How progressive are we really?

I'm depressed. I thought this forum would be full of like (ish) minded people. I thought that the kind of people who'd identify with a 'hip' forum would be progressive in their thinking - not just in their mode of dress or taste in music.

So far on this forum, I've heard people defend:

• War
• Racism
• Hunting
• Pornography
• Fundamentalist christianity
• Homophobia
• Capitalism

So are we really progressive, or just Conservatives in new clothes?

 

Well I might have seemed to be defending porn but the context of my original post was meant to be more questioning and reflective. If I was really that sure of my own thoughts the topic wouldn't have been raised by me.

I was actually being reflective of my own experieces and thinking about my position and the part it plays in the person I'm trying to become.

I feel that as a fallable human being trying to make progress I have to be honest about every aspect of my life, own it and deal with it in the most appropriate way. My past is my past, I've done a lot of stuff that would shock many people, some stuff that I'm not proud of ... I'm still growing and hope that this will continue.

When I post questions on here I'm inviting people to challenge my views or help me to see other viewpoints. Usually I respect the opinions of people on here and it helps me to forumulate my own views.

 

To be fair, I'd say it was only a minority of people defending these same things. Personally I've seen a lot of radical progressives on this forum....

 

Sorry Paul, thus post wasn't meant as a pop at you. I was actually thinking more of some comments that I've seen in other forums on here. I just wonder sometimes what the point of a 'hip' forum actually is when so many of us seem so fucking conventional on so many important issues.

 

If that's the case, then I think that the minority are silencing the majority, and the majority needs to be speaking out a bit more.

 

I was only really talking about the UK community. If you're refering to the wider forums as a whole, then I completely agree with you. Maybe it has something to do with American cultural imperialism....

 

I wasn't specifically thinking of one or the other, to be honest. I mean, many pr-war comments in the UK forum originate from Americans anyway. I dunno. I'm just getting a little disillusioned with the place.

 

i agree with dok to be honest with you all, there are only a few people on here that i know of that i dont think are fake, phonie people who dispite what they say are simply "hippies" because its the new thing to be thats alt....


no offence to anyone, i just see it that way, i'd love to be proved wrong tho...

 

It's always a shame when someone says no offence to anyone, and then blatantly offends everyone - no offence I think you're in danger of being a bit too judgemental though. Yes, there are some people here who like to stick themselves in a liddle box, but turn there back on the wider philosophical and political ideas of the label they choose to adopt. But at the same time, people learn, people grow. It's not static. And that's the best part of the forums for me, the way in which people can share ideas and learn. For me, ideas alone are not enough, not without action, but at least its a start....

 

sorry sal, i guess we cant all be a forum messiah

 

I'm not even talking about the forums in particular, but wider society as a whole. Yeah, there are a lot of shallow people out there, by whatever subjective standards we choose to make those judgements, but ideas and thought have to start somewhere....

 

But the thing is, even things like the forums have a hierarchy.

There's the moderators, who get super privellages, and can delete things as they please and are generally seen as amazing

Then there's the people who can afford to pay for better accounts, and can make their own forums, and have powers in there.

And then there's just scum like me at the bottom

I know the forums need people to donate money so they can stay working, but it's effectively saying if you have money you are a better person and therefore can have more privellages

 

Yeah that's true. Personally if I could afford to fund the forums I'd want to give all those services to everyone. Obviously Skip can't. We get a hell of a lot for free here, it's not much for him to ask for $10 a year. I don't delete things as I please, I generally try to be as accountable as I can, and sometimes I make mistakes or bad decisions. We're obviously not that great Either way I've put a lot of effort into this forum, I still remember the days when no one ever posted here, so I really put a lot of my time into getting a community going that would grow organically. And it's happened. And no, no one's scum (except maybe the right wing people ) everyone's important to the community, it wouldn't exist otherwise....

 

Are you in love with that phrase or something .

as for this wow

I do believe this to be true. (sorry , hi fellow scum ).. i have not read many of the private forums , but maybe 'out here' its more open to people like myself (idiots ) so the general opinion can be chalenged a little. I don't know but i presume the personal forums are awash with people that think the same...this is a open forum for anyone (right).. if the No. of people that don't share particular opinions is a little low (i don't believe so) then i would think this is a good thing in a way stop the rot in the static thinking ...

If we all thought the same about all these issues then erm that would be a bit of a love fest nothing more 'oh i do agree' 'oh but yes, so do' *smooch* yuk.

 

And Dok would be out of a job

 

Sure is. But you wouldn't expect to find a veggie forum full of meat-eaters, would you? Or a christian forum full of satanists. It just seems a little weird the types that end up here.

 

By personal forums i am really hoping you dont mean mine:& I only started it to help us all talk of events we would be interested in / want to protest about.

... and meet up and get drunk too

Cxxx

 

Well Dok, I can honestly say I'm opposed to all of those things you mentioned except for pornography. Naked girls an' all that. Fantastic

I can see the point you're making. It had me a little frustrated for a while but I just brush it off now because at the end of the day I know there are a lot of people on here who are anything but conservative minded.

Another thing to remember is that hippy/new age culture is a very, very broad one, and naturally there will be people who adhere to certain philosophies or principles commonly associated with that culture, but not to others. For example, although I am anti-war, anti-racism/sexism/homophobia and love all things psychedelic, I do not adhere to some of the other aspects widely related to 'hippism'. Vegetarianism and astrology being a couple of examples. It's difficult to me to decide what are the significant or core philosophies of hippism because like I sais it's very broad and it's not for me to dictate what is acceptable to do/follow/believe as a 'hippy' and what isn't.

I too have found it a little bit ironic to find a few pro-war, anti-progress people on this site but what more can I say? It's a really complex issue

 

I dont. Right wing tosspot muppets are everywhere, it isn't complex. Only question is what to use...the rope or the gun?

 

Do People really come on the forums and expect to gain recognition as a hippy. Understandable, usernames, sigs, all the other palava within the forum experience allows for a certain expressionism that you don't get everywhere. But i stopped trying to fit myself into a box - including hippy - a while ago.

In my opinion, humble as you should be upon hearing it, is that to try and fit other people's expectations do you no favours and are an expression of a deeper neurosis, however slight, and should, for your* benefit, be expelled from your brain shortly. I recommend a walk with birds and other wild animals beckoning to your call. I am not taking the piss, i am suggesting people accept that the word hippy only brings those that share a general, wide ethos, or those interested in that particular movement of yesteryear or/and ethos.

I'm not saying hippyness is dead. Far from it. But it has metamorphised into something far more, and those that would of been hippies in the 60s are more so nowadays, simply because there is more deviation from core hippy ways. So people are who they are. The idea surely is to promote positive energy; that is the methodology of the True Hippy - to explore and discover and to evolve in as positive means as possible.

The point i make however is that people are like music; the better it is, the harder it is to put a genre to it. So it is with people. Call that socially facist, but if you sound like all the rest, i'll skip the track. Fair enough I think.

P.S. I have a suspicion that there are both law enforcement agencies and what i lovingly call "beings of negative persuasion" that would disturb the positive flow of things and work towards their own and other's agendas that are not beneficiary to free thinkers or independant livers.

Namaste.