EXCERPT:
There is but one conclusion you can draw from the astonishing (albeit fitful, bittersweet) pro-environment sea change now happening in the culture and (reluctantly, nervously) in the halls of power in D.C., one thing we must all acknowledge in our wary, jaded, globally warmed universe: The hippies had it right all along. Oh yes they did.
You know it’s true. All this hot enthusiasm for healing the planet and eating whole foods and avoiding chemicals and working with nature and developing the self? Came from the hippies. Alternative health? Hippies. Green cotton? Hippies. Reclaimed wood? Recycling? Humane treatment of animals? Medical pot? Alternative energy? Natural childbirth? Non-GMA seeds? It came from the granola types (who, of course, absorbed much of it from ancient cultures), from the alternative worldviews, from the underground and the sidelines and from far off the goddamn grid and it’s about time the media, the politicians, the culture as a whole sent out a big, wet, hemp-covered apology.
Here’s a suggestion, from one of my more astute ex-hippie readers: Instead of issuing carbon credits so industrial polluters can clear their collective corporate conscience, maybe, to help offset all the savage damage they’ve done to the soul of the planet all these years, these commercial cretins should instead buy some karma credits from the former hippies themselves. You know, from those who’ve been working for the health of the planet, quite thanklessly, for the past 50 years and who have, as a result, built up quite a storehouse of good karma. You think?
The final bit sums it all up nicely...
Of course, true hippie values mean you’re not really supposed to care about or attach to any of this, you don’t give a damn for the hollow ego stroke of being right all along, for slapping the culture upside the head and saying, See? Do you see? It was never about the long hair and the folk music and Woodstock and taking so much acid you see Jesus and Shiva and Buddha tongue kissing in a hammock on the Dog Star, nimrods.
It was, always and forever, about connectedness. It was about how we are all in this together. It was about resisting the status quo and fighting tyrannical corporate/political power and it was about opening your consciousness and seeing new possibilities of how we can all live with something resembling actual respect for the planet, for alternative cultures, for each other. You know, all that typical hippie crap no one believes in anymore. Right?
6 comments:
Amen and well said. Karma can be sweet if you treat her nicely. Being married to a marine biologist and both of us being "tree huggers" we have to smile when we see "green" finally being seen as real. Too bad it didn't happen a long time ago.
Nope, not all hippies are dirty but most of us/them are sincere and concerned about things other than ourselves.
At last...I can stop apologizing for wearing all those hip-hugging bell-bottomed pants, tie-dyed tee shirts and flowers in my hair.
You said it. You might also like this post by Maha if you haven't seen it already.
Nice post and very well said.
Hippies, for the most part, have grown up. They just go by a different name - liberals.
LOVE it!! Hippies RULE!
Bat- thanx for that link! Great stuff. Nails it on the head for me, as one of those same kids growing up in the Reagan era.
I remember being sick to my stomach when I thought that Gore was going to "Steal" the election from Bush. What a wake up call these past few years have been.
These Republicans don't know what a conservative is. Selling out to corporate America is all that they stand for.
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