The 60's!

My family is quite fortunate in that, even though we currently live in one of the MOST conservative areas of PA, we have connected with a liberal group, who have values, goals, and social justice activism similar to those practiced by many in the 60's!

We also have several family members/friends who are modern-day hippies, and they continue to fight for peace, environmental concerns, educational issues,social/political justice, those less fortunate, actively participate in the Peace Corps, Ameri-corps, soup kitchens, African orphanages, and so on.

Therefore, I am somewhat optimistic in knowing that there ARE pockets of folks from the 60's, who've continued their activism, and have, and will practice to, "Teach your children well",(Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young).

I have tried to "walk my talk" since 1969 and feel that I have lived fairly consistent with my beliefs. For me that has meant living below the taxable level because I did not want to pay federal taxes which went towards nuclear weapons and wars I didn't believe in. I have lived in 4 different intentional communities. The first one was an attempt at starting a Catholic Worker House of Hospitality. We lacked the vision and maturity to pull it off. The most satisfying communal experience I've had is at a Camphill Village. The Camphill movement is a worldwide movement which provides adult foster care in a family setting for adults with developmental disabilities. There is very much a spiritual basis to it. There is a lot from the 60's that I never adhered to. It was a very patriarchal time in many ways. I think the concept of sharing land, homes, tools, and other resources could go a long ways towards making one's life easier and more satisfying in these challenging times.

Nelly,

Very nice to hear about you and your path. Many thanks to you for sharing. You still have the "spirit" and know the path.

I think White Manitou has the list down nicely, but I also want to underscore Westerly's response. I think about this subject a lot because I wonder what happened to all those idealistic people I knew back then. People these days seem to want to reduce the 60s to drugs and hanging out (see post entitled "Hah") and while there was certainly a lot of that, there was also a strong current of genuine concern for improving the world and changing racism, sexism, ridding the world of poverty, etc. I went to marches (The Poor People's March in Washington, DC for example and spent time with VISTA volunteers building steps, mending rooves and repairing homes in impoverished areas and there was relatively little drug use going on with the groups I was involved in.) reducing the 60s to a drug crazed time period allows conservatives to neutralize the potentially powerful aspects of the time period in a way that disturbs me.

I also think about the failure of the communes a lot. The move toward individualism was necessary after the 50s milquetoast, conformity of unquestioning 9 to 5, but it also encouraged people to be self-oriented and I think led to the extreme selfishness (through disillusionment) of the 80s and 90s. A commune can't survive only on "do your own thing" because there are some tasks that no one wants to do. I wonder if we had been older (wiser) and had a bit more of that sense of responsibility that so many disdained back then if we couldn't have made things work better. Personally I think I'm ready to try again. Has anyone seen the film Flashback? Even though it has that sell-out Dennis Hopper (proving he really will do anything for money since the message of the movie is acontradiction to his whole direction in life) it is a movie I view repeatedly - especially when I am discouraged by the political direction of the country.