November 16, 2009
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A personal slogan
Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness. Maybe some of you remember this oft-chanted slogan of the flower children.
Some of them actually meant it but alas, the movement - however influential it was - lacked staying power and the number of practicing "flower children" is greatly diminished.
I was not a flower child - I taught and encouraged them as a young teacher. Unlike my peers, I was delighted by the movement, which I thought had an amazing underlying moral base. Most of my fellow teachers of the time focused on the superficial - long hair, different (or no) clothes, lack of "proper" respect for us elders - who of course knew what was best for them - and all the other inter-generational differences.
The flower children grew up, entered the hard cold world of today and became the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (not that those two super geeks were ever practicing flower children - but they were surely influenced by the movement).
I like to think they made the world a marginally better place just for having been - they certainly made it uncomfortable for the complacent.
I've tried to keep the peace, love whenever possible, be joyful and happy even during adversity. It really has worked- at least for me
Comments (12)
Dear Dick,
I graduated from high school in 1971. The flower children were in college while I was in h.s. and by the time I got to college, the ideals of the late 60s had already been commercialized. Soon came the "yuppies", with ideals buried purely in their bank accounts.
A lot of the politically motivated in the late 60s did have careers in government. Jerry Brown comes to mind. He was not only California's governor twice, he's planning a 2010 campaign. Sadly, a lot of the ideals expressed by the flower children were co opted during the 70s, and lost a lot of their luster after events such as the murder of John Lennon in 80.
Both Jobs and Gates were born a few years after me, so they came "of age" in the late 70s, long after the "age of aquarius" was fading. I think the "computer boom" has created a paradigm shift of which we really don't know the importance yet. Now if only the next generation would be able to use the world connectivity afforded us with the internet to spread the ideals of the "peace and love generation." I've seen some stirrings.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet philosopher, fool
I was alittle young to be a flower child. I guess I was on the weekends and after school.
you can be that way when you have nothing to lose but once you start gainning a house and kids it's time to grow up and every man for themselves.
I graduated in 1969
@baldmike2004 - hello brother Mike
There were still plenty of flower children around all through the early seventies - but the sixties were their heyday.
I would have graduated in '49 - had I stayed around. I did have more to do with the Beats than I really liked - they made even me uncomfortable - but I must say, I met some people I never would have otherwise - as I did in the merchant marine and later in the army
I was in the army serving in Vietnam (two tours) during the sixties. At that time I saw the flower children as mean-spirited and hate-filled traitors, shouting cruel slogans and spitting on GIs returning from the war. I truly believed I was fighting for a just cause.
I've long since retired from the army. In hindsight I can see that our involvement in Vietnam was unnecessary and unjust, just as I now believe our involvement in Iraq to be unnecessary and unjust. But I do support the troops, for they are doing their duty as their country requires them to do.
In my opinion, if the flower children were truly for peace, love, and joy, they should have realized that the soldiers were only doing their duty as their country asked. Shout slogans against LBJ, yes, but the troops, no.
End of rant, off of soapbox.
The Flower Children were mostly separated into two pretty distinct groups: "Scuzzies" and "Politicos" . I suppose I was mostly thinking about the "Scuzzies" who were pacifistic by nature but seldom organized or attended anti-war rallies. The musical play "Hair" was about them.
They were more inclined to be sympathetic to soldiers than despise them - They're the kids who stuck flowers in the rifles of the troops "defending" the Pentagon against them.
The politicos were a very different matter. They organized marches and rallies, attempted to disrupt troop movements and war production - even managed to kill a few people. They were the ones who incited the riot at Kent State U. that actually led to National Guard Troops opening fire and killing students - ironically and tragically some of those who were not participating in the riots. The politicos managed to disrupt and end the "Flower Child" Movement. Their successors are those who blew up the Murrah building.
I was, of course, in the Korean War, we didn't get quite the homecoming you guys did - mostly ignored
@tychecat -
I didn't realize that the flower children were split into two groups, and this is the first I've heard of the terms you mention (what in the world does "Scuzzie" mean?) I, like most soldiers of the time, lumped flower children, hippies, and the like together. But for some reason we saw beatniks as harmless, humorous characters. We saw the flower-in-the-gun-barrel thing as an act of sarcasm.
I served during the Korean War, but but was in Japan the entire time. The way I see it, the Korean War was one of only two truly just wars we've fought since WWII, the other being the Persian Gulf War. I'm not yet sure about Afghanistan.
Believe it or not the term "Scuzzie" was used by some of the hippier Sociologists in the Sociology Today magazine back in the '60s, as was "politico". Scuzzies were the group I described above - the "Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness" crowd - the bunch that started communes or traveled to the Haight.
Some of the politicos were pretty scuzzy (Jerry Rubin, for example) but their main agenda was always social disruption.
Their most outstanding success was at the Democratic National convention in Chicago in 1968. They, as well as a couple of the dumber candidates convinced a lot of flower children to go and get their heads busted when the Chicago Police rioted and attacked them. (Don't believe that happened? Look it up -the report to the National commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence is entitled: Rights in Conflict - "The Chicago Police Riot" [signet 1968] )
i was not a flower child, i am too young, but i do love peace, joy, and happiness. i collect peace signs, vw beetles ( lil ones), and all things hippie. i love the era, but am glad i was born when i was. i would have been too involved in the drugs if i was liviing during that time....just being totally honest. btw, i am friends with a few of your friends, so i thought i'd stop by........hi!!!
Their base was not so moral, as all the free sex, filthy living conditions, diease, and mouching of of the surrounding society clearly demonstrated, not to mention the cost of cleaning up after them, and the cost of the crime attributed to some of them. And then there were the young girls forced into prostitution to provide for themselves and the ones who eventually overdosed on whatever drug was their choice for the day. A moral base? No. Their life style was idealistic and naive, and they made no substantial and lasting contribution to society and the world as a whole. Hippies and yuppies and flower children were nothing but a pain in the you know what for the rest of the country.
LOL, Susan, don't you like the ideas of "Peace - Love - Joy - Happiness"?
Seriously, it seemed to me at the time that, despite some of the living conditions and hassles their dropping out caused, they were generally a lot happier bunch than their parents and the "straights" were. Did you know that until just a few years ago (maybe still) there was/is a group of kids who go around after rock concerts and such cleaning up? - They are very low-paid volunteers.
Compare our society today with that of the fifties and tell me that they didn't make a "substantial and lasting contribution" and difference. You might not especially like what your world has become - but a good part of the change is their doing.
Where do you see peace ... joy ... love ... happiness? Everywhere I look the world has, for the most part, just the opposite. Not a good track record, so I stand my original statement that they have not accomplished anything leading to global change that supports any of their goals.
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