How to be a hippie movement revivalist.

Discussion in 'Hippies' started by groovecookie, Nov 22, 2007.

  1. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    I just went through the "Young to old hippie faq thread" though, as my eyes grew tired, I admit to skimming through the more rambling posts toward the end of the thread.

    The article posted by southernman was a good read on the history of the movement. It also was more than a little tilted toward the viewpoint that the hippie movement is a stricly historical phenominon...that it petered out and is now dead.

    That viewpoint is a slap in the face, though, to thousands, hell, I'd say probably millions, all counted, of people like ericf who posted early in the thread who feel that it isn't over till it's really over.

    Maybe the hippies of the 60s didn't do all they dreamed of in a decade or two, and yeah, most of them probably ended up living mainstream lives with jobs and whatnot.
    Which, by the way does not, in my opinion, automatically make a person an ex-hippie.

    But there is a huge population out there of younger people who didn't even exist in the 60s (I, myself, was only 1 to 5 yrs old), but who live in a world with pretty much all the same problems that existed in the 60s (stupid wars, distructive and wastefull society, erroding freedom, to name some) and see that the solution is not to just say "well, they tried in the 60 to change the world but failed so that's that."

    These are people who know deep down that however many people say that the hippie movement is dead, the world still needs hippies!

    It isn't important that they call themselves hippies, though there's something to be said for preserving continuity. What's important is that they realise that just because the overambitious dreams of thier predecessors didn't materialize into utopic reality overnight, or in a decade or two, does not mean that it was all just a meaningless excursion into unreality with the use of drugs and music.

    Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done, and it will not be completed in our lifetime. So what?!

    Obviously most of us have to survive in the mainstream culture which means, to some extent, participating in it.
    So what?!

    Obviously, we will endure derision and ridicule if we support the ideals of the hippie movement by people who see us as silly idealists who have our heads in the clouds, or are "stuck in the sixties" and consider themselves "tough enough to face the grim reality".
    So what?!

    The truth is that what is really being "tough enough to face the grim reality" is being willing both to accept it and to still work to change it!regardless of how hopeless it often seems or how much shit you catch for doing it!

    It shouldn't be about whether the important changes are possible in your lifetime or not or whether it is still considered cool or not.

    It should be about what kind of person you want you to be!

    Do you want to be someone who just accepts the oppresssion of the poor by the rich, the oppression of the different by the conformists, the oppression of the peacefull by the arrogant and the distruction of the earth and does nothing but stay safely inconspicuous?

    Is that the person you want to be? Or do you want to be one of those hippie wierdo freaks who is actually not going to pretend to be OK with all that shit?

    I know this is turning into a speech, and I'm not expecting to rally another woodstock or anything like that, but if even one person reads this and realizes that the true value of being a hippie or whatever you want to call a person with higher ideals than out prospering your neighbors, is being the person you want to be and nothing else, then I have accomplished something.

    Maybe we have reached the point where we just have to call ourselves "hippie movement revivalists" for a while until enough has been accomplished that the word "hippie" actually begins to get the noble recognition it increasingly deserves and has never really had.

    At any rate I, for one, am determined not to give up on who I am because of what the rest of the world is! I'd rather like who I am than have the rest of the world accept me any day of the f***ing week!

    Let other fools who don't do shit about the corruption and oppression in the world call me any lame thing they want to. It doesn't change who I know myself to be.

    Long post, but thanx for reading. Just had to get that out!
     
  2. floydianslip6

    floydianslip6 Senior Member

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    Nice vent dude. I think a lot of your points are right on. Ultimately I view it similarly.

    This is the world we live in, and from the second people got on the scene it's been rich vs. poor, high class vs. low class, power vs. powerless. To me, at least, the idea of being a "hippie" represents being comfortable with myself and in my standing in life. I don't need a gucci (sp?) shirt, or movado watch, or _________. I know how to live for myself.

    Ultimately I think the greatest error we can make as a people is to judge others lifestyles. If someone wants to climb the ladder and play puppet to their [the rich] puppeteer. There's nothing wrong with that. I can't