what's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

What's so funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding? was a song written by Nick Lowe in the mid-late 1970s - and was on an early hit album of Elvis Costello (1978). Lowe and his cohorts in Rockpile were the last true rockers that I personaly listen to and followed, as i veered off at that time to roots music: blues, bluegrass, etc.
By 1978 the Hippie era was already gone, and punk music, and Rolling Stone and other rock magazines would made fun of the Hippie sentimentality and Hippie idealism and of course would laugh at the leading Hippie rock bands, like the It's a Beautiful Day -- thus leading up to this song. While I'm not going to try to guess Lowe's meanings back then, I do want to show this recent (2007) version, played less rock style and more as a lament than an anthem.
I often wonder what songs would make good UU Hymnal songs -I'm not sure if this would fit, it's somewhat tied to the late 1970s, and the birth of globial cynicsm, and I generallly do prefer anthems. but still 30 years later, the question does really remains "What's so Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding"....