I know a number of people who used to be hippies, and I am angry at how badly they have been misrepresented. People claim that they had no morals and that they were not in touch with reality.
No, they very much did have morals. They fought for better treatment of workers. They fought for better treatment of women. They fought for better treatment of black people. They fought for better treatment of the environment. They had better morals than the people who have been attacking them.
Were they not in touch with reality? I think they were very much in touch with reality. They put a lot of effort into addressing issues that in many cases did not even impact on them personally. Similarly some people think that I don’t live in reality, but I’ve put in huge effort into addressing all sorts of issues impacting upon all sorts of people.
Now to be fair, some of these people became jerks even when they didn’t start out as ones. There are some in the New Age who think that everything that happens to people is a reflection of what’s in their consciousness, and that the person is responsible for everything that happens to him. I am privileged, and this idea stands to work in my favor. I reject it for moral reasons. This kind of thinking would justify any crime under the sun under the claim that the person to whom it happens is causing it.
I have a friend who has had a constant unbearable migraine since age 22. Her New Age relatives claimed that she was causing it deliberately in order to avoid taking responsibility for her life. Eventually she found the right treatment; but she lost 30 years. It is completely wrong to claim that she deliberately brought it about. Sometimes things just happen, and it’s nobody’s fault.
Saying that you cause everything that happens to you is easy for you, and it is easy for me. It is not as easy for my friend, and it’s not as easy for folks in Haiti. In fact you didn’t cause everything that happens to you. Your situation is not owed only to yourself. It is also owed to parents who raised you, teachers who educated you, military and police that protect you, business and labor that provide your prosperity, and intellectuals and Freemasons who gave you your liberty. And it is important that people be reminded of this, as many tend to forget.
Is it valid to work on yourself? Of course it is. But it is not valid to ignore the world while you are at it. I do both; I recommend that other people do both. It is important both to be the best person that you can be and to contribute what you stand to contribute.
I want these people to regain the good values they had when they started. I also want more people to avoid disinformation about these people. They should not be getting demonized. Many of them came from the right place. And it is important that this reality be understood and treated accordingly.