The Sixties
Being brought up in the sixties was a mixed blessing. It was a time of great social change, camaraderie, ideals, optimism and adventure. It was a time when a large section of youth questioned the order and wisdom of their elders.
We thought things could be done differently without the paranoia and warmongering, the greed and selfishness. We really believed that we could create a fairer system with equality, fun, creativity and love. Friendship took on a new dimension. There was no room for racism, poverty or war. When you met people from other cultures you could relate with respect and not hate them because they were different.
People wore bright clothes that reflected the happiness and positive feelings of the time.
It was a time of great optimism and idealism, a time of global perspective, travel and discovery.
Rules – there were no rules.
We made up our own rules.
We were freaks. We did it differently. It was a universal peoplehood.
Of course the establishment were not to enamored. They saw us as a threat and our culture as opposed to everything they stood for.
They were very clever. They absorbed, bribed, subverted and took over. They ridiculed the culture, caricaturized it, satirized it, and made it into a fashion. They sold it and profited from it.
Having experienced a feeling of such positiveness it is hard to return to the rat-race of profit, greed and cruelty and resume the paranoia as if it had never been interrupted.
The sixties was like the football match on Christmas day that first Christmas in the trenches – a brief friendly interchange where you found the enemy was just the same as you. Normal warfare was quickly resumed.
The Sixties
Naïve, happy and positive,
With all the world ahead.
Changing the universe
And laughing on the way.
I thought we’d altered for ever
But found
It will be the same
As today.
Busy blowing cobwebs down
The dusty hall,
As we shunted
The old order out.
But we were merely
Creating an interlude
That wasn’t worth
A shout.
Outmanoeuvered
And sold down the stream.
They changed it into fashion
And sold us
Another dream.
Opher 8.11.2015
Only one bit I disagree with … ‘wasn’t worth a shout’ … you’ve shown it was!
Cheers Dave – just the way I was feeling at that moment! A lot of good came out of it. Society is more liberal than it was – it is just that I wanted so much more!
Do not spoil it for me too much.
Sorry Anna. Don’t mean to. It was special to me and still is. We all have our moments.
They changed it into fashion
And sold us
Another dream.
And now we seem to be stuck in that cycle. How often does it repeat, I wonder…
The establishment holds all the wealth, power and influence. They always find a way of circumventing. Even revolutions seem to throw up the same tyrany. The dice are loaded. It’s a merry-go-round.