE! NOW!

PEACE! NOW!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

28. WHEN DO WE WANT PEACE????

[ClayZ]

23. NOW, still!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2521948&mesg_id=2523238

That is me with the peace flag in the bottom right.



kick


dial up warning: Seattle BACKBONE video
http://www.bearpawflutes.com/public/03_18_2006_seattle.avi

[reggie the dog]

27. I am 29

and I think I share many of your ideals. A lot of people younger than you do. I wish you folks would have won the culture war but Reagan and the 80's fucked up the USA good before I was even 10.

[ClayZ]

30. We have 4 kids around you age.

They share (most) our ideals and are passing them on to their kids. We have 5 grandchildren.

Our two daughters are preschool teachers. They pass on the ideals at work. :grouphug:

One son is a musician and he passes on the ideals in his music. :hippie:

One son is a firefighter. He is very brave. :patriot:

We are artisans. We have made our living making handmade musical instruments.

Our kids are interested in making better Communities. (What they don't know is that they already do that).... :-)


Each one teach one!

[reggie the dog]

47. Hey cool,

my wife and I teach at high schools, my sister and my brother in law teach at grade schools, and my sister in law in a pre school teacher. We pass our ideals on at work too.....

[ClayZ]

58. Yay Teachers! The MOST honorable profession!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pphVs8bF0

[ensho]

125. 'each one teach one' the age of the tutor is upon us

nt

[femrap]

63. Organized religions along with

that Silent Majority really screwed things up.

[formercia]

11. Then the Agents of Repression saw the danger

Millions of doses of LSD and other psychoactive drugs later, Chicago riots, mad bombers and Commie lovers, the 'Hippie' movement was discredited and that was that.

Black Panthers, Mumia ,MLK, AIM and others all got the treatment. The agents of change had to be stopped.

[Kitty Herder]

111. Yep. They used violence to attempt to keep the prevailing order.

They couldn't abide any attempts to change that prevailing order to one with more peace and more justice. That would have damaged their monopoly on power.

I have to add that I don't think natural psychoactive drugs are evil.(LSD ain't natural and I don't trust it.) They're part of our birthright as human beings. They aid us in accessing altered states and the wisdom available in those states, as human beings have done for millennia. As other animals still do.

[formercia]

120. Responsible use

I think Pot should be legalized, but if it is, Big Ag will begin growing it with cheap Phosphate fertilizers that contain Uranium and just like Tobacco, it will become a cancer producing agent.

The Military has proven that Meth and guns don't mix. It's evil shit.

Any drug that promotes violent behavior is suspect.

The 'Powers that be' don't like pot because 'Heads' don't make good serfs.

[Kitty Herder]

147. Totally agree.

I think if it were legal, the best way to get pot would be to grow it at home so you know it's organic.

And, yeah, there are certainly some drugs that are not acceptable in any circumstance. Meth and heroin for example. One of my cousins just died from a heroin overdose. That shit kills. Another cousin almost died from meth and destroyed the lives of her two daughters by getting them caught up in the meth culture.

[cascadiance]

12. Hippies are making a comeback. Check out the "Hippy Gourmet" now on FSTV...

http://fireant.tv/

Good vegan and other organic cooking instructions along with a lot of other good environmental features from the Haight in San Francisco...

[Joanne98]

13. Did u know there's a hippie museum website?

http://www.thefarm.org/museum/

[Leftist Agitator]

17. Young people who identify as "hippies" today care more about doing drugs than issues.

At least from the ones that I've run across.

[reggie the dog]

29. us true young hippies

do not have the same style as the older hippies. We may even look like yuppies. The ideas are what is important. Lots of us younger folks eat organinc food when we can afford to, grow gradens if we can, want to live in a peaceful world, want to set up or preserve our social welfare systems, and want to live in a tolerant world. It just so happens that a shitload of people in their teens, twenties, and thirties smoke cannabis. Sure as they get older lots quit for drug testing, but the cannabis use has nothing to do with being a hippie, it is something a bit more than half our generations did when they were in high school or college.

[Kitty Herder]

102. Well said. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

41. That's what they said about us 40 years ago.

Wasn't true then, either.

[femrap]

64. Alcohol should be illegal and

marijuana should be legal. I'd love to see a 'Reality Show' on this. Two houses side by side...6 males in each. One house has all the booze it wants and the other house all the joints it wants....then observe. Fights, violence, yelling, etc. versus giggling, talking, eating, listening to music.

Our society is insane...as well as the people running it.

[Kitty Herder]

103. That would be one reality show I would watch.

That would be interesting as hell.

[ensho]

126. " versus giggling, talking, eating, listening to music" add 'creating'

to the list. and 'working'.

[Kitty Herder]

104. That's not the case with most young hippies I know.

Most of them care very deeply about the issues. Some do drugs. Some don't. But they all care about the issues of peace and social justice. And there are more of them than you know. They're not easily identifiable by their appearance.

edited to add: I'm not sure where I fit in. I'm too old to be a young hippie, but too young to be an old hippie. (I'm 31, btw.)

[Leftist Agitator]

116. Well, perhaps I should elaborate...

I do know a few people who identify as hippies who are actively concerned with ecological causes, and more than a few who are ardent vegetarians / vegans, but most of the self-proclaimed "hippies" that I *personally* know are, though generally quite liberal, more concerned with attending music festivals, wearing patchwork clothing, and getting extremely intoxicated on various, um, intoxicants than they are being politically active.

I have friends who consider themselves to be "hippies". And though they are among the most progressive, relaxed, generally cool people that I know, they aren't, by and large, stridently into political causes, excepting the legalization of various "hemp" products of course.

:)

[tucsonlib]

18. Some of Us Are Trying....

My values were shaped by the 60s and haven't changed to this day. I still do what I can, but while the spirit remains strong, the body grows weak.


Also, you just can't get good acid anymore.......

[WheelWalker]

20. Good acid may be hard to come by, but the Ancient Knowledge

is alive and well in nature's abundance.

[eShirl]

22. so very true. n/t

[formercia]

44. The good Acid was made by Big Pharma.

under government contract.

It was part of the campaign to discredit the movement.

Don't fall for it.

[tucsonlib]

49. Really?

Owsley Stanley worked for Merck?

[formercia]

53. Who did he work for?

Good question.

Do you think he could get precursors without someone knowing about it?

Even back in those days, there were only a few places that made the compounds needed to produce it and every one was watched by the authorities.

[tucsonlib]

57. From Wikipedia

"(Owsley) was an underground LSD chemist, the first to produce large quantities of pure LSD. His total production is estimated at around half a kilogram of LSD, or roughly 5 million 100-microgram "trips" of normal potency, although accounts vary widely."

Since LSD wasn't banned in the U.S. until 1967, couldn't Owsley have obtained the necessary chemicals legally? I did a hit of "Owsley's Acid" in 1965. (At least it was presented to me as such. And it did have the proper logo.)

[formercia]

75. Whatever....

One of the activities that helped to discredit the 'Hippie' movement was the drug culture.

If you want to change the direction of this country, you have to do it by example, so that the general public and the lawmakers will see it as a positive force in the cultural evolution of America.

Doing illegal drugs, engaging in antisocial behavior and other activities that will attract the hostile attention of the 'Authorities' is not the way to go.

Whatever you do on your own time is your business but you won't see me there.

I'm doing my own thing.

See you in the garden.

[Binka]

84. Wow And Your Profile Is Disabled As Well

You sound like an old fat cop. Have another donut. Good thing you do not use drugs that would have been a COMPLETE WASTE.

[formercia]

99. Just a personal choice

Sorry you feel that way.

What you do is your own business.

Don't give them a weapon to use against you.

[shanine]

127. As one who vaguely recalls

your telling of some of your experiences, I am glad that you are here, let alone posting!!
:hug:

[formercia]

129. Almost checked out last Tuesday

Had a severe seizure and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance for an overnight. It was a severe Potassium imbalance.

That's what they use in a lethal injection to stop your heart, also a known assasination technique.

My guess is that someone spiked my blood pressure medicine. The doctor told me that what I was taking might affect my potassium balance. Problem is that I would have just about had to take the whole bottle to throw it off as much as it did.

The boys have been warning me to shut up.


Fuck them if they can't take a joke.

[shanine]

134. Glad you are ok .

Am going to go check your journal, see if I can refresh my memory.
Take care of yourself.

[formercia]

136. Thank You.

I'm sure they will get me eventually, so it doesn't matter if I shut up or not.

I will not go quietly into the Night.

[tucsonlib]

146. Same Here

Get well, Man.

[WheelWalker]

91. In the Garden? Amidst the Ancient Knowledge? Blessed Be.

[formercia]

100. No, just vegetables and flowers

and trying to convince others to do the same.

Nothing magic, just hard, dirty work.

[aasleka]

140. So a woman flags me down this week and

proceeds to inquire about why taxes are so high and why does she get charged so much for water, etc.. (I am a public servant) So I told her, " It's only money", her mouth dropped and she actually took a step backwards as I followed up," It's not like they are asking for a portion of your love or family." She was about high 60's and had never considered the fact that money wasn't all that important.

And no, since early 90's true acid has been offline, I think it might have had something to do with the great pot famine of summer 90 but that is just the conspiracy theorist in me talking.

