By Jim Selman | Bio

The 1970s in the USA may not have been the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, but it was certainly the ‘Age of the Pursuit of Enlightenment’.  The Esalen Institute was in its hey day, the est training was blowing everyone’s mind, and authentic Indian yogis were in demand. We thought the Age of Aquarius was really here and that peace and love were just a few years away.

Maybe we were naïve, but it was a good time when young people were trying hard to be better people and when it wasn’t embarrassing to be idealistic. The  ‘New Age’ was a reality for millions of Baby Boomers and a lot of others as well. We were going to take care of the environment, change the world for the better—create a world that works for everyone. The backlash we thought came from the ‘older’ establishment and the institutions (mostly political and religious) that had a stake in maintaining the status quo. We joked that if they could only ‘lighten up’ (our definition of enlightenment unassisted by substances) then we could, as John Lennon pined, “Come together right now”.

Well, that era was then and this era is now, but we still can live a dream of a world that works for everyone. I don’t know anyone of any age who isn’t thinking that the world is more than a little crazy these days. Between terrorism, climate change, the credit crisis and general anxiety about our retirement years, the dreamers of the 70s are becoming the Cassandras of this decade. In less than half a century, we’ve gone from an extraordinarily inspiring vision of human potential and mankind to a bleak scenario hearkening back to the Great Depression.

I don’t know what the future will be, but I think we can all agree that it will be a product of our collective actions. If those actions are based on a dark and fear-based scenario, then we will create our greatest nightmare. If our actions are a product of a vision of collaboration and ‘sensible’ policies, then we will create whatever that can be. In either case, the interpretation of what the future can be, as well as our actions, are up to us.

We need to once again ‘lighten up’. Today’s reality is no darker than we thought it was in the era of Viet Nam—only the players have changed. The future is a choice. Our choice.