08-26-2019, 12:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2019, 12:36 PM by Eric the Green.)
(08-26-2019, 09:10 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: Those of us on this forum, myself included, now may be scanning the horizon looking for the society's next great adventure. How far away do you feel we now are from it. In order for us to emerge on the winning side, freedom in our relationships is a must. Many folks felt and still do feel that the quarter century following WWII was America's Golden Age, and yet there were many who chose not to follow the staunch anti-Communist model who definitely did not have (a) relationship (with) freedom, the late Pete Seeger being a prime example. He was even barred from appearing on the Hootenanny folk music TV show in the early 1960s.
I would now love to see a return to experiencing more spontaneity and socializing with an eclectic mix of people. After all, isn't this at least part of what all this talk about diversity is about? Do we now hold steady until we know the time is right to make a move?
Good questions.
It's a bit narrow interpretation of Pete Seeger; he fought in world war II and loved freedom, but saw freedom in the larger context in which we all need to see it. We are not free if a few oligarchs can send us to war for no reason, hog resources, and ruin the environment. Freedom is not the same as injustice, although the red side in our divided country seems to think that it is.
According to the S&H model, we should already be amidst society's great adventure. Right now it is to be found in the upsurge of resistance to the current barbarian takeover, or whatever you want to call this anomaly that has brought the Republican model in power over the last 40 years to its logical conclusion. Once the people who can see reality get a larger role in society again in the 2020s, we'll have plenty for society to do in moving toward a sustainable system that provides the justice that our red-state and red-county friends do not respect. It may require a civil disturbance of some kind to get past the resistance, because the powers that be and those who believe the propaganda that supports them will not bring down their roadblocks without a fight.
Once we have a fully functioning society again, social rules and relationships will loosen up again and in the course of the 1T and 2T more social life among all the people will revive. And in the course of the fight, the more-diverse younger generation will have more influence on how we see our society and whether all people are included.
Boomers are a divided generation, and the red side of them are used to the old white society. It is a bit of an adjustment for all of us who grew up in the post world war two milieu, but the blue boomers are willing to make the adjustment and help lead society over the next 10-15 years into a more just and inclusive world. As more younger people make up more of the population, that change will of course get easier.
The 25 years after WWII were not much of a golden age in the full sense, because our society is too commercial, and perhaps will for that reason never experience a golden age. Those years were spirit dead, and the golden age was one of commercial conformity, and then a reaction to that conformity that didn't catch on as a movement to change the original commercial conformity very much in the long run.
But the vision of the blue and green boomers and their silent mentors provided a basis for a society based on more than commercial motives, and inspiration came from which a more spiritual and artistic culture could come. It won't come though, until the younger generations catch that vision and don't relegate it to the experience of a generation. Generation X built their whole lives on reacting to the reaction against commercial conformity, and embracing that conformity instead. That is not how a golden age or any great civilization is built. It takes more continuity and learning, and an interest in building on and continuing spiritual and artistic inspiration to create a true golden age. It is not technical achievement alone that creates one, nor mere economic prosperity. Those are only part of the foundations for a golden age. If we don't build on them, it won't happen.