Where have all the flower (children) gone?

[Roy Rolling]

I guess I'm showing my age, but I don't hear the level of social protest songs and strong personalities like there were in the'60s. Maybe they're out there, but when civil rights, corporate greed, and the Vietnam War were hot-button issues, there were counter-culture icons like John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, Bob Dylan, The Smothers Brothers, Etc., who were willing to challenge the corporate-owned media even if it meant risking their livelihood.

Like I said, getting old is a bitch---maybe they're out there but I still immerse myself in the protest culture almost a half-century old.

C'mon people, prove me wrong and "stick it to the man" once mo' time.

[postulater]

1. Ask Mr. Natural! He knows everything.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. And don't forget:

[LWolf]

28. Icons of my childhood.

They hold a very special place in my heart.

[Rhiannon12866]

38. Mine, too.

My mother saw them at their peak and I finally saw them on a reunion tour in the '80s. I also grew up on their music...

[LWolf]

40. My remembrance when Travers passed:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x14577

[Rhiannon12866]

41. Thank you!

I seem to have missed that post. I was very sad, since I knew there wouldn't be another reunion. She was amazing...

[alp227]

3. Didn't they become Reagan Democrats/neo cons/libertarians?

blame a right turn in the nation, apathy, authoritarianism, corporatism instead?

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Um, no.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Isn't Mike Malloy a Republican?

nt

[dusty trails]

6. Isn't Mike Malloy a Republican?

"Politically, he describes himself as "a traditional Liberal Democrat
doing his part to return the Democratic Party to its Liberal roots."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Malloy

[Mojorabbit]

16. No, I am here and I am to the left of most of this board. nt

[datasuspect]

31. blame it on needing a paycheck

[shraby]

7. I think they became the "me" generation....looking out for number one.

[pinboy3niner]

8. BS

It was a very large gerneration comprising a lot of differing political views.

But you can find plenty of gray-haired '60s protest veterans on the front lines of Occupy today--including many here at DU.

[loyalsister]

9. Yuppies

"out on the road today I saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac" - Boys of Summer by Don Henley

Farm Aid performance

BTW Ann Coulter is a dead head.

[Enthusiast]

20. No they didn't. That was merely the right wing meme that you swallowed hook line and sinker.

That is all.

[burnodo]

22. They became?

Is that the universal "they" like "DU is this" or "DU believes that"?

[Blue_In_AK]

42. I don't know where you guys get this idea.

No one I knew who was part of that movement became a Reagan supporter. That sounds like some kind of propaganda to me.

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Well, sort of.

This one has been around a while, but it's certainly way past the flower children era (1992). It sort of fits with the theme of the troubles with NSA lately. The songwriter is British.

And this song is American but the video isn't. It was by friends of a Libyan journalist (Mo Nabbous) who was killed reporting on the fight for independence there; the clips are all pieces of film from the reporting during that time. I just think it's very inspiring.

[TheJames]

11. Busy, trying to stay alive,

under the yoke of "The Man".

[calimary]

17. Welcome to DU, TheJames!

Good to have you with us! Little ol' hippie chick here. My hair's still free and wild, but it's gone from dark brown to white. Still believe in beads and flowers and incense and Mother Nature. Still rockin' out and hanging with musicians and creative free-spirit types like my guy. Annoying people here on DU! One of my best friends has multi-color hair over her grays. She looks like an Earth Goddess! My best friend still embroiders her jeans! Life is good! Just can't run on fumes like I used to.

[yesphan]

27. + 1 ^

[PasadenaTrudy]

34. Greetings!

Another aging hippie chick here too!

[calimary]

37. Right on!

[Blue_In_AK]

43. Me too.

[The Straight Story]

12. I believe one reason is really simple

We have so much communication now we organize/talk to each other in different and broader ways.

Take twitter for example, you can get a slew of people all discussing the same thing instantly. Here on DU we can 'meet up' with many others in an instant and pass along ideas/beliefs/etc.

If you look back then (and even now) there were always two sides to an issue and each side used some form of media to try to get those who had not fully made up their mind to see things their way (or to change a mind).

As far as music, there are a ton more places to get it than a few radio stations and records outlets.

We have more active people now we just don't take to the streets - but are still effective. A twitter campaign here, emailing, blogging, etc there, and so on. We no longer depend on the few who control the media dictating what is covered (and I post more news stories a day here and at reddit than the networks cover in a week).

More media and choices means less focus for the masses on one or two events - we still get attention to causes but in differing ways.

[hunter]

13. Not usually on television or radio except as caricatures.

Therefore we don't exist.

Manipulation of the national media by large corporate powers has become very sophisticated.

