The young are showing the way, as it should be.
The worldwide OCCUPY movements are transformational paradigm shifts: from the capitalist model to the moneyless and free, from the autocratic to the democratic, from the hierarchical to the participatory, from the structured to the freeform, from the ossified to the creative.
The OCCUPY movements have given us a name and an evolving practice for a way forward for the human race on this hillbilly planet. It IS 1968/69 all over again. This is the potential start-up for a new and truer AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT. I was listening to the Beatles' album Revolver while reflecting on all this, and for the first time in too long I felt the subtle sacred rush of kundalini energy and giggled.
The times they are a'changin, the wheel of dharma ("wheel still in spin") is creaking and groaning as we slowly start to break with the old ways and enter the new.
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In the past several days it has become clearer to me how much the annual Purdy Country LitFests (PurdyFests) I've helped organize for five years are similar to the OCCUPY movement. No money is involved in the organizing, no poets are paid, no one receives top billing, or even billing. The poetry is read in group round-robins, with everyone present encouraged to share their work. During the week or so of camping (free) at ZenRiver Gardens, meals are communally prepared and shared around campfires.
Creativity abounds, and many projects have come out of the gatherings. Different people put forward ideas for the coming year, and each PurdyFest grows into its own unique character. This is the pattern the OCCUPY movements are demonstrating for us, and it is quite miraculous to again be living in such powerfully energetic times.
Revolver ends with the song Tomorrow Never Knows, and the lyric, "where I can see a different kind of man there". The Occupiers are here, and they are us.
3 comments:
Now these are my kinds of 'occupy' movements.
Long live people's poetry!
I would like to think this is the beginning of something awe inspiring, but I am afraid when the economy improves and these young people find themselves upwardly mobile again, the cause will soon be forgotten. The sad commentary on our society has to be that we have developed a business for supplying our pets with costumes for Hallowe'en and children are starving in other parts of the world. Nero fiddled did he not?
Hi 'Anonymous',
Societal changes happen 2 steps forward, one step back. I was a hippie, & a large % of us managed to reintegrate with society. I still believe the most 'productive' things I've done with my life are experiencing an 'enlightenment', resisting the Vietnam War, and living in a commune for 2 years.All by age 23. Society would look with more approval on my having been a head cook/chef, head librarian/CEO - maybe even a publishing poet -stuff like that which our established version of society understands and condones. But those things didn't affect the shifts in awareness which we need for this planet to survive like those youthful activities.
We need a major 'sea change' shift in consciousness to evolve, & these mostly young people are showing us the way.
p.s. have you read Earle Birney's novel "Down the Long Table"? A theme is youthful rebellion (Marxism) which slowly fades in adulthood (for most).
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