Needed Now: Spirit of the Sixties

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Editor’s Note: The dominant Washington view of the Sixties is that it was a dreadful time that infused the United States with a rebelliousness that has required several decades to be squeezed out of the population's mindset, so the people will again accept the grim burden of American Empire abroad and the loss of freedom at home.

In this guest essay, writer Vincent L. Guarisco argues that it's time for that era's idealism and rebelliousness to return:

Dear citizens of a crumbling nation, have you even noticed our country is being demolished all around us? Haven’t you noticed the pillars shaking, the foundation cracking, and debris falling everywhere?

I certainly hope so, because the Bush administration’s wrecking ball hasn’t quite finished swinging yet, so keep your equilibrium stable and your stand-post securely firm, because before it's over, there may not be much of anything left standing, or worth saving, and I don’t want to lose you.

What a waste! It really hasn’t required much effort to see what the hell has been happening here. It’s been getting steadily worse every day, for a very long time. All that was ever needed to see it daily was a simple common-sense compass pointed in any direction.

Had we not been asleep, we could have easily prevented the carnage in every sector. But since we gullibly continue to believe the lying corporate news media blowhards about how damn great everything is, and since we put our trust in leaders who repeatedly lie with every word they utter, we now find ourselves in a bloody OZ wonderland -- a screwed-up place where everyone considers all Americans fair game at home and abroad.

So hunker down, my tar-and-feathered friends, hunting season is in full swing, and we’re headed for the endangered species list. That’s right sleepyhead, we’re a perishable item confined within the construct of our own self-destructive borders.

And since so few of us now hold the key to what little flicker of hope remains, I ask you this – do you know what your post entails? Well, do you? Do you 'serve a purpose,' or just 'purposely serve'? Our fate, our future (if there is one), depends on how we answer and what we do today. We need to get off our asses and get busy! ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/120307a.html

[blues90]

1. Nice article , as one of the old gray haired hippies

I don't feel at this point that the spirit of the 60's can be rekindled . I wish it could and it certainly would be alot easier if this country even slightly resembled what the country looked like during the 60's .

It does not , it looks like a sterilized glass and steel reflection from an ever thinning O-zone layer and the people have connected themselves to the high tech , high speed network from hell .

There is a difference between real human interaction , face to face handing out the written word on paper . Now anyone can claim to be anything they desire which has stripped away the human element to the point where the first generation of the bionic man/woman almost exists . We are there in terms of the mindset and they are working on the physical workings .

We should have taught our children well and kept informed and aware of the monster hiding behind the whitehouse bushes .

There needs to be a spark in this youth of today that lights the flame once again that we allowed to go out . I for one apologize for that .

[monmouth]

2. The major thing that got the kids of the '60s involved was the DRAFT!

I was a very young mother during those years and watched people my age out there against the war, marching with Dr. King, burying the Kennedy brothers... We were in the bar and restaurant business back then and when the boys started coming home from Nam you could pick them out of the crowd, even in their civilian clothes. They were withdrawn, sort of sick and looked around them in wonder at the others who had not seen what they had. We're going to have the same kind of terrible mental problems very shortly..

[Mr_Monday]

3. Ok, we need more activists from

The Early Sixties. Let's avoid the new-agers and tune-outers please.

[TahitiNut]

4. It's apparent that Senator Obama disagrees. That's sad.

:shrug:

[symbolman]

5. That's exactly what I've done with my book

THE JESUS BOLT, an environmental adventure tale set in the 70's during the building of the Alaskan Pipeline, when Fairbanks was a Wild West staging area - the protaganist splits from the corruption of those wannabees hanging in bars conning Oil Bosses for a Union card so they can head for the North Slope, where the Oil Co's are destroying the ecology, and hundreds of animals up there.

The protaganist takes a job flying around the upper third of the state in a flock of helicopters piloted by armed and dangerous ex Vietnam veterans, where he also witnesses the beginning of global warming..

An iracsible Nam pilot, a sort of "Shaman of the Tundra" leads our drug dealing Anti-Hero to Spirituality, teaches him to meditate there in the mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge..

The Jesus Bolt is that bit of metal at the top of the chopper which holds all the blades together, as the pilots like to say, "If the Jesus bolt falls out, you become like a stone, and the next person you'll be talking to will be Jesus, Himself.."

It's the over arching metaphor for what holds everything togther, the Universe, the Ecosystem, the protaganist, himself..

I think it's a great way to sneak some spirituality into generations, wake up the Inner Hippie, and make people FEEL what's going on, reHunanize them with a wild adventure tale with the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson, a dash of Kerouac, and a taste of Salinger..

Sending it out to Agents, connected pals, and a few movie folks in the hope that it may shift our culture if I've done it right, five years in the writing, and the reason Takebackthemedia.com hasn't been up to snuff for a while - hope it's worth it..

As the Shaman says at one point in the book, "If we don't all start Loving each other we're all gonna Die..." :)

[conscious evolution]

6. Time for another Summer of Love

After this winter of discontent.

[Prefer]

7. The 60s were a failure, haven't you heard?

- or at least someone wants us to believe that

I have heard all about this lately on the History Channel.

Just keep repeating 911 changed everything, the 60 were a failure, 911 changed everything, the 60 were a failure, 911 changed everything, the 60 were a failure

[Uncle Joe]

8. I believe things definitely need to be shaken up.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.