a joining together of people for ideals and the "common good". Being able to call someone "Brother or Sister" and mean it. People listening to music about peace and spiritual evolution instead of Gangsta Rap. A more "tribal" or family attitude (the ruin of which was completed by Charles Manson). The giving of "tribal names" linked to that person's identity in the tribe or group. The belief in the connection between humans and Mother Earth. A rebirth of the idealism of 1967 and the ability to put drugs and sex in their proper perspective (to keep the opportunists from using sex and drugs for power over others or selfish gain). The willingness to FIGHT for social justice. The rejection of materialism and the mass media. Doing your own thing in your own time. And LOTS MORE!

Here. Here.

But that's the what. Where's the how?

Sorry, I don't know either.

Suggestions anyone???

Answer as to HOW; "Walk your talk" if you believe.

I think the activism of then is missing now. I remember close friends travelling out of state - (CT had no such big need odf desegregation) - to sit in at segregated lunch counters. Friends of mine joined the Peace Core. (Me? I had a year-old baby at the time) There was a light in their eyes. Pampered and comfortable all their lives, they wanted to help people they did not know.

As for community and ideals, that worked for awhile, but I'm sorry to say I was really disillusioned by any utopian communities I had visited or lived in briefly as being unworkable, and just as dog-eat-dog as whatever went before. I lived on a communal farm one time in CT with a son who was about five. (At the time his father and I had separated) I was 27.) There were only a few souls who actually did the work. The rest strummed or toked or shammed or got into their heads. It wasn't supposed to be that way. We were supposed to give all we could to growing the vegetables, weeding, watering, gathering, canning, cooking. The schedule was left to conscience - there was no list on the wall, no weekly meetings. I think there should have been, but organization was shunned as the devil of the man. So you had people sweating and people fiddling, just like the ant and the grasshopper.

I think as the community is concerned the trustingnesss of some people led to their victimization by others. The classic wolf and sheep syndrome. I saw it so many times. I even had pictures stollen from the walls of my room by some travelling minstral, and was told I was being petty, After all, we must not be bound to earthly goods. And in that way, the sixties ended upfor me being not unlike any other time when the smooth and the cheesy feed upon the good and the wide-open.

Sorry to say, it wasn't as great as I would even wish to think.

Yes, communes ended up getting that way. Remember the scenes in "Easy Rider" there were a lot of loser "hanger ons".

There are a few that did work. But, they dealt with that element quite effectively. That element in any society must be dealt with. THEY are the "losers" the NEOCONS keep pointing to. They also make it hard for the working poor and (legitimately) disabled.

Activism has ended because the "media" keeps us entertained with irrelevant drivvle. Lindsay is drunk again, some football player killed his dogs, Madonna has adopted a 3rd world child...ad nauseum

Manitou: what you say is true. We used to make our own entertainment. We'd gather around a fireplace and sing and play instruments. We'd read and write poetry. Remember that? Many of us had no TV, and if we did, it would be "a trip" for as long as the scene made you giggle and no longer. Just one more stop on the tour....

Heh, brother... a lot of what you're describing here I've found in Men's Communities -- it is refreshing to experience it and be nourished by the "realism" of those kinds of relationships...and, when it's mixed gender, it does not seem to work -- as well anyway. There's apparently a whole different set of Laws of Nature operating! I'm confused about this and don't have many answers other than keep trying...keep doing the work.