Back from the Living Dead…

(Whatever Happened to the Hippies?)

I've been asking myself the above question for a long time. It seems to me that the world was just about to wake up back in the sixties, but then something happened. Something went wrong. Was it Vietnam? Korea? Was it “The Threat of Communism” or the "Rise of Capitalism"? Was it simply the inevitable death throes of the Piscean Age? I do not know; maybe a combination of these and other factors. However, here in the UK by the time I was born (in ’72) the youth culture (which is after all the culture that determines the shape of things to come) had begun evolving into a kind of anarchy which, although I have related to for many years, (being a little bit of a “Vivian” as well as something of a “Neil”) yet was not really anarchy as I now understand it.

For me (as a sometime punk, sometime hippy) anarchy is about much more than just doing whatever the hell you like with no regard to cause and effect or consequences.

That is called chaos!

No, for me anarchy is really about the total lack of any need for leaders in society. This of course can only be realised if and when we reach a collective point in our social and individual development that allows us to see clearly what is the most loving and most creative thing to do at any point in time, and then to actually want to do just that!

I am coming to realise that the only way this can happen is by revolution!

However, I am not talking here about storming parliament and lining the ones with the perceived power up against the wall and murdering them in the name of freedom and justice; as tempting a reaction that may be to the spinelessness and self serving dis-ingenuousness we see almost everywhere  in politics these days. No, as I have stated in an earlier post we cannot beat “them” at their own power games, and whichever side you think you are on once you start “killing in the name of…” then all you really achieve is to transform yourself into a killer whilst increasing the levels of death and grief in the world; thus Darkening the World within as well as the World without. That is no solution to the pain and anguish, or the fear and anger I see occurring in every corner of our Globe today. That “Us and Them” mentality is part of the problem!

The revolution I am talking about is a revolution of Consciousness, a realisation of our intrinsic Oneness. What we the people urgently need is the kind of psycho-spiritual revolution that is fuelled by a determined, fearless and honest searching of our inner selves. We need to engage in a radical and bold reaching inwards so as to discover the truth about what is inside of Us as well as What is really “out there”!

I am not saying it will be easy.

I am not saying it will be safe.

(Knowing this world as I do I do not doubt that some of us will be persecuted for our desire for Truth and Freedom and Universal Oneness. I am sad to confess that I do not doubt many of us will be violently attacked, maybe even killed for it! If we are serious about it that is, and not just playing in the shallows!

Yes, I dare say there will be blood involved in any such revolution after all, however peaceful and benign our intent. As a species we do seem to be obsessed with the stuff, and unable to effect any real changes to our condition without spilling it! We may well think ourselves much more “civilised” than the ancients and the non-Christianised world because we do not slit the throats of bulls and goats any more or burn folk in wicker-men. However, we are all wilfully complacent about the oceans of blood being sacrificed daily in the name of Power and Money and in the name of that diabolical triumvirate of Oil, Coal and Gas; blood that is being offered by the countless millions of gallons to the household gods of “convenience” and “comfort”.)

What I am saying though is that we need to do it regardless of how hard or dangerous it may become.

Why? How is it my responsibility? After all, I am not any-ones brothers’ keeper, am I?

I’ll tell you why, because if each of us do not take on the challenge of understanding and mastering the darkness within Us, then it will be a matter of time before People Everywhere on Our Globe will be lost confused and afraid as we find ourselves surrounded by nothing but a deathly darkness that none of us understands or are able to master.

I know, I know, depressing stuff right?

So maybe you should ignore what I am saying and go back to watching the news at 10, or that soap you like. Maybe those disingenuous power addicts we all love to hate are the ones you should be listening to? After all, being told that you must be afraid, that you must conform to expectations, that there is nothing you can do to make a difference; this makes a lot more sense than what I am saying, right?

*****

Some clever bloke on YouTube recently asked, in response to one of my angrier comments, the rhetorical question as to what would happen if our country suddenly found itself engaged in a civil war. As his question was clearly meant to be rhetorical I chose not to answer, but it seems a rather silly question to me. What would happen? A lot of folk would suffer and die needlessly, of course. A lot of families would be avoidably devastated by grief.

Rivers of blood would run in our streets.

These are the inevitable results that always happen when people go to war, regardless of where, when or why!

The question I prefer to ponder, and would ask you all to focus the awesome power of your imaginations on, is what would happen if today we ALL, everywhere on this planet, began asking ourselves not what we can do to change the World, but what can we do to change Ourselves.

I believe we may find that in a very short time we would all be living in Paradise.

So, where did the hippies all go? We never went anywhere mate. We are all around you. It’s just that some of us need reminding who and what we are now and then!

Love Courage and Strength to you all,

A