"THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT"

2007-03-05T22:46:00.001+11:00

poems:

'The Necessary Revolution'
&
'Be Gone'

by Pamela Sidney

THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION

when the beat poets
threw off the shackles
of fifties conservatism
they were still conservative
in their own way

but the youth of the 60s & 70s
grabbed the baton
to shape a new found freedom
we experimented
protested
gathered into collectives
stilled our minds
with meditation
practised loving, being
developed cosmic consciousness
realised our bodies
as sacred temples
grew organic vegetables
said 'meat is murder'
Melanie sang
'I don't eat animals
& animals don't eat me'

in a vision of the world abroad
we saw flowers
ever so gently placed
into the gun barrels
of the National Guard
Neil Young sang
'four dead in Ohio'
Cleveland Uni students
shot dead
protesting the Vietnam war

our open minds penetrated
through the coming decades
to throw off forever a kind of
'post World War II morbidity'

we plunged ourselves
into cauldrons of expression
through art
we danced in colours
threw off uniforms
of mundanity, of orthodoxy
claimed a place in a world
where once we were invisible
without a voice

but it was our music
set the world afire
and for the next decade
spontenaety ruled

read your history
most of us
didn't become bankers
treasurers
four wheel drive wankers

read your history
then you'll know
we had a war to wage
what happened
in the 60s and 70s
was a social revolution
and it was the hippies
carried the flame

we took the image
of Che Guevara
(who died in the mountains
of Bolivia - shot by the Bolivian Army
under the directive of the CIA)
to become immortal
an adored emblem
of the social struggle
against capitalist greed
materialism world wide

Vietnam

never before was a war
protested in such large numbers
in Melbourne alone
one quarter of a million
people led by Dr Cairns
lay down on the tram tracks
in Bourke Street
from the Post Office
to Spring Street and beyond

we said 'no' to conscription
aboriginals got the vote
(recognised at last as citizens
not flora & fauna)
black activism flourished:
Charles Perkins
Kath Walker's poetry
'black is beautiful'
movements arose

the Green Movement began
green hippies
alerted the world
to the ecology crisis
urged the world to consider
sun & wind alternatives
to oil & coal
Unions placed green bans
greenies were loved
by the socially aware
loathed by conservatives
red-necks & right-wingers

but still they carry
the flame of truth
into the future

we demanded
freedom of speech
the long quest -
equality for women -
had it's beginning
sexual liberation
began here
it was announced

that music
dance, poetry, painting & love
were more important
than money
that marriage
is not for everyone
& we were ridiculed

the medical profession
was forced to open
conservative eyes
to Acupuncture, Shiatsu
Homeopathy, Naturopathy
alternative healing had arrived

this social movement
was not planned
lead or directed by anyone
it was spontaneous
a true people movement
a Zeit Geist
a collective conscious
& unconscious

an urgent impulse
that had to happen
the 40s and the 50s
were rigid, concrete grey
a conservative time
when free speech
was under threat (as now)
the politics of McCarthy
(McCarthism)
had reached Australia
via America
a time ruled politically here
by Robert Menzies
(who tried to ban
the Communist Party
and happily -
in my opinion - failed)
a conservative man
like John Howard today

radio played America:
Bing Crosby, big swing bands
Sinatra, Hollywood crooners

conservatism such as this
could not be tolerated
and was not
it was swept away in part
by folk & protest songs
amazing experimental music
&
the sheer energy of rock-n-roll

the revolution began
like little wild-fires
breaking out in every direction
along with rock'n'roll
came awarenesses:
social justice
universal human rights
anti-war
anti-nuclear movements
artistic movements:
Pram Factory
La Mama Theatre
Poetica
political & socially aware
poetry, song & theatre

be thankful
the 60 & 70s happened
those times were more than dope
LSD, mushrooms, stoned hippies -
it was much, much more than that

Australia, then as now
took the best and the worst
from America
it was US and UK protest songs
liberated us:
Dylan, Ochs, Donavan, Lennon
Melanie, Joan Baez.

they sang
'make love not war'
'a working class hero
is something to be'
give peace a chance'

we dared to wear
psychedelic colors
threw out our pastels
threw out our 'just another brick
in the wall' boring beige

dressed our own way
followed no fashion
said no to designer labels
(except Levi)
except
our uniform of rebellion -
blue jeans
the very spirit
of revolution & freeedom

we explored new spiritualities:
became zen, sufi, taoist
wiccan, pagan, witch
turned our backs on dogmatic
organised religion
took the long march
with Martin Luther King
and on the way
carried the dreams
of all those still in the chains
of a black and white racist world

the generation shaped
by the sixties & seventies
were seduced
by a powerful idealism
a powerful sense
of social justice
convinced the world
could be a better place
proud to be called hippies
dissenters, lefties, ferals
activists, greenies
poets, artists, film-makers

decades on some of us
still continue the spirit
of those times
when there was
a revolution to be waged
against conservatives
fascists, gun-toting re-necks
war-mongers, rampant greed

no different to now

some things never change
so pass on the flame
let the revolution continue

Pamela Sidney 2000

BE GONE

told you
bloody well told you
flat-earth troglodytes
call your selves homosapien
be gone

you were told
way back in the 60s & the 70s:

greenies, hippies, lefties
artists, poets, writers
activists, ecologists, unionists
biologists told you

about melting poles
disappearing oil
extinction of flora, fauna
global warming
we shouted in deaf ears
endured humiliation
still scathingly called
'tree-huggers'

enough is enough
it's time to start healing
with nature's own solutions

but first
there's a very real
malevolence to overcome
global warming deniers
pathetic little right-winger-whingers
clinging on like grim death
to their fascist ideologies
holding up good work
with their baseless
fundamental agendas

