Old Hippies

Somebody in a forum mentioned that we were all a bunch of “old hippies”. I laughed, and then I realised that it was true.

But back in the 1960’s and 70’s, I was going to change the world.

I remember what it was like to live under the permanent shadow of World War 3. Nuclear weapons were a constant daily threat hanging over our heads. The idea that the bombs could literally fall at any second gave us a different perspective on life. “Hey, we are all going to die at any moment, so we may as well live life to the fullest while we have the chance.”

Our excesses were severely frowned upon by our elders, but we didn’t care. We lived, laughed and loved like there was no tomorrow, simply because it was true. There might be no tomorrow.

We all knew that “the system” had to be changed. It was judgmental, restrictive, unfair, unjust and just too damn serious. The social system was a prison, and parents and figures of authority were the warders.

So we rebelled in the only ways we could.

But there was something else as well. We wanted to change the world to a better, fairer, more humane place. Hell, we needed it to change. But time kept on passing, and eventually the warders won. Most of us got back into our cages and cells and became good inmates.

The pictures of babies starving to death, news of innocent people being massacred in far-off lands in wars not of their making, and reading about horrific injustices and human rights violations. These things no longer brought us to tears of rage and frustration. We have been steadily ground down to the level of muttering, “Oh, that’s terrible, I wish somebody would do something about that”, and then getting back to our daily lives. Does the phrase, “I got my own problems.”, sound familiar? To my eternal shame, I ended up using it all too often.

But I realise now that this idea, this ideal, that things could have been made so much better than they actually are, has been a major guiding principle for me all of my life.

Now that I have finally retired, this purpose has been rekindled.

For the sake of humanity, don’t do what I did. Start caring and getting angry early. Start now.