From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)