Australia's red necks
so very loud:
the Bolts' / the Windshuttles'
the Hendersons' / the Jones's
the McGuiness's / the Duffy's
the Bruntons' / the Albrechtsens'
the gutter-press 'shock-jocks'

not to forget bible-bashing
corporate Christian evangelicals
forgotten the message of Jesus
now they preach
'money & how to obtain it':
Hill Song, Catch the Fire
Exclusive Bretheren, Family First
Right To Life - all filled with hate
for everyone 'out-of-the-norm'

we live in strange times

21st century 'creationists'
disguised as 'Intelligent Design'
peddling
their 'dark-age flat-earth' agendas
into every child's mind
desperate to put god
into every science classroom

obsessed with the ark
a brimstone god
& a planet
they proclaim
just 5 thousand years old

bigots all
embarrassing
to the human race

be gone religionists

obsessed
with their 'rapture' delusion
hard to believe this sickness
mindless deluded ones
who can't wait
for the world to end
for 'evil' to descend

cretins
who crave the 'end-times'
who wait
for a 'messiah' to 'save them'
mediaevalists
who live only for the day
they leave the earth behind
ascend to their 'rapture'

not a thought
for our feverish mother-earth

instead they crucify
good people:
unbelievers, pagans, gays
single-mothers, the poor
atheists, activists
stem-cell therapists

why
you even murder doctors

sub humans surely
who never cease to take delight
in slandering those who worship
in a godless way
this beautiful planet

dubious people
who can only find it in themselves
to scorn & to ridicule
alternate expressions
of reverence

be gone
rabid rightists
ignorant deniers
good riddance
go get yourself off to Mars
(or some other place in space)

you won't be missed
go fuck up some other planet
& while you're at it
take your
nuclear solutions with you
& your cluster bombs
(& all the other obscene ways
you've found to commit murder)

be gone
let those with integrity
get on with healing
good people:

Down to Earth
wilderness societies
Greenpeace
Friends of the Earth
all the earth-sensitive ones
who are ready
to begin patching
in natural ways
earth-mother's wounds

we'll take the Sun
supreme nuclear engine
she'll do us fine

we'll take and use
all the free gifts
given us by nature
wind - waves - sea - solar
geo-thermal

be gone
genetically modified
corporation evil-doers
you know who you are

& all of you
misguided
deluded incompetents
so desperate for humans
not to have caused
global warming

idiots
you just don't get it

when will it dawn
on your tiny minds
it doesn't matter one jot
whether humans
(or nature)
caused the warming

who bloody well cares

let's

just

start

healing

mother

earth

right

now

Pamela Sidney 2007

THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT

Every time you hear the broad term
'Baby Boomer'
it is an attempt to 'whitewash'
an entire generation

an attempt to obliterate 'the hippies'
from history
to make invisible all their achievements

'they':

the neocons, right-wingers
conservatives, fundamentalists
want you to forget the priceless gifts
the hippies brought us
in the 60s & 70s

'Baby Boomer'
most likely a label manufactured
by George Bush's neocons

(can you imagine how

those tired old war-mongering-men
must loathe & detest the hippies
& all they stood & still stand for)

'Baby Boomer' is outrageous 'spin'
intended to obliterate the name
of an incredibly creative generation
a generation that was the drive behind
so many progressive grassroots
movements of the time
many continue today

the hippie legacy:

* anti-war / pro-peace

* anti military bases
& the Military Industrial Complex

* anti-nuclear weapons, war
& uranium mining

* pro alternative power sources:
sun, air, wind, water & more...

* first to say: think global, act local

* opposition to oil, coal
& domestic nuclear power

* began the anti-racist movements
(such as 'Rock Against Racism')

* revived anti-fascist movements

* won sexual liberation

* fought for gay rights

* fought for women's equality

* demanded the right not to marry

* assisted in the fight for black equality

* demanded the right to
demonstrate in the street

* insisted on the right to dissent -
to disagree with your government

* promoted collective, communal
& self-sufficient living

* demanded abortion &
contraception rights

* fought for freedom of speech
* insisted on the right
not to believe in god -
to be respected as a peaceful
law abiding atheist human being

* fought for universal human rights
dignity for the poor
dispossessed & marginalised

* fought for animal rights

* won free legal aid for the poor

* began Green Peace - Down to Earth
green movements, eco-activism

* understood whole planet ecology
(before the Gaia theory)

* worked to save wildernesses & species
in danger of extinction

* promoted methods of bio dynamic
& organic farming

* exposed the danger
of pesticide use in growing food

* respect & protection of indigenous art
pagan ritual & sacred sites

* cosmic & human consciousness

* zen

* truly great music

* the importance of art & creativity

* collective & individual artistic expression

* LOVE

* told the world and sang about
the power of love to transform

"all you need is love"
"make love not war"

All this sprang from the creative
political, spiritually aware
enlightened generation
called the hippies

THE HIPPIES STAND FOR
TRUE FREEDOM

MELBOURNE POET PAMELA'S "THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT" poem

"THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT"