Excellent post. There must be a cyclical nature to these cultural shifts. I went through a phase where all I would listen to was Ram Dass lectures, and so much of what you said resonates with what he was talking about in the 80s. I dunno if you're familiar with him at all, but his arc was essentially: Be a Harvard professor in the 60…
Excellent post. There must be a cyclical nature to these cultural shifts. I went through a phase where all I would listen to was Ram Dass lectures, and so much of what you said resonates with what he was talking about in the 80s. I dunno if you're familiar with him at all, but his arc was essentially: Be a Harvard professor in the 60s, be friends with Timothy Leary and then get fired for doing too many psychedelics with students, spend the 70s in India meditating, come back to the US and be on the lecture circuit. I think there were likely some similar "directionless" feelings in the 60s/70s as people came out of the drug stupor that they put themselves in. Ram Dass definitely came back from India questioning what the value is of all of the so-called freedom that we have here in this country. He calls it "throwing the baby out with the bath water" -- you're free to shop 7 days of the week, no one expects you to go to church on Sundays, but has that freedom really freed us?
He definitely gets a little too spiritual for me during some talks, but, if you can get past that I think his points hit home, even by today's standards. He has a talk called "Becoming Impeccable" that I think is a good one if you're interested in listening.
Excellent post. There must be a cyclical nature to these cultural shifts. I went through a phase where all I would listen to was Ram Dass lectures, and so much of what you said resonates with what he was talking about in the 80s. I dunno if you're familiar with him at all, but his arc was essentially: Be a Harvard professor in the 60s, be friends with Timothy Leary and then get fired for doing too many psychedelics with students, spend the 70s in India meditating, come back to the US and be on the lecture circuit. I think there were likely some similar "directionless" feelings in the 60s/70s as people came out of the drug stupor that they put themselves in. Ram Dass definitely came back from India questioning what the value is of all of the so-called freedom that we have here in this country. He calls it "throwing the baby out with the bath water" -- you're free to shop 7 days of the week, no one expects you to go to church on Sundays, but has that freedom really freed us?
He definitely gets a little too spiritual for me during some talks, but, if you can get past that I think his points hit home, even by today's standards. He has a talk called "Becoming Impeccable" that I think is a good one if you're interested in listening.