I hear stories about the 60's and the 70's and 'the revolution' that began...but then it just dropped off somewhere and was never picked up again... I don't know much about the 70's except for the obvious, protests, hippies, yutta yutta yutta....but there's just something that's been driving me a little crazzzzzzzy lately... For example, with the Vietnam war...from what I've heard people just didn't stop protesting...they didn't just 'give up' and forget about it...they kept protesting, they wanted that war to stop and they were going to stop it no matter what! So...why is it so different today? Whatever happened to people actually giving a shit about something? Ok, countries all around the world have had their mega protest...but what have they really done? Sure, the majority of people didn't want the war in Iraq but what have we people really done to show that? It's like we've all given up...seen that the goverenment isn't going to listen to us, shrugged our shoulders and walked away. People are dying...more troops are being sent over there...why? And why aren't we doing anything or enough to stop it? I'm just generalising here...and I'm not hacking on anyone...I'm a massive hypocrit...I've only gone to 2 protests, and I wish there was more I could do. But what can I do? It's not just the war in Iraq; I realise George Bush is never going to see our point of view, and yeah it probably wouldn't matter what the public did to try and stop him, but I just feel like the passion for seeking justice and peace from the 70's has died...what happened to it? Can it be revived? Can the hippy movement ever be picked up again? We have to do something! But what? Everything just seems so negative and dead. It's like no one's willing to stand out from the crowd and do something. And if there is someone, no one has the guts to back them up. We're all so happy and content with the lives we have, we don't want to cause a riot anymore. We don't want to stir anything up. Whatever happened to the passion?
It's a good question and one I have been asking myself lately. We were gonna change the world, and I guess we did make an impact, but.....what did happen to the passion? Have we all just gotten cynical and given up? Has everyone lost the idealism that a small group of people can really make a difference? Or has it simply been the results of the divide and conquer principal? Are we all just too busy fighting amongest ourselves? Or just too busy trying to make a living in a materialistic society?
The draft was a big part of the passion.For a lot of us it was a damned if you, do and damned if you don't situation.We didn't have a lot to lose by putting our asses on the line in a protest if we were facing a trip to the jungle anyway. When Nixon et al instituted the lottery it took the steam out of the movement.When those that pulled high numbers knew that they were in the clear and wouldn't be called many of them stopped taking risks.Not all,but it really showed who was serious and who wasn't. As much as I liked the idea that "the people had awakened" it had a lot to do with self interest after all.
i heard that when people started getting older the people who were not true hippies to the hart went out and joined the big money makers. Turned into those rich selfish people. or sumthing like that
Some sold out, some gave up and several died. I lived at the Freedom Farm with my dad when I was a kid and I remember this one guy they called "Big Ben the Pig Pen" cuz he never took a bath and he had dreads to his ass. He was crazy. Then years later he had cut his hair and was working for IBM. He said he couldn't invite any of the old phamily to his house cuz he was afraid of what his neighbors would think, he said he had a reputaion to uphold. I thought that was so sad. Ben died at age 49 from a heart attack caused by stress. We lost touch of most the people that lived at the Freedom Farm, but the memories will go on forever.
