I missed the hippy era. I was too young. Looking back at that time, many people certainly looked ridiculous. But then I listen to the messages of peace and love and I wonder what happened to it all. There was this huge belief in our own potential, that we could live together in happiness. And then, later, while some countries were trying to get to space to piss other countries off and find new ways of blowing the shit out of each other, huge numbers of people in those countries were dreaming of what we would find - that someone would hear a message of friendship and love and make contact to help make our world, our selves, better.
It was about hope.
I was listening to Leonard Nimoy's (yes, Spock) album 'Highly Illogical' the other day and some of the hopes in it are wonderful. By the way, if anyone can recommend some albums from that time filled with positivity and hope, I'd love to hear about them.
I wonder what went wrong. Few people, few children, seem to look to the stars any more. They're too busy worrying about their careers, about making rich people even more rich. As ridiculous as some hippies looked, and it did look like some of them didn't wash, I can't help feeling they were on to something.
Posts
5 comments:
Did you know America's hopes of getting to the moon in the 60s were paid for by everyone in the country being taxed an extra 50 cents a year.
50 cents! The human race left the planet and reached the moon for 50 cents! If you tried to add that much to people's taxes today everyone would be up in arms. Imagine what we could do with that 50 cents using today's technology. I'd be quite willing to pay an extra £50 a year if it was used for a similar purpose. Alright, back in the 60s the space race only got the funding becuase of the military implications, but are we really that unwilling to do things today just because we can?
People are fundamentally greedy. It's a built in thing that has stayed with us through evolution. It takes a strong mind or strong influences to change it. Your average Joe on the street doesn't want to pay to go back to the moon because they won't be the ones to go. They don't directly benefit. They don't care if it lets the human race move forward as a whole.
Actually, come to think of it, why is the world becomming more divided when things like the internet are supposedly bringing us closer together? It's only ever when there's a war on that we stick together, help one another and do things for the greater good. Is that because we truly want to look after each other or because we like to gang up on a common enemy?
I kind of agree with you. There really is little in my generation besides tragedies and pathetic "celebrities" to be held as a milestone. I have been working my way backwards in literature / music / etc. and I believe you are correct when you say there was more of a genuine, natural concern for things that now feel optimized and uncomfortable at best. I think the Internet is a big instigator in all of this too; I feel like that hope and fantasy is being channeled into forums and lost in digital translation.
But at least some content feels genuine (i.e. your blog)
we starve look at one another short of breath walking proudly in our winter coats wearing smells from laboratories facing a dying nation of moving paper fantasies listening to the new born lies with supreme visions of lonely tunes.
somewhere inside something there is a rush of greatness who knows what lies in front of our lives i fashion my future on films in space. silence tells me secretely, everything. everything.
I know what you mean. I can't watch, read, or listen to world news without hearing some new thing that makes the world a worse place. There is still hope, and people working for positive change, but they seem to be a minority.
"Few people, few children, seem to look to the stars any more."
As if you could see them through the orange haze of light pollution...even if you could it wouldn't matter. The feeling of looking at stars can't be turned for profit or capitalized on...for now..so it therefore isn't important. So forget your stars!Money, status, & big tvs! Now -thats- dreamy!
Post a Comment