[acmavm]

21. Well they're remaking our songs, wearing our clothes (empire dresses,

mini's, clogs, wedgies). Now if we could just get through to them politically. But you know what, we had the draft that brought home the reality of war. (This administration has the stop-loss scam. They recycle the fools that enlist.) We also had pictures of the human toll of that war. They were in the newspapers, on the television, in the popular magazines of that day.

Oh well.

[otherlander]

76. They've taken the tangible aspects

and sold them in any way they could. Woodstock is now a tragic town sustained by self-mockery. But the instant you try to sell something like that, the essence of it slips away like a moth that can never be pinned down or even touched except by those who don't want to pin it down at all, but go with it.

I agree with the OP. But the only way it might be possible is if we realize who our allies are. Friendly punk rockers are allies. Even some emo kids are allies. Working-class progressives are allies. The original hippies, as much as I love, pity, and envy them, did not, I feel, do enough to bridge the gap between the working class and their own mostly-college-educated class. Do I get my countercultural badge taken away for saying that?

[CrispyQ]

130. Don't forget hip huggers & bell bottoms!

Yes, every night we had dinner in our big farm kitchen & watched the horror of the Vietnam war, & the protests against it, on the six o'clock news. My step father, who fought in the Korean war, said, "Those kids are right to protest. Nothing good ever comes from war." It was one of the more revealing comments I ever heard him make.

Today we have infotainment. :eyes:

[panader0]

24. It was the best fun

I'm still having fun, but it's true that the world would be better off if the hippie values were shared by more.

[Peregrine Took]

25. You know, as a working class kid I hated the hippies back then. I saw them

as a bunch of idle ne'er-do-wells who were either too lazy to work or rich kids who were playing and who would run home as soon as being a hippie wasn't cool anymore.

Looking back many years later, I can see that there were many wonderful things about hippies and peacenik's such as the anti-war movement and the whole laid back peace and love thing.

The older I get the softer I get. Heck, I even pray for my enemies.

Peace.

[Kitty Herder]

106. I have working-class relatives who live in the hippie enclave of Paonia, Co. and they

express those same sentiments.

They talk about those "damned trust-fund hippy kids." But from what I've seen, there are a lot of hippies, both young and old, in that town who are trying to make a living, just like everybody else. The fact that they won't sacrifice their values and their dignity to work in the coal mines to do it, just makes it harder to make a decent living and is no indication that they aren't willing to work hard.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. lol! I returned to my flower child roots 15 years ago and my kids love to call me

a hippie. :-)

[WheelWalker]

31. Hipocracy, YES ! Hypocrisy, NO !

[CrispyQ]

131. ...

:hug:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

32. I was definitely born 20 years too late. I blame my parents, mostly Mom

She considered taking me to Woodstock, but decided it wouldn't be the best place for an infant. I might have been the youngest attendee. I coulda been in the history books :cry:

oh well.


Peace

[mitchtv]

33. Still here and still a flamin liberal

Peace now, Free Huey! I want some Digger bread.
(I gave that energy to my Union , when I finally had to go and work for a living. Glad I didn't go to Jonestown)

[ClayZ]

36. Here is the recipe

http://www.diggers.org/diggers/digbread.html

[nichomachus]

34. You want to hear the official corporate media line about hippies?

There was a special on the History Channel about the hippie movement. I was excited because I get really nostalgic when I remember how great things were and what we did.

It started out fine, but as it went along it got stranger and stranger. A lot of the things they presented weren't the way I remembered them -- and I didn't even do any drugs. I was part of that movement -- and they made me wonder whether I had been there at all. They kept cutting away to all these right wing "commentators" who kept saying how stupid and silly the hippies were, and saying things I knew not to be true.

Then, they dredged up every violent person and act they could think of -- for example, the Chicago police riots of '68, which they blamed on the hippies. And, they concluded that Charles Manson was the inevitable outcome of the hippie movement.

It was a social disaster, they concluded, because the hippies were just a bunch of zonked out freaks living in an unreal world, alternately neglecting their kids and feeding them drugs. Finally, the hippies were responsible for a huge spike in divorces in the non-hippie community because of their sexual promiscuity. (I guess in much the same way that same-sex marriage will "ruin" heterosexual marriage.)

It was all presented so "reasonably" and was so "well-documented" by the right-wing commentators that anyone who wasn't there would have a view that was totally opposite to what actually happened.

[LWolf]

40. That sounds suspiciously

like what one particularly prominent Democrat was referring to when he praised Ronald Reagan for the transformational change that moved us away from the "excesses" of the 60s and 70s.

I am the proud daughter of a hippie, and I'll take a hippie resurgence over more "centrism" any day.

[femrap]

65. Yes, I do believe that sounds

suspiciously like that prominent Democrat who disliked the 'excesses' of the '60's and '70's.

Hippies are Back!!! And can the guys start wearing their hair longer and their pants tighter, too? Please.

