I wasn't sure how self/family linky it would be to mefi, but my uncle collects lumias and lent two of them to the Summer of Love show at the Whitney.

I think the biggest difference is that people thought they could change the things which were wrong with society and did.

Okay -- this is brilliant and deserves to be an FPP at MeFi -- and at many other places.

However, there are some references with which I am not familiar and I need to Google.

Hold on ... Ah, now I get them -- 'Axis Bold as Love,' 'Big Brother and the Holding Company' and 'Sexual Revolution.'

Damn Hippies!!!

"people thought they could change the things which were wrong with society and did."

Oh, really?!

Mischief's WTF? is right on -- I don't think I've given up on changing things at all. Not only do I think things can be changed, I spend a lot of time trying to do it.

They just don't make a lot of documentaries about people my age doing that. We're not as hip and we dress kind of dowdy and take fewer drugs.

Here's another that was forgotten:

1967: Fight the Power!
2007: Suck it, haterz!

Society hasn't changed so much as it has mutated, and every gain has been balanced by a loss. As in 1967, we still have a stupid ongoing war and we still have a quite stupid man as president.

Both connected to Texas, no less.

1967 - Self-important young people pretending they invented the concept of drugs, sex, and rebelling against their parents.
2007 - Self-important baby boomers about to suck up all the social security while not shutting up about all those shitty '60s bands.

Yeah, I was wondering when this was gonna come up.

Here’s the thing: the times are what you make of them. Yes, there were some things that were better/more interesting then. There are some things that are better/more interesting now. Either way, nostalgia isn’t gonna get anyone anywhere. I do wish that there was a bit more of the spirit of experimentation now that there was then, but you go through life with the culture you have, not the culture you’d like. (That doesn't mean you can't try to fix it, though.)

The LSD/DSL pairing is an interesting one. I’m just sorta pulling this out of the air, but it seems to me that they a few things in common. Acid can be a tool of enlightenment and the expansion of consciousness, or it can be a method of avoiding reality. So, too, can teh intarweb. There are those who have used too much of either, to their detriment.

I was thinking recently about how things might be different today had the Human Be-In not become the media event that it did. (No, really. This is the sort of shit I think about sometimes.) That was America’s first real glimpse of what was happening in the Haight, if I’m recalling the timeline correctly. Thousands of starry-eyed young folks were drawn by the images of happy hippies cavorting in Golden Gate Park to a tiny neighborhood that was nowhere near equipped to handle such an influx. By the end of the year, the Death of Hippie had been proclaimed and the originators of the scene were fleeing the city to escape the bad drugs and, uh, bad vibes that had taken over the Haight.

But what if that hadn’t happened? What if the Be-In never made it any farther than local TV and newspapers? How would things have played out then in San Francisco, and across the nation? Would those kids have stayed home and started their own scenes? Of course, some did just that. But would those local scenes have kept the ones who made the pilgrimage closer to home? It’s a pointless exercise, to be sure, but I need something to occupy my mind on these long night shifts.

I guess that depends on what you mean by "spirit" of experimentation. I see much more experimentation now, the difference today is that it is more calculated and guided by mindful controls.

What I meant was civil rights being eroded rather than created.

1967: Dylan
2007: Bright Eyes

"I see much more experimentation now". Tell me more mischief.

Excellent premise, LT, you covered a lot of ground, but I'll see if I can add something...

1967: Haight Ashbury
2007: Hate crimes

1967: the Boston Strangler
2007: the Boston Mooninites

1967: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2007: eHarmony.com

1967: Are You Experienced?
2007: User Experience

1967: The War on Poverty
2007: The War on Terror

1967: The Black Panthers
2007: LOLCATS

1967: The Six Day War
2007: "24" Day 6

Damn, it's too late for me to get into this, but as pivotal as 1967 was, I still think the year following the end of the Korean war was much more so. Further, the 70s I believe were as pivotal as 1967, it's just that those years don't have any kind of trademark event.

1967: Laugh-In
2007: ROFLMAO

(semi-related: 1967: Be-In; 1997: "depends on what the meaning of is is")

Well, yeah, time is a continuum. (Whoa!) No one era has the market cornered on change. Things are pivoting as we speak type.

