Summer of love 2004

[salinen]

As I review the history of mankind, what seems to happen following any rise of the totalitarianism, is a Renaissance. Joe McCarthyism shifted quickly to the early days of hippydom. The enlightenment of our ideals will force out this Right Wing nightmare. We are awake and united. We will push the demon back into it's dank hole to hide and lick it's wounds.

I'm very excited about the future.

[NMDemDist2]

1. Right on!

hippyism seemed appropriate there :hippie:

[salinen]

4. Oops

Right. Hippyism.

[Wapsie B]

2. Yeah, that will be great

to look forward too. I wonder if there'll be another sexual revolution along with it? I kinda missed it the first time around.

[salinen]

3. Yeah

The sex was nice.

[Wapsie B]

5. That would be the life.

Too bad you can't tell any of those stories here.

[salinen]

6. I'll say this much

That's when I learned that sex was really fun and friendly and a present from one person to another.

[Dirk39]

7. No doubts and doubts...

Hello from Germany,
as I review the history of mankind, what seems to happen following any rise of an empire, is a little pleasant poor country with mostly wonderfull people, selling pizza (the best) and drinking espresso(the best)...
O.K. I'm not that serious...

There are really a lot of symptoms all over the world that the neoliberal nightmare, starting with Reagan and Thatcher during the 80's, followed by neoliberals like Blair, Clinton and Schröder, who didn't have to offer any kind of real alternative, and reaching it's prime with the collapsing victory of the criminal Bush-Gang, will be forced out.
There's still one thing missing: we need to find a kind of trigger, our trigger.
A constellation of forces and people and culture that simply has the power to put enough pressure on not just Bush and his comrades, but the kind of barbaric ultracapitalism, we face today. As long as we don't reach a kind of situation, where it's simply evident for them, that they cannot go on like this, things will not change.

Being 40 years old, I have lost none of my dreams, but I start to believe in power more and more.
Call me a punk, but you're a nasty hippy, anyway:)
Dirk

[salinen]

8. I feel it too.

It's like a violently bad reaction to a bee sting. The neocon/fascist Christian experiment is going to last about 20 years, starting with Reagan, and ending with Bush 2.

Hello from California yourself.

[Unperson 309]

9. Man, the Timing Would Be PERFECT!

Unfortunately, during the Sixties, I was conservative! I railed against the hippies (while loving the music and the colors and...) and was pro-war!

Then I grew a brain! By the time I was radicalized, Reagan was in power in California, then in Washington DC... and saw through the whole evil stinking morass... but it was too late. The Sixties were fled beyond my grasp.

I always thought I'd spend a sorry, poor miserable old age regretting the things I *hadn't* done...

But, if you older folks will recall along with me... In the Sixties, there were the Flower Children, and, along with them, the old timers, the jazzmen, the Beatniks, the ancient codgers who smoked dope before it was illegal!

I now see that my place is not with the young starry eyed radicals, it is with the seamed and crafty older guides! WE the Boomers, the original Flower Children, have to be the guides for this up and coming revolution!

Let's be the Emma Goldmans, the Jack Kerouaks, the wheezy-breezy "C'mon, Kid, you can DO it!" supporters!

Introduce a 20-something to "Howl". Give them a copy of Soul on Ice or the S.C.U.M. Manifesto. Dust off the copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves, go to the Ripoff Press webpage and buy them Zap Comix and Furry Freak Brothers. REcord the Fugs to CD, and Country Joe and the Fish, too!

OUT OF THE ROCKERS, ROCKERS, AND INTO THE STREETS!!

309

[gardenista]

10. NO! I DON"T WANT TO MISS ANOTHER ONE!

Man, this is no fair. I was 10 years too young to legitimately participate in the last one, and now I'm 10, well, ahem, maybe even 20 years too old for this one.

Sigh...

Ok, well, we'll work on our own little summer of love, anyhow!

[Kanary]

11. A happy thought!........ however.......

the fly in that enticing ointment is that there are some missing components that existed the first time around......... in the 60's and early 70's.

Those components were the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, War On Poverty, (think Poor People's March), as well as the anti-war movement.

Those "rights" movements brought people together, and brought out the empathy, caring and open-heartedness that was such a strong component of what hippydom was about.

It's that open-heartedness that made it all possible. People actually *LISTENED* to each other, rather than waited for their turn to blast a whole in someone else's thoughts. After "actions", whether it be war protests or one of the rights movments, people took time to "process" what was done, what happened, and how it affected those present, which lead to more understanding and a sense of cohesion.

None, or at least very little, of that exists today. Everyone has their "pet" cause, and isn't very likely to be interested in the needs and causes of others. We've become quite splintered, and don't really take the time and effort to really listen to each other. The understanding of others has suffered.

So, if all you want is "free love", have at it, but don't expect any magic. If you're wanting something deeper, there is a huge amount of work to be done.

Kanary

[Syrinx]

12. I know what you're saying, but be careful what you wish for

Things really took a turn for the worse after the summer of '67.