CommonDreams: The Revolution Has Arrived

[marmar]

Published on Monday, October 20, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
The Revolution Has Arrived
by Jeanmarie Simpson


"The current global economic crisis has rekindled the wannabe hippy spirit I carried as a kid in junior high in the early 1970s. My generation admired our flower child elders. We played guitar and sang about the golden hill, the wide water and all the little creatures roaming the green earth. It was a romantic idea - living simply, communally and cooperatively - chopping our own wood, growing corn and eating lettuce from our own gardens. We argued whether or not we would hunt and eat the meat killed by our own hands (we argued whether it was ethical to hunt with guns, or more fair to the animal to use bows and arrows).

Today's climate - environmental, socio-economic, cultural, pop cultural, religious - begs for a new sensibility, or, more accurately, an old one.

During the earliest Neolithic age, people lived in simple, egalitarian communities of 150-2000 persons. In the world's first town, Jericho, there were a whopping 3,000 persons, making it a large city. Imagine trying to manage the food, waste, water, living and dying of thousands of people without trains or trucks or ports. The key was regional sustainability. Indigenous people necessarily used every bit of everything hunted, gathered and/or cultivated. What was the alternative? There was no 'away' to throw anything. Early humans knew enough not to foul their own nests, much less waste anything at all. Everything had a function - wheat, chaff, fat, muscle, cartilage, hide, hoof, brain, guts, liver and heart.

Ancient Greek counter-culture (ca. 500-300 BCE) insisted that "civilization" was regressive. Throughout the subsequent two millennia, there have been simplicity and sustainability movements coming and going all around the globe.

Interestingly, today Bangladesh has the world's smallest ecological footprint. In fact, "undeveloped" countries have, statistically, much lower environmental impact than their "developed" counterparts, across the board.

Buddha, Francis of Assisi, Thoreau and Gandhi, all hippies before their time, espoused simple living as the path to personal enlightenment, or redemption, peace of mind, or peace for the whole wide world.

The hippie notion that simple living and non-violence was the way to dissolve the established societal paradigm is an idea whose time has come. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/20-3

[Lifelong Protester]

1. "Time has Come Today"

I agree with this, and certainly am feeling more inclined, indeed nostalgic, for the life I lived in college and post college days. I went to a very liberal college, and many of my friends lived in communes. I think the sensibilities of the baby-boomers, as were espoused when we are younger, need to come to the fore in all of us, and I include myself in that demonstrably. I feel the need to divest myself of things, and focus on relationship and community.

If any of you are so inclined for a book suggestion, let me proffer "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner. In it, he visits the places said to be 'happy' and those 'unhappy' as decided by some mathematical formula. The two that stood out the most were Qatar, extremely rich, but in reality, not so happy, and India, very diverse, still a lot of poverty and listed in the 'unhappy' column. However, Weiner's travels there came to the opposite conclusion, based on talking and living with Indians. Poverty does not equate with unhappiness (inconvenienced and marginalized, yes, but unhappy, not necessarily so). Not counting on "things" to make one happy is something we should be moving towards...at least I feel I am.

[marmar]

3. "Not counting on "things" to make one happy is something we should be moving towards..."

I'm trying, but as a GenXer, born in the '70s and subjected to a relentless barrage of consumeristic molding since then, it's a battle against a lifetime of brainwashing.

[Lifelong Protester]

5. I agree, it is tough, we are up against "IT"

we have all been brainwashed, so it will be a long journey for some, especially as you say, it has been your (shorter than mine) lifetime in the making.

I donated three bags of clothes to the Salvation Army today!~felt great. I really, really want LESS stuff, more ideas, community, peace.

[marmar]

2. PM Kick......

:kick:

[blues90]

4. I feel the best thing people can do is get rid of the stuff

Stuff is never the way to feel happy . It is material crap people are exposed to endlessly until they feel part of society by buying it.

I know , I used to do this and now I have found more pleasure in not having stuff. Travel light.