The new 70's

The ethos of the seventies as I experienced the hippy culture in the seventies, growing up on a commune, the people around me, organic food, natural ingredients, concern for the environment, collectivism, the radical leaders outside of the mainstream, the sense of hope that it could all be different, all the fundamental values I experienced in this minority in the seventies, albeit a vocal and public minority, There was a lot of hope, but eventually this hope got swallowed up with the eighties and was never adopted my the majority, the success and dominance of capitalism drowned them out. It seems now that this has all come around again, these values are around me and seem to find there way into the mainstream much more readily than when I was a child.

We’ve moved on so much; collaboration, mass change, positivity, action, galvanising people for change, it can sound a bit utopian, it sounds a bit seventies and a bit hippy – when I hear people voice this concern I want to tell them that it’s different now, the people on the fringes, the people that were young then, who thought it were possible to have the utopia, some of these people are in a position of power now and now the capabilities of social media, the internet, we have a chance of making some serious change. Change in the environment, change in how our healthcare system is run, how we care for the elderly.

The baby boomers are reaching retirement, and I don’t think they will accept growing old as their parents did, they will want change. The internet and collectivism I believe will allow them to come together and solve the problems they are faced with. Ideas can spread without getting tied up in systems and apathy.

The internet also allows busy people do good things. Now activism and collective good can be inserted into the daily lives of people. The new platforms for engagement make it so much easier to participate. Obama’s bottom up approach to galvanising a nation is a perfect example of how people can engage and make change. Pfizer’s Baby boomer cause supporting CVD.

So if we can find a cause that aligns with our brand, be aware that apathy can be overcome these days.