[LWolf]

68. Hair longer, pants tighter...

I'm there for that. :D

What could we do with all that peace, love, and understanding?

[femrap]

72. I know.....

:think: :smoke:

Enjoy life for a while.

[Kitty Herder]

107. yummmm..... Yes, tighter pants and longer hair sounds wonderful. nt

[Echo In Light]

118. Isn't this the recent segment hosted by one of the dinosaur TV "journalists?"

...the one where a woman who had protested at the Chicago 68 riots, and one of the armed cops there who beat on kids, were both interviewed, and in typical M$M fashion, "reason" sided with the latter, even though the woman kept insisting that the protesters were unarmed?

[-..__...]

35. Hey man!!! Is that Freedom Rock?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDk-mg1J9Q

[Juche]

37. Only danger intimidates those in power

A bunch of hippies doing LSD in the desert means nothing to the Dick Cheneys of the world. The only thing people like him understand are consequences. If the people in power are imprisoned, driven into bankruptcy by legal fees, hounded by legal challenges, humiliated, legally driven from office, etc then the next generation are likely to think twice before they carry out the same acts. A lack of accountability for the powerful is the biggest justice travesty in the world today. Idi Amin died of old age in a mansion. Things like that have to change. The message sent when Pinochet was arrested was the right message to send. Even if it takes 30 years of legal wrangling, someone will finally get a hold of you. A team of lawyers who bring Kissinger down will do alot more than a new hippie movement.

[jimshoes]

38. I'm not quite dead yet

:)

[Blue_In_AK]

39. Once -- and always -- flower child here.

:hippie:

[Irreverend IX]

42. The hippie movement was nothing but fashion.

The hippies could not have succeeded in creating real social change because their movement, by and large, was nothing but a fashion statement; they exhibited a distinct lack of willingness to make sacrifices and work hard for the goals they claimed to support. They were just going with the flow of youth culture at the time, and they were still going with the flow in the 80s when they morphed into yuppies. The ones who were seriously dedicated to their ideals dropped out of society altogether rather than trying to change it. I've encountered some of the serious "Dead family" types, and found it amusing how people who're supposed to be about peace, love and understanding can be so insular and distrusting of anyone who's not exactly like them.

[femrap]

67. Which PR firm are you working for?

Who hired your firm? Heritage Foundation? The Young Republicans?

BTW...not all hippies are alike.

[scarletwoman]

81. Says someone who obviously wasn't around back then.

This 58 year old hippie woman sez your post is a perfect example of ingrained preconceptions clouding one's ability to see what's happening right before one's eyes.

Did you read any of the other posts in this thread? Like, the ones from old hippies who were really there?

I have no idea on what data or citations your analysis is based, but it might behoove you to research a bit deeper before coming to judgement.

sw

[nolabels]

90. Some people like cookie cutters and some people don't

I think a broad generalization about what people did after they moved away or changed in movements is kind of lazy.

Even describing what being a so called "hippie":hippie: really was or all about seems like an exercise in futility (at least it would seem to me).

[scarletwoman]

93. Heh. I don't think I've ever presumed to describe what a "hippie" was/was not.

However, I'm quite confident that I can tell the difference between those who witnessed/experienced those days, and those who didn't.

I expect that the same holds true for you. :D

[cilla4progress]

123. Who got us out of Vietnam?

Hello? Were it not for the anti-war marches by HIPPIES, we would not have gotten out of Vietnam when we did.

[sasquatch]

141. No, the American people as whole just got sick of the costly death and destruction

[ekwhite]

143. As an ex-student radical, I have to disagree with you.

A lot of us were on the front lines too, along with Catholic priests, long-time Quakers, Vietnam Veterans, and a lot of other good folks. And yes, Hippies were there too. To attribute the anti-war movement to just Hippies does a disservice to all of the others who worked against the war.

[sasquatch]

139. Exactly

[Mind_your_head]

43. People were afraid of the hippies back then.....

Hippies challenged everything that was "good, right and true" from the old school of hard knocks....you know, you had to work hard AND be creative/innovate/use your knowledge to advance....
The perception was that hippies were all about 'free love' and "free" this/that/and the other thang....when, in fact, nothing worth having is ever 'free'. It requires work and sacrifice ~ but yet we can have fun and play too :-)

Now that we're in the new age of technology.....it changes everything ~ we're (maybe?) in new territory (or is that just what they want us to believe?) I dunno anymore.

[Kitty Herder]

112. People feared the hippies because the hippies wanted to changed the

prevailing system. That makes people scared. It makes them fear that they will lose what security they have. And if they happen to also have money and power, it makes them very, very afraid and deadly.

[cali]

45. hmm.

sounds a lot like VT. Still lots of small farms- branching off from straight dairy farming to organic vegetables and cheese making, but still a lot of them. Still communes. Poor people mix freely with the well to do in many communities. Still functioning communes, a strong emphasis on the evironment and the arts and historic preservation. A legislature that publishes the home phone numbers for every member. A fairly good safety net and health care coverage for most kids.

