Tuesday, July 19, 2011

It Looked Different Then



Radicalism, counterculturalism - what we would now lump under liberalism in retrospect, looked different in the 1970's. This was one version, and the one I had greatest attraction to. As well as we could sense then where the world was going, the current political divide was not it. I thought "liberals" were just milk-and-water versions of "conservatives" then. Conservatives were not considered so much contemptible as people who just didn't get it.

There were other visions from the left which also influenced me. This was one of the stronger versions. I had one foot in the world of Jesus Freaks, and the communal version of Christianity hovered at the edges of our Bible Study for many years. Because it never came to pass, I don't think the children quite picked up what a near thing it was - how this could have been the life they grew up in. Of the 10 (+2, +1) children, the oldest two caught some of it, my own oldest a bit as well.

My intuitive predictions of where the country and the world were going were better than most, in retrospect. But I still missed a lot.

More to follow, but as with the "following directions" post, I am sure there are lots of reactions, and I don't want to steer the conversation too much at present.

2 comments:

Texan99 said...

This is pretty much still where we're coming from. I have to rouse myself to an appreciation of my duties to fellow human beings, but I can scarcely resist the conviction of my duty to be a good steward of our land and the creatures that live on it. Rainwater cisterns, permaculture, the whole bit. I guess we're what they call "crunchy cons."

Unknown said...

I need to rouse myself to an appreciation of my duties to fellow human being beings, but I can scarcely resist the conviction of my duty for getting a excellent steward of our acreage as well as the creatures that reside on it. I am player of games,I like play GW2 games,I need gw2 gold!If you have cheap gw2 gold,I can to buy it.