I have great news for you: today’s youth are very involved, taking action and making strides. I attended the NASCO Institute in Ann Arbor in early November. The North American Students of Cooperation is a robust organization of mostly young people. I hesitated to go, being from a different generation but there were others there my age and I didn’t feel a shred of ageism. The US Social Forum is another committed, progressive organization of folks working hard for social justice.

The Transition Town movement is an organization committed to creating resilient communities to deal with our changed economic, environmental realities while coping with depleted fossil fuels. I’m an active member of Transition Rogers Park but there are probably people in McHenry County who are interested in this and maybe even working on it.

The Family Support Network was founded in Seattle 17 years ago to organize a way for neighbors to help each other through hard times. Once they are over the hump, they are sturdy and resilient enough to be a resource for someone else. The GREAT news is that you could join this community today and once again, join that group of people committed to social and economic justice. I look forward to talking more about this.

Merry Christmas. Thanks for your comments. Let’s roll up our sleeves and help each other. I think the only people who don’t get it are in Washington and on Wall Street. Millions of committed people with good ideas work to nurture this shift every day. I am very confident that we will get there.

Paul Loeb’s book, The Impossible Will Take a Little While inspired and moved me to tears at a very low moment. I have not read his new book, The Soul of a Citizen but I’m sure that it is inspiring too.

Also check out FourYears.Go and watch Lynn Twist’s 20-minute speech online. It was heartening and thrilling. They will brush the discouragement from your eyes and get you off the couch. We will win this.

I look back at the 1970s with a mixture of fondness and embarrassment. While there were so many outrageous trends going on (just look at the fashions), there was also a climate of innovation and self-reliance.

There was environmental awareness that led to new laws and regulations that are still protecting the planet today. It was the era of the Whole Earth Catalog, the Foxfire books, and the Mother Earth News. On every college campus and in many cities there were health-food stores, food co-ops, and experiments in alternative living. There were communes thriving in some states, and individuals living off the grid. People worked on developing electric cars and worked against the proliferation of plastic packaging. They began recycling and reusing unwanted materials. These activities were widespread but not mainstream.

There was plenty of talk about preparing for the time “when the crunch comes.” (Is that what’s finally happening in 2010?)

I think the main ingredient that led to the evolving consciousness was the involvement of youth. They were inheriting the earth, and didn’t mind getting dirty. A little civil disobedience or living somewhat underground was OK if it was for a good cause.

But then much of the progress made in the 1970s seemed to dissolve in the 1980s. Whatever happened, and I’m examining my own conscience here too, there was as big a move away from self-sustainability as there had been toward it a decade later. But I think the experience led to a quantum of spiritual growth within the participants, and throughout society at large, and that spirit still abides at some level. Did the young people just grow up and become materialistic? Did they shift their energy to being successful, raising kids, and wanting good schools, and then the minivans and big TVs followed from that, or was it simply comfort that they were after?

So the lessons were not forgotten, but maybe they faded from our attention amid the crush of new things going on.

The young people today don’t remember the 70s and aren’t much interested in farming or fighting against social injustice. The movement then was driven by youth. Today it’s populated by disaffected older folks who know what they want but don’t have the energy they had before. Come to think of it, maybe today’s older activists WERE yesterday’s youth movement. But an infusion of youthful energy would certainly invigorate the efforts being made today.

During the 70s there was a desire to spread human rights. Nowadays all I see is more and more restrictions on rights, and in an increasingly organized way.

Most people resist change. But change happens when numbers of people are forced into it by circumstances. Longing for the past won’t accomplish it, but hard times will.

I hope we aren’t doomed to repeat the 70s because we didn’t learn the lessons. I can’t stand leisure suits and plaid pants.