Still, the OP is waxing nostalgic, I believe.

[Uncle Joe]

46. I was a little too young to be a hippie but I took their values in to the disco era.

Although some may see contradiction, to me they're naturally compatible, the consistent beat of disco is nature's beat.

Then the movie Airplane; which I found hilarious on the one hand only to be disappointed when they mockingly killed disco. "Disco lives forever" until the plane knocked the tower down, that was funny at the time, but I didn't realize what was happening.

Next up Reagen, Iran Contra, Ollie North, exploding debt to cover tax cuts for the rich and powerful raping of the planet, the Orwellian "War on Drugs" etc. etc. and the world starts turning to fecal material.

I believe it was Napoleon Hill who once said "you are what you think" well if you watch David Letterman's "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" skit, you will occasionally see Reagen uttering the words that go something like "the problem isn't more government, government is the problem" Reagen was true to his ideals, he made government the problem. He brought us Bush's daddy and from Bush the Lesser's fetid loins sprang the deceiver in power today and the worst presidency since records have been kept.


Peace to you, kpete.

[kpete]

48. and to us all

[Uncle Joe]

50. Agreed, peace to everyone. n/t

[4waterfalls]

51. John Lennon

I wonder about his assasination.Like so many who promoted peace and harmony and fairness.His song Imagine sent the very message you detail in your post.It was and still is a threat to the corporate empire.Consumerism,as you wrote,is what we are conditioned into at an early age.Of course all the evils that come with capitalism are too numerous to mention here,but at the same time..some evils prevail regardless of the societal structure.But I suppose we should worry about that after we finally create that utopian mass commune of shared wealth and responsibility.*sigh*
If only..
Every time a movement like this gets going,it is crushed.Greed will not allow it.But that doesnt mean we should stop trying...there IS another way..for instance..look at all the countries with single payer nationlized health care where the greedy middle-men insurance companies cant get their claws on....

this hippie wannabe shares your anxt. :V)

[femrap]

69. Our gov't killed John.

John was preaching Peace and people believed him....and would follow him. Also he spoke of overcoming women's oppression which IS NOT ALLOWED. CIA killed him.

[percussivemadness]

52. There is one, and its growing worldwide - Check This Out

www.wewillnotbesilenced.com
www.myspace.com/psychedelicdancemusic
www.climatecounts.org
www.nolaaid.com (Katrina)

The problem you have is, that despite doing over 2,million plays in 10 months, despite having We Will Not Be Silenced seen by millions of people since its inception, despite the fact that both Jack Johnson and John Mayer are using the Unstoppable video utilising Psychedelic Dance Music, despite raising 250k for Katrina Victims, the DJ concerned happens to make proper techno music, and as such, this doesn`t fit within the mainstream music agenda. The DJ has long hair, writes political blogs and has the audacity to stand up and protest using his art.

The hippy movement was built around music, as is this emerging trend, techno is as fundamentally different to mainstream America as the music of Hendrix, The Doors and pychedelic artists of the 60s.In today`s age of prepackaged rock stars and template music, anyone who challenges the status quo is ignored.

Peace

[4waterfalls]

54. pre-packaged...oh yeah

that is so true..it is the defining quality of this era.It is what we get for being slaves to a corporate empire.The movement during Vietnam failed...but lets not make it easy for the warmongering shills out there to maintain their status quo.Never make it easy for them.
We need a movement that extends beyond the internet..a new woodstock (not like the last woodstock sequal ugh)..and the revenues go to a peace organization( not the peace corp-ugh again).
Peace

[4waterfalls]

55. not failed..

i didnt mean the peace/hippie movement failed outright..I mean the peace/hippie movement's "effect" didnt last.The reactionaries to that peace movement are what gave us the Orwellian era we live in now.Or,maybe people just forget what matters when the bills start to pile up.
Ok thats it for me..sorry for over posting.:eyes:

[percussivemadness]

79. I hear you, the issue is

not the fact that people don`t want a movement, its when one starts, as the Psychedelic Dance Movement, based on principles espoused by We Will Not Be Silenced, it is called "too political" (I kid you not). Look at the lunacy of the situation, Britney, who struggles to sell any records and supports Dumbya, gets shit loads of press, meanwhile, the guys from WWNBS, who pay for everything themselves and have inspired a new artform, are ignored.

I hear from the guys at We Will Not Be Silenced that they have used Rev Wright for their new movie, because this is what counter culture is all about, supporting those that speak truth to power.

The current crop of "pap stars" are a disgrace to their generation.

Onwards however, its time for the youth to get of their arses and Stand Up and Protest!!!!.

