Train of consciousness, 2

Now, as I said two days ago, it intrigued me that someone in 2005 should be talking about something as new when it seems old, though still valid, to me. We were talking about "Decoupling Use and Ownership" as far back as the early 1970s, though we used different terms for it. When I say "we", I refer to myself and my associates -- my mob and me. I'm referring to an affinity group that came to be known, and almost universally derided over the past three or four decades, as "hippies".

In some cases, that which is apparently trendy and innovative to talk about today was anathema way back when; things like rationalising the ownership of domestic goods, for example -- the decoupling thing.

And that's what got me thinking. What other concepts, I asked myself, were "we" discussing and promoting 20, 30, more than 30 years ago, and being laughed at for, that are now buzzwords or commonplace things accepted by many? What are some other things we hippies struggled to express to a non-receptive society, which are now being preached back at us as New Discoveries, sometimes by the very people who condemned or ignored us back then? That's where my train of consciousness left the platform a couple of days ago, and has been chootling along, intermittently, ever since ...

More soon.