In defence of the hippies
In this fast-changing world, I’ve been so busy trying to keep up with technology that it’s taken me some time to notice that our ideas and values are morphing as well. My neurones probably aren’t firing as fast as they used to, but I’ve gradually become aware that activist culture has shifted around me and some of the developments make me a little uneasy.
I was born in the final months of the 1960s and while growing up in the material world of the eighties, I idolised the mythical decade of my birth when peace, love and tolerance were in vogue. With variable success, my aim has always been to accept everyone as they are, and not to cause offence to anyone unless it is absolutely necessary.
A few years ago I first came into close contact with young people fiercely upholding the marginally different values of the present decade. It was a large gathering of environmental campaigners planning an activity collectively and we were trying to reach consensus on our methodology. One of the proposed agreements was that if we were arrested, we would remain calm. I’ve participated in my share of civil disobedience over the years, and for me this proposal was a simple safety requirement, but a couple of young students sitting near me were outraged. “Fuck that!” I heard one whisper to the other, before they made a more official objection.
