When I came of age in the late 60s and early 70s, the big idea was “do your own thing.” I thought it was the vanguard of a new way of thinking and relating to each other.

I thought we hippies (ok, I was a hippie on the weekends) were going to do away with pushing everyone into categories, social boxes, and defined roles. Each person could be free to do their own thing individually.

I thought we would replace these with a radically free society in which everyone had a live-and-let live philosophy. It was to be “do your own thing” on a worldwide scale.

We would have mutual respect, even in disagreements. It was ok as long as your thing didn’t conflict with mine. And when there was a conflict, we would each find a voluntary compromise because our freedom was paramount.

Man, was I wrong.

We succumbed to the temptation of impatience by wanting to spread our passion for freedom fast. This meant using the force of law by legislation.

Notions of eliminating differences between the races, the sexes, the haves, and have-nots were thought to be so desirable and unassailably correct that using the law was supposed to be unquestionably good.

The power of the state was waiting for us to dive in and start creating government programs that would in turn, create our ideal society. In that process, we missed something important.

That this was the opposite of doing your own thing, it was doing our thing.

When we turned from our lofty ideals to forcing social changes via state power, we gave up the vision and lost our freedom-loving souls.

Remember Richie Havens at Woodstock?

Was that the last time we chanted “Freedom”?

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