"When I open up my closet, I am confronted with a veritable jumble sale of vintage clothing from decades past, a clear sign of my yearning for past years of revolution and change - a time when things were new and exciting, when possibilities seemed endless. THe ’60s encapsulates this feeling more than any other decade. Martin Luther King, Jr. incited a shift in global consciousness with his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech. President John F. Kennedy pushed for social reform, men walked on the moon, feminists burned their bras and championed the pill, and gay liberation blossomed. Phew: A lot was going on, indeed.
Free from the cookie-cutter constraints of the ’50s, when rock ‘n’ roll was considered evil, the children of the revolution wore flowers in their hair and preached free love. Horrified parents looked on as their kids lived together in communes and ran off to the Woodstock festival - popping acid, turning on, tuning in, and dropping out…..
Today this sort of independent creativity is non-existent. Instead of bands inciting fashion trends, we’ve got Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato. The voice of our generation seems to be Kim Kardashian, for God’s sake. The rise of the Internet and consumerist culture has rendered modern youth totally jaded: We’ve seen it all.
So yeah, there’s a part of me that longs to experience a time where things were fresh, radical, and exciting. Then again, this is an amazing age - if we use the technology at our fingertips to connect with each other, rather than to alienate ourselves. We should take some cues from the youth of the ’60s and be children of our own revolution. We should start new trends, incite change for the better, and maybe put flowers in our hair again. Could this decade be the new ’60s? If we join together, it just might be."