I don’t really fit in with any group. Too woo-woo spiritual for the Marxists. Too angry for the Buddhists. Too political for the nondualists. Too much of a liberal-hating commie for the witches. Too radical for the socdems or demsocs. Too grown up for the anarchists.
If hippies were real I guess I’d be one of those. Like, if it had been more than psychedelic-fueled idealism that collapsed into vapid yuppiedom as soon as the drugs wore off. I’d be a hippie if there were something more substantial to it than navel-gazing escapism, because at least in theory they try to synthesize the political and the spiritual.
They did glimpse something real, the hippies. They did intuit a possible world that absolutely is waiting to be born. A mass awakening and transformation of human consciousness is entirely possible, and actually appears to be gestating deep beneath the chaos and confusion of this strange modern world. The LSD left their systems and they all became landlords, but that doesn’t mean their visions and insights were showing them something false.
But these days I feel like I have more in common with a completely unspiritual Marxist or an entirely apolitical person who’s had some transformative spiritual insights than I have with the typical hippie, because their politics and spirituality seldom seem to meet anywhere particularly authentic. Most of them are either vaguely progressive liberals or QAnon wingnuts who use spiritual concepts as emotional pacifiers to comfort them in their unhealed trauma.
I guess my lack of a clear group or political faction is just what happens when you’re acutely aware that at this point in spacetime humans are too crazy and unreliable to form alliances with any particular contingent. I’ve found it best to just stick to my confidence in my own view and boost various causes and agendas on a case-by-case basis rather than clique up with any one political sect, because for the moment none of them are reliably lucid enough for me to trust them with my loyalty.
So I wander around without any clear, cohesive tribe. I share my messages and they resonate with an eclectic group of misfits from all across the globe, and we hold hands together as we spin off into an increasingly bizarre future on this beautiful blue planet of ours.
And today I’m really appreciating that. I love this weird little community I get to interact with on a daily basis, sharing ideas, art and poetry about news, politics and spirituality with whomever happens to feel inspired by them. I don’t know what kind of future we’re moving into — could be very, very bad, could be very, very good. But I’m glad we’re moving into it together.
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You are simply fantastic and a real person. You don't need to "belong", as you belong to the best of humanity! Love from Belgium!
Way to go, Caitlin! Labels most of the time are only a way to further keep us separated, and nothing more.