During the course of our discussions on idealism a point had been made that Hippies had all become part of the establishment and had no lasting effect. In reply a point had been made ,that the effect of the idealism of the 60's had gone much beyon the boundaries of the time and had spawned the enlightened movements of cross-cultural links , sexuality , gender liberalisation , environmental movements and so on.

I discovered that David Lee Simons , our Spiritual newsletter editor was a hippie during those heady days. So I asked him what he thought. Here is what he said.

"Ah, the sweet, sad, rather flyblown days of youth! Yes, the kinds of Hippies there were (are?) run the gamut that all human groups/sub-groups run. In our case, there were the usual extremes: the "live for today and do as many drugs as possible and live in squalor" extreme, and the very intellectual/philosophical other extreme, and everything in between. I and my friends were middle-of-the-roaders tending more toward the latter position, most of the time. In any case, I am - rightly or wrongly - rather proud of my Hippie heritage, and feel that we have been given something of a "bad rap", as it were. Please do write the history. Do you know a book published under the auspices of the government of Sri Lanka entitled "From Home to Homelessness"?

In general , these were people who dared to dream when idealism was tough ( as it is today). The world was better off for it.