Here's an interesting experience in time-traveling back to 1967. Watch the Vimeo clip on this page and marvel at how *threatened* Harry Reasoner was by the hippies, and the challenges they posed to society, and to his own way of thinking and way of life.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/07/31/invasion-of-the-hippies/ But then think about some of the criticisms he levies against the hippies, as he saw them then, and think about whether they might have also applied to certain... uh...other groups, such as TMers. "They object to many of the ills that beset society -- war, social hatred, money-grubbing, spiritual waste -- but their remedy is to withdraw, into private satisfaction. When one thinks of the problems of our age, which cry for attack and imagination and youthful energy, this seems like the greatest waste of all." 46 years later, where are the actual *accomplishments* of those who followed their own "turn on, tune in, drop out" mantra and pursued the path of "private satisfaction?" What actual benefits to society did their pursuit of meditation and enlightenment and "higher states of consciousness" achieve? And did it make even seem to make *them* happy? As reported here, the TM movement founded around this desire to turn inward and seek private satisfaction rather than worldly accomplishment is now rife with infighting, scandal, divisions into competing sects, and much of the same authoritarian suppression of dissent and "improper" ways of acting and thinking as the society its now-aging followers once rejected. Just goes to show you that you can't always tell where a path is going to lead you when you first step onto it. That's why it's so important to remain aware, and ready to step off of it any time, rather than blindly following a path that seems to be leading in the wrong direction.
