1969 to 2029: Continuity of Rebellion?

“I don’t wear shoes”

So said my daughter as she trotted through searching for her outfit to head to school this morning.

“Hippy”

Was my retort making me think back and pose a question we continued to discuss — a set of years ending in decades? Decades of change?

The imagery of hippy flower power evokes a broader cultural and generational attitude of rebellion, countercultural ideals, and rejection of mainstream values. Both 1969 and 2009 reflect moments of societal tension and desire for change, but they express rebellion in different forms, though there are connections between them.

Maybe could justify 1979 and the rise of punk with all it epitomised as the UK government took a massive step change with the coming of Thatcher, a start in a period selling off assets and possibly condemning Brits to a return to extractive colonialism this time happening inside the country itself.

1969: The Height of Hippie Counterculture and Rebellion

In 1969, the phrase “I don’t wear shoes” symbolizes a rejection of societal norms within the sandals and wild hair of the broader hippie movement. This year was the apex of a countercultural wave, especially in the United States. Iconic moments like Woodstock and anti-Vietnam protests, the aftermath of the previous year’s Chicago demonstrations was referenced when things went fully anti-democratic January 2021.

The imagery of flower power juxtaposed with the power of enlightened government vision and the capitalist system delivering two men on the Moon. The imageries tie into the rebellion against authority, war, and traditional values while embracing ideals of technological power for peace, love, and communal living. Now, seemingly forgotten as we witness popularism, misuse of new media channels to reinforce elites where flower power has been replaced by ‘so what’s in it for me?’

Perhaps 1969 Tshirt themes:

• Rebel against the elite and the establishment: Protests against the Vietnam War, civil rights and self-determination movements, anti-capitalist sentiments as post-WWII social ethos were challenged by those looking to exploit the social capital built.
• The Cold War started to change with geopolitics being exercised across emergent states post-independence.
• An awakening for natural living and a simplicity borne of meaning: The rise of environmentalism, organic living, and rejection of consumerism (symbolized by things like not wearing shoes).
• Youth-driven movements: A generational clash where the youth, the post WWII generation, rejecting the ideals of their parents, advocated for more freedom, creativity, and personal expression.
• Setting for maturity in the 1970s and the rise of Friedman’s teachings with its revitalisation in concentrating power as set out by the French anthropologists in the Precarity.

2009: Financial Crisis and Modern Countercultures

2009, while not linked to the same flower power imagery, was a year marked by a wave of rebellion, albeit in a more globalized, digital context. The world was reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, widespread anger and frustration toward elites — specifically financial and governmental institutions seen as responsible for the collapse.

Designer shirt logos printed in the fabric for 2009:

• Rebellion against financial elites: The Occupy Wall Street movement (emerges two years later in 2011) The movement grew out of the financial crisis as people rallied against inequality, corporate greed, and political corruption. The roots are nurtured after a generation encapsulated by greed quotes in the 1987 film Wall Street.
• Rise of digital activism: The internet and social media started to take off to new (intrusive?) levels to play a larger role in lives — for good in terms of interconnectedness, ability to inform and for the ills we now witness in terms of addiction and misinformation.
• Rejection of traditional power structures: Not as bohemian as the 1960s, a strong cultural rejection of corporate greed, leading to movements around sustainability, minimalism, and anti-consumerism (“I don’t wear shoes” may have become “I don’t work for The Man” as a metaphor).
• Cultural shifts: Similar to the 1960s, younger generations in 2009 embraced new ways of living, embracing technology to re-evaluate how to generate a livelihood. More open-minded social values, again challenging old hierarchical systems, questioning how corporates controlled markets and starting neo-liberalism as technology allowed extremes to be nurtured to the detriment of dialogue.

So “I don’t wear shoes” was rebadged in misinterpretations of Woke and garrulous demagogues preached a misplaced nationalism, patriotism and onshoring as the ways to “take back control”, which invariably meant maintaining the Precariat structures distancing elites from the problems facing the Anthropocene age on existentialist levels.

Toward 2029: Rebellion, Environmentalism, and Technological Shifts

Looking toward 2029, the spirit of rebellion and a search for authenticity continues, though it manifests differently as technology, climate change, and political polarisation shape modern counterculture. What themes should we emblazon for the next five years?

• A Collective Environmental Rebellion: This is the still-growing movement against environmental destruction and corporate pollution typified by Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion. Like the barefoot hippies, today’s environmental activists often embody a lifestyle of simplicity, rejecting consumerism and calling for a radical change in how societies operate within wider ecosystems highlighting the need for holistic thinking and real leadership from politicians now too often lost in the popularism seeking to maintain what was and not build for what has to be.
• I am part of Digital Countercultures and Decentralization: The rise of decentralised technologies (the rise of terms like blockchain encompassing older thinking, diffused ledgers, emboldened by emergent technology) and movements such as cryptocurrency and Web3 reflect a rebellion against centralised power structures (corporates as well as governments). This rebellion could be seen as a continuation of the anti-elite sentiments from 1969 and 2009 in stark contrast to the 1979 signal of selfishness.
• Priority Mental Health and Wellness: As with the hippie movement’s search for spiritual enlightenment and holistic health, today’s focus on mental health, mindfulness, and self-care represents a rejection of the high-pressure, corporate-driven lifestyles elites promote.
• Youth use Technology to Benefit All: While digital activism is on the rise, there is also a growing “digital detox” culture, a reaction to the overuse of technology and advocating for more human-centred living.
• Lack of social mobility reinforcing Precariat thinking. Migration and related extremist views are apparent. Time to question philanthropy in terms of a biblical quote? Passing a camel through the eye of a needle? Looking again at how the ‘we’ is reinforced in democratic principles of inclusion, social responsibility and accountability of leaderships to deliver meaningfully on social justice and rights applied to one and all.

1969 to 2029: Continuity of Challenging Inertia

Across the highs of the 9s, 1969, 2009, challenging the status quo and elites is a continuous theme while1979 signalled how elites play the games to restore their power. The roots are dissatisfaction with power corruption and, despite fine rhetoric, a paucity of concerted action creating the basis of systemic, positive change. So what comes 2029?

Heightened activism around environmentalism, technology, and individual freedoms as younger generations face new challenges brought forward by the further consolidation of power?

Carrying forward the spirit of rebellion from previous decades but with new ways to mobilise and move to overcome the inertia in political and economic systems?

How the barefoot idealism of 1969 barefoot hippies became the Mother of Invention to the tech-savvy activism of 2009 and the surrogate parents to transmogrified orally activated, AI supported mass movements to develop a renewed democracy based in participation well beyond the few sitting in parliaments. Mass inclusion sweeping aside technocrats eating canapes in 5-star hotels. History interpreted provides lines of rejecting oppressive elites, seeking, and now developing systemic alternatives to mainstream power in inclusive structures.

A theme to persist into the future and given fresh impetus by technology as Mother Nature exercises its rebellion to Anthropocene extractive practices.