Jazzerous and Jannyfire

A lot has happened since the summer of love in 1967. Unfortunately, we can never go back to those days. There was a certain innocence with which we entered that year of great change. Today that innocence no longer exists - especially now that children are afraid of what might happen in their own schools.

The combination of events that flowed into the summer of '67 are unlikely to be repeated again. A postwar generation coming of age, draft age kids going to a new war far away in Asia, the spiritually hollow affluence of the most powerful nation on earth (worse now), the sudden mass production of a new psychedelic drug, LSD, the opening up of several million minds to infinite possibilities, the colorful emergence of a new subculture - hippies, the words and music of a generation ready for change, the positive attitudes and vibes and feeling of brotherhood, the growing awareness of eastern philosophies completely at odds with the American consumerist mentality.

All this, combined with our youthful optimism contributed to a feeling that we were the future, that we were going to completely change society into a hippie utopia. Of course we were naive. Naive about our own limitations, about the power structure of society, about how to organize ourselves. And then we were all on our own trips, too. The drug scene took many of our icons. We learned the futility of fighting the system. Those that did ended up in jail or underground or dead. There never was a cohesive strategy. Even though it was "them" vs. "us", we could never get "us" to agree.

However, the lasting impact of the summer of love and the flower people has been more subtle. The memes (concepts) we promoted spread around the world and have instilled themselves in the subconscious of the species. These are reflected in some of the famous sayings of the time:

"Make Love, Not War"
"Peace Now"
"Save the Planet"
"No Nukes!"
and many more.

The point is the collective unconsciousness of our species is still absorbing and processing this information. It creates a lot of cognitive dissonance among us. That is, we now "Question Authority" far more often, we don't believe everything we hear, we think for ourselves, and we have more of a conscience about what we do.

It is this conscience that seems to have jumped a generation and now appears in young (neo) hippies. The sad fact is that the world situation really hasn't changed much. The same power structure exists. The need to respond to the world situation is as great as ever. In fact this is what has evolved over the last three decades. The media has shown us that the problems of our planet are far more serious and long term than those of our neighborhood. Our consciousness has expanded to where we now worry about people we've never met in countries we've never been to. This sensitivity is something new to our species. It belies the "us" and "them" notion with which our governments like to brainwash us. THERE IS ONLY "US"! THIS IS OUR PLANET! What we do will determine the future of the human race. If we let hate and fear rule the world, we are in for a catastrophic millenium. It is YOUR GENERATION, the new hippies who must spread the word about LOVE and PEACE and the alternatives open to us. Those who hate and fear see nothing but hate and fear around them. We must open their eyes as time is running out for us.

I can see a new movement emerging if we have a single uniting cause. I once thought the marijuana movement might do it, but the $18 billion being spent on the war on drugs is hard to counter. I think what might do it is if there is a draft to fight the war in Kosovo. Then I think this draft age group of 17-19 year olds will finally open their mouths before being sent to die in some distant land just to help some aging military industrial societies save face by destroying another military industrial society ruled by a megalomanic.

One thing we have on our side now, which didn't exist in the '60s (in it's present form) is the Internet! Our ability to organize and communicate is greatly enhanced, and once we coordinate our efforts we can become a truly effective force in this society. Hippyland is here to help facilitate this goal, as are many other websites. We await the cause, we await your call.

Peace,
The Old Hippy