Stephen <mcavoysATaolDOTcom@> wrote:
> Reading one of the current threads started me thinking about my attitudes when I
> started working. In my twenties (the 70's) I had waist length hair, wore
> cheesecloth shirts, an afghan coat, flares with inserts, smoked dope and thought
> that we were on the way to eradicating poverty and war. I must have been "hell
> on wheels" as an employee.
> Is there anyone else around from that time and how have things panned out from
> your youth?
>
> Regards
>  Stephen

I date back to roughly the same period (My "20s" spanned the late 70s and early
80s) Except for the fact that I skipped the drug scene, (I've always believed
that the "Powers That Be" allow easy access to drugs because they help to keep
the poor and powerless poor and powerless.) I was pretty much in the same
socio-political boat.  What has changed for me is that my sense of time scale
has greatly expanded (an enlightened global society is NOT just around the
corner) and the scale at which I work for positive change has become much more
local and personal.  The problem with "mass" social movements is that they tend
to be a mile wide and an inch deep.  For us young naive folks who believed that
the world was about to change, it came as a rude surprise that the great
majority of those who proclaimed a commitment to the Counter Culture were only
following a fashion trend in a lemming-like manner and would soon devolve into
yuppie scum when the fashion changed. As I became more familiar with other
cultures and their histories, (something I HAD to do outside of the context of
the U.S. education system) I became aware that this phenomenon was old news to
many of the world's peoples. An old Zen saying reflects my change in
perspective rather well:

"Wanting to reform the world without discovering your true self is like trying
to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones
and thorns. It is simpler to wear shoes."

One can also help others who are willing to make and wear their own "shoes".

Best Regards,
Mike C.

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