Peace

[ensho]

128. interesting music coming out of Electronica too

I have a play list with a number of political electronica music.

[bluesmail]

56. Just don't call them hippies

I've always resented that corporate manufactured word. Peace

[starroute]

59. It took an enormous effort by the right to suppress 60's radicalism

We've been fed the line that the hippies "failed" of their own excesses and that the anti-war movement just dribbled away once the war ended.

It's only over the years that the real story has come out -- about COINTELPRO, about the Powell Memo and the raft of right-wing foundations and well-funded think-tanks it inspired, about the post-Vietnam alliance between the Neocons and the military-industrial complex, about the rise of the religious right, about the direct-mail fundraisers and their cultivation of wedge issues, about the alliances between young movement conservatives and Latin American fascists, about the still-murky influence of Reverend Moon...

I could keep going, but that's probably enough to start with. All of that was happening in the course of the 70's, much of it was directly inspired by a fear of 60's radicalism and a desire to protect the power of the rich, and it all came together by the end of the decade as a well-oiled machine to demonize or marginalize progressive forces and exalt greed and naked aggression.

That story has never been fully told -- but when it is, it will have more the appearance of a well-funded coup to take control of this country than of any sort of "inevitable" social development.

The hippies were outgunned. It wasn't their fault -- given where they started, they did damn well. But it was a war for which they were ill-equipped, and they lost it. The real question is how to make sure things go differently next time.

[femrap]

71. Good post. nt

[scarletwoman]

82. Beautiful post! (nt)

[Ahpook]

60. That movement did prevail in a lot of ways:)

It introduced quite a few new ideas to our culture that seemed to have stuck.

You know that era got on the nerves of a few simply because they still won't stop bashing the "dirty hippies" after 40+ years. Those stupid sitcoms still do it. They always make the hippy guy look like an idiot. Didn't the fucks get caught writing scripts for that shit show Friends? It's subtle, but obvious if you watch:)And of course the parrots eat it up since that's all they can do.

Let's keep everyone trained:)

[csziggy]

85. The counterculture of the 60s lead to much of the technology of today

Look up the book "What the Doormouse Said: How the 60's Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer" - it directly links the advances that gave us the computers we are using now to the "hippies" of the 60s. Heck, John Markoff, the author, talks about how LSD was used by many of the people who were developing the idea of a personal computer.

The hippy/alternative lifestyle/counterculture/whateveryou want to call it of the 60s DID change the US. I'm old enough to remember what it was like but in the wrong place and at the wrong age to have been in the movement. But I know my life and the lives of many Americans turned out differently than they would have if that movement had not taken place.

Of course, that is what the conservatives can't handle - that women and minorities might have better lives and white men in suits would no longer be in uncontested charge of everything. The same shits that are screwing us over today were taking lessons from shits in the Nixon White House 40 years ago. They saw how their mentors lost out to the peace movement and have been plotting revenge ever since.

[Beam Me Up]

61. I think we vastly underestimated our enemy.

I won't make that mistake again.

9/11 shows just how ruthless, manipulative and evil they really are.

[musette_sf]

70. here, here

:toast:

exactly how i see it.

[percussivemadness]

80. the real enemy is ourselves.....

we support a candidate like Joe Biden, who killed one of the biggest youth movements since the 60s with his RAVE act, because he is a DEM, ignoring the fact that his legislation was something Hitler would have been proud to introduce.

Peace

[Beam Me Up]

97. No it isn't and don't let them convince you otherwise.

Remember, until the internet -- and to a large extent it remains true today -- our perception of who we are as a society has been constructed and reflected back to us by corporate owned media.

We are not what they want us to think we are (essentially powerless, for example).

I didn't support Biden, either.

[Kitty Herder]

108. We are not to blame. We did not create the system that traps us.

Our responsibility is to change the system, not to blame ourselves for participating in it. Putting the blame on the individual means that the only changes we ever attempt will be tiny, individual ones.

[percussivemadness]

133. poppycock

You refuse to blame the individuals who abuse their power, and this is exactly what I meant. You try and justify Biden`s actions because he is a Dem, therefore, the minute you and admittedly 1000s others play this charade and do not hold people accountable, you are part of the problem.

Peace

[Kitty Herder]

149. I don't support Biden or other dems who abuse their power. My response

was aimed at the statement, " Our real enemy is ourselves." That's just what the powerful want you to think, that you're to blame for what they do because you vote democratic or whatever it is you do within the system. It takes away your power to think you are your own enemy.

[Two Americas]

66. hippies

The hippies prevailed, in my view, as much as was ever possible and we can see what that victory looks like all around us.

The apolitical cultural movement did not touch capitalism and was easily co-opted by it. To this day, the political left is paralyzed and distracted by quasi-spiritual culture war ideas and approaches.