[RobertEarl]

14. 45 years later

Know what, man? You can't go home, man.
It's over. Ain't coming back.

Those were the good old days.

The one's who are living the dream ain't on DU. They ain't nowhere to be found. Not unless you get off the roads and wander back into the woods.

They dropped out.

They rest of us? Well, we were gonna change the world, and we did. For the worse. We burned the gas, we plugged into the coal, we built our mansions.

AND GOT A JOB!

We cut our hair, snapped on the tie and got a shoeshine. We bought in to the system.

We became the cogs that the machine runs on. True, some cogs are better than others, but cogs we all became. And the machine, man? It has to keep moving, man. It has to get bigger, stronger, faster. More powerful. If it doesn't it will die. Every time it slows down, the country gets the flu, attacks other countries and generally just gets diarrhea.

But they got a soap for that. And hair cream, and shaving tools. Dude! Nearly everyone shaves!

One circle has come around, tho. If you don't have a script and the dealers to fill that script, life is over, man.

It's been fun, and it's been real. It just hasn't been real fun.

You just can't go home. Keep on trucking!

[Zorra]

15. Did someone say protest songs?

The first three are original protest songs. The last two here are covers of a couple old protest songs you'll probably recognize..

Thanks for asking.

[Douglas Carpenter]

18. I think Niel Young wrote a song about it

[Enthusiast]

21. Nice song.

But I'm not sure what it is about. Old time Neil fan here.

[burrowowl]

19. Still marching

still out there and wondering where are the youngsters!

[B Calm]

23. Occupy Wall Street

[Recursion]

24. If it's too loud, you're too old

They're out there, but you are not who they are taking to.

[MineralMan]

25. Fat Freddy's Cat says that they're still

around, smokin' it and chilling.

[PasadenaTrudy]

35. Freak Brothers!

Those comics made me who I am today. Along with R. Crumb, of course

[MineralMan]

36. Yup. I have complete sets of all of them,

purchased when they were first published. They're almost all still in print, too, and new copies can be purchased. That's disappointing, in a way, since I thought I might make a buck or two selling my "priceless" collection. Turns out that they are "priceless," in the sense that they aren't worth anything.

[riqster]

26. Card-carrying freak here.

Same values, same attitude, but fat and going bald.

[datasuspect]

29. they started having kids in the early/mid 70s

and you can't feed children on ideals.

[snooper2]

30. They got PS3

And if needed the Intertubes to complain on, mostly YouTube and Facebook though

[UTUSN]

32. We grew up.

[leftyladyfrommo]

33. Not me. I never grew up.

I'm still a hippy living in a little house. It's still a good way to live. I don't have much in the way of possessions but i never did want a bunch of stuff. Don't have a TV or a computer (I use the library). Am a vegetarian. It's quiet and it's peaceful here.

I still pay attention to what's going on but I don't know what to do about it. I've seen so much of it come and go. None of this stuff is new.

[Cleita]

39. Today they are doting grand parents.eom

[Blue_In_AK]

45. Trying to keep the grandchildren's minds open.

[PlanetBev]

44. I sorely miss those times.

At 62, watching the ascendancy of the Right has been torture for me. These people were on the fringe when I was coming up, now they've been mainstreamed.

Someday, sanity will reign again, but not until the damage done by the Right is complete. By then, the US will be completely unrecognizable.

[Cleita]

46. They were fringe. Isn't that the truth. We used to laugh

at them.

[PufPuf23]

47. Five movements cames together in a Perfect Storm of the 60s:

1 Anti-war

2. Desegregation

3. Free speech

4. Sexual expression

5. Peace and love (flower children).

Plus we had the best music ever; the mixing of cultures and voices was important.

There was much overlap between the movements.

Universities especially were public, were cheap and hotbeds of thought and protest.

There were religious leaders (like MLK, the Berrigans, Bishop Pike, Catholic liberation theology, rebirth of American paganism, rebirth of American Indian religions) allied with the major movements.

I spent the late 66-79s bouncing between Berkeley, San Francisco, and Marin for high school. work, and university and my rural and Indian country Humboldt county home.

My parents did not understand me. I quit hunting age 17. Smoked tobacco a handful of times and never since my teens but learned to like P** age 13.

The arts flourished and the mixing of cultures were syncretic (this happened in religion and life philosophy as well).

Heaven or hell, still proud to be a liberal.

Sadly disappointed in what happened to the USA, World, and our communities, especially post the so-called "Reagan Revolution".

My experience of the present USA is a much meaner and heartless society.

Technology does not always work for good but human understanding of the natural world is always positive.

I did not expect today's world back in the 60s and 70s.

Where have all the flowers gone?

[Scuba]

48. ...