As for the spirit of experimentation, I'm referring to the attempt to change the society, however naive or poorly-thought-out that attempt may have been. Trying out new ways of living, new ways of looking at things, etc. Art was still an important aspect of the culture, something to actually fight over/for. That sort of thing. That's not to say that those concepts are dead today, but I'm not seeing them embraced as whole-heartedly now. Maybe I just don't get out enough.

1967: Police release "Roxanne"
2007: Police announce Box of Depends™ Reunion Tour

1967: Bond Jr.: Casino Royale
2007: Bond 2.0: Casino Royale

1967: "Hair" opens off-Broadway
2007: "Xanadu" opens on Broadway

1967: Eugene McCarthy announces Dem. candidacy
2007: Joe Biden announces Dem. candidacy

1967: Expo 67 (Montreal) electronic marvel: Picturephone
2007: Macworld Expo (SF) electronic marvel: iPhone

1967: RIP Langston Hughes, Jimmie Foxx, Che Guevara
2007: RIP Sidney Sheldon, Bam Bam Bigelow, Gerald Ford*
*The year is still young.

umm, rob, Roxanne was released in 1978.

Uh, rob511, The Police were not a group until 1977, "Roxanne" was released in 1978...

The Rolling Stones released "Let's Spend the Night Together" in '67 (as well as "Ruby Tuesday", noted earlier). Their tour is probably sponsored by Depends.

1967: "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
2007: "Barack the Magic Negro"

1967: Rob makes fool of self.
2007: See 1967.

rob, I think every one of us who is still alive made a fool of ourselves in 1967.

1967: Gilligan's Island
2007: Lost

1967: A Man for All Seasons
2007: Spiderman 3

1967: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
2007: The Office

omg, I love this. I could do it all day... but lucky for bunnies, I have to leave.

1967: Weejuns
2007: Vegans

1967: Paris fashion
2007: Paris Hilton

1967: Nudism
2007: Anal Bleaching

1967: Bossa Nova
2007: Hugo Boss

1967: Cesar Chavez
2007: Hugo Chavez

1967: Dr. Doolittle
2007: Melinda Doolittle

1967: Plastic raincoats
2007: Plastic surgery

1967: Timothy Leary
200&: Denis Leary

1967: Micro Minis
2007: Microsoft

1967: Stevie Smith
2007: Anna Nicole Smith

1967: To Kill A Mockingbird
2007: Kill Bill

1967: Clogs
2007: Blogs

1967: Tom and Jerry
2007: Ben & Jerry's

1967: BoHo
2007: Botox

1967: The Bobbsey Twins
2007: The Olsen Twins

1967: Op Art
2007: Op-Ed

1967: Alfred Hitchcock
2007: Robyn Hitchcock

1967: Love beads
2007: Anal beads

okay, I'm going.

oops, left one off:

1967: Christiaan Barnard
2007: Christian Right

and two I just thought of:

1967: Outer space
2007: Inner child

1967: Red Menace
2007: Red States

Another that actually applies to 10 years ago: 1967: The Summer of Love, 1997: The Summer of George. (It's a Seinfeld reference!)

I love you guys - very inspired! (I knew Wendell would jump in!)

I'm proud to say I was involved in the conception and execution of this post. I've been thinking, bmarkey-style, about the Summer of Love phenomenon for a while (as seen on MeCha, deeper thoughts available on MeFi. Basically this word game was more about going for the cheap humor than serious historical commentary, but just for the record, I'm neither nostalgic for the 60s and 70s nor deploring of the activities of that time. They're just pretty interesting times. I don't think those times were necessarily superior to our own, so this wasn't meant to imply that -- but I also disagree with the idea that all time periods are essentially the same. American culture today has some significant differences from American culture 40 years ago. The economic changes alone are staggering.

Anyway, keep making 'em up! It's fun! Taz' are great too!

Y'all are awesome.

One more:
1967: The Dirty Dozen
2007: Ocean's 13

1967: The Generation Gap
2007: The Digital Divide

1967: The Pillis introduced, triggering fears that it will encourage sexual promiscuity in women
2007: The HPV vaccine is introduced, triggering fears that it will encourage sexual promiscuity in women

1967: psmealey born
2007: psmealey old