Social change is not possible without politics, and it is impossible to prevail in a political battle with an apolitical cultural program. Back when there were a thousand political activists for every hippie, I never dreamed that the political movement would collapse and the hippie movement would prevail, but that is what happened. Nothing could have happened that would have been more advantageous for the ruling class.

[stubtoe]

73. What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

I love that it's all coming back into style again! Took a few decades but hippie values endured and are now returning. Why? Because they're correct!

:hippie:

[blues90]

74. We could have won.

If it were not for money and greed and sell out's.

This to me feels like a completely different world , one I will never get used to.

All I have left is my guitars and music and memories of a better time.

[Miss Carly]

77. It's pretty evident there is an underground army of us old hippies

should we change the world.....again????
I was a little kid during the era, but lived in the culture

let your freak flag fly :hippie:

[WheelWalker]

92. Jungle remnants of the Hippie Counterculture. Boddhisatvas all.

[judasdisney]

78. Hippies: The Trojan Horse of COINTELPRO

and worse.

G. Gordon Liddy writes in his autobiography "Will" (the entire first chapter is about his adoration for Adolf Hitler) how GGL and some of his ex-FBI buddies used to "dress up like hippies" and join protests for the purposes of disrupting them and using them as vehicles for violence.

This is what happened to the penultimate Memphis march that MLK was involved with. It was infiltrated and transformed.

Hippies love to "vibe" and seem to loathe being vigilant against COINTELPRO.

I hope the hippies stay dead, for all their Trojan Horse chaos. Even Abbie Hoffmann said that "The Beatles were wrong -- "all you need is love" is not true. You also need JUSTICE."

[Kitty Herder]

109. Wait. So the hippies were to blame for being inflitrated by COINTELPRO?

I call bullshit. Perhaps they could have been more vigilant, but they didn't create COINTELPRO. Lay the blame where it belongs, on the perpetrators, not on the victims.

[judasdisney]

144. Anyone after COINTELPRO became public IS to blame

I call bullshit. We know damn well what the Neotards in the U.S. intelligence community is up to. And do I hear anyone talking about COINTELPRO since Bush got his hands on the controls? Of course not -- it would be "Conspiracy Theory" to be vigilant. Go back to herding cats.

[Kitty Herder]

148. Yes, we must be vigilant. We know what they're doing.

But they are still the ones to blame.

[Occulus]

83. Well, I have long hair and a beard these days.

Unfortunately, I also work for The Man- am I disqualified?

[PatSeg]

86. Great thread

Thanks for the memories!

[Occulus]

87. WAR! Huh! Good God, y'all...

(Someone needs to resurrect that and make it into a badass protest video with rock power chords instead of saxes. Seriously.)

[percussivemadness]

88. The Doors - Not To Touch The Earth

Just to show you the counter culture movement is alive, well and being inspired by the 60s generation, this is an updated version of The Doors, Not To Touch The Earth, recorded live in that marvellous bastion of US rebellion, Portland in 2007..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BcGeR40ees

[Beam Me Up]

98. Love it!! Can I get this track?

PM me if so.

[Jamastiene]

89. If I had a doobie, I'd light it up and cheer that.

:smoke: :hippie:

[Djinn]

94. you must be joking

The baby boomers run the world and they injected not a jot of peace love and understanding into it. They turned into people like Clinton, the welfare "reforming", NAFTA endorsing neo-lib.

They turned into people who repeatedly vote for the Democratic Party despite the fact that they've been every bit as much on board with killing for the US Empire as Republicans.

They've turned into people who ideolise that hardcore Cold Warrior JFK (Vietnam) and the original sinner in the current Afghan nightmare, Jimmy Carter despite the blood on their hands.

They're people who glorify MLK, but only the dreamy speech one not the one who gave this speech:

"the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people, And one day we must ask the question, 'Why are there forty million poor people in America?' And when you beging to ask that question, you are riasing questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question you begin to question the capitalistic economy."

They're the ones that eagerly participated in the 80's orgies of greed only to emerge in the 90's with a "social conscience" which to this day expressed via membership of Oxfam, donations to MSF, a beautiful woven Aghan rug on the wall, a "no war for oil" badge and a vote every 4 years for yet another American Imperialist with a D after his/her name.

[tavalon]

95. Here's the thing

There have always been hippies. They've been called different names throughout the years, utopians and beatniks are two that come to mind. What was different about the 60s counterculture was that being an idealist caught on as a fad and as such, huge numbers of people climbed on board, or at least they did until the next great thing to glom onto came along, then the not really hippies became yuppies and off they went and so on. So, the hard core true believers have always been there and guess what, we're still out here. What has changed is that we are no longer interesting to hangers on and there were always 1000 of those for every one true believer. The people who abandoned the dream never really carried it, they just went along because it was "Cool, man!". So, what is actually needed is making the hippies or utopians into a cool fad item again. But, just as with a draft, when your movement includes so many who aren't truly dedicated for the long haul, your army can desert at any moment.

So, I think a better question would be: How do we cultivate enough true believers who can keep the movement going when the fadsters abandon it, as they certainly will?

[scarletwoman]

137. Excellent post. There is a clear distinction to be made between the "fadsters" & the genuine

counter-culturalists, which you have done quite skillfully. :thmbsup:

Thank you,
sw

[southerncrone]

96. I told my children that when the asked me what a "hippie" was.

Little did they know that they were born of hippies!

Been trying to reverse the Repuke "preppie" mentality for 35 yrs. May we hippies prevail!

[Senator]

101. We Don't Need A Movement . . . We Just Need To Move.

It's long past time to stop being "Anti-War" and start being Pro-Impeachment.

No, you can't ride two horses with the same behind.

The same goes for Hillabamania. It is pure opiate.

----

[tomreedtoon]

105. Sorry, guys, the hippies were frauds.

I knew several of them in high school in the 1960's. They all claimed to be for peace, love, understanding and all the rest.

When I went to look them up in the 80's, they were all Reaganites. They got scared. They tossed away whatever ideals they had, and they have W stickers on their cars.

Nearly all of them were hypocrites. Only one - a stoner who ended up being a post office worker's union rep - kept anything like liberal/progressive politics.

[barbtries]

114. i was a hippie

in fact i'm still a hippie.
for my brother it was just a fad. he demonstrated with the VVAW, hitchhiked across the country twice, smoked dope, etcetera. today i cannot talk to him about politics because he thinks that 911 justified the takeover, occupation, and genocide in iraq.

[scarletwoman]

135. As a non-fraudulent old hippie (graduated h.s. in 1967) I beg to differ.

Even your own post contains an example of a non-fraudulent hippie.

Please read Tavalon's post #95 above, it gets at the truth of the matter.

sw

[fascisthunter]

142. Nope.... bad Stereotype of a Rather Large Group of People

You can't be taken serious for I doubt you knew every so-called "hippie" out there to make such a broad brush statement.

[JCMach1]

110. It's a big assumption to assume they didn't win...

Many of the values (for good and ill) of that generation have been incorporated into our present.

It is a VERY big assumption to think that 'consumerism' was not part of the hippy movement. It seems to me that LOTS of THINGS were consumed.

[barbtries]

113. right on

peace :hippie:

[Indi Guy]

115. We Hippies did prevail - We helped end the Vietnam War. - We ended the draft...

It was the draft that made the difference in Vietnam.

Ironically, I miss the draft. If we had one now -- The American people would have rejected support for this inane Iraq war, long ago.

[Echo In Light]

117. Was born in 69 - have Born Too Late tattooed on my arm :)

:hippie: ...even as a kid I aspired to the ideals of that time, and I've never lost sight of that, or "grew out of it," as our culture would prefer everyone does i.e. "If you're not liberal at 20 you haven't any heart. If you're not conservative by 30, you haven't any brains."

To the heart of the op, absolutely agree ... and suppose this is why that era, when the people actually took a stand against their govt, is so diligently trivialized for obvious reasons: to reinforce the notion within the collective consciousness that the ideals represented within that time were silly, unseemly, nonsense. Unfortunately this coercion has likewise been chosen by many {corporate "values"}, which explains why liberals/leftists are disregarded and disavowed while the concept of the "moderate" dem flourished and prevailed - just as the right wanted and helped to systematically bring about.

[glowing]

121. Well as the R(D)ecession continues on.. there will be a lot of loose

cogs without much to do... Having to rely on "community" for their needs. Do you think those loose cogs will want to go back to an ugly box after they've been "laid off" for so long.. Yeah right!

[MelissaB]

122. Get your hippie power here:

http://www.thefarm.org/

You can learn to install solar, grow mushrooms, many other things.

[shadowknows69]

124. I'm available to form a Grateful Dead cover band anytime

[sasquatch]

138. Yeah, let's alienate 90% of America like we did in the 60's

:eyes:
Let's just be ass kicking lefty's that are industrious and outreaching like we have been. Not isolating morons like the hippies were.

[Festivito]

145. Can't happen, Hippies' common enemy: THE DRAFT.

Without the common enemy they had little direction. Even with the common enemy there was little direction.

Then came the "I was into awareness, now I'm into money."

Those who spit on soldiers, saw soldiers as too cowardly to fight against sending the next guys, the spitters, to war and these angry spitters became angry whites listening to Rush.

Sure, there were smart ones. They would be obscured by a free press that would take years to speak the truth, but only when it no longer mattered. The money had been made. The press would need further control.

Walter Cronkite would be retired to never make a controversial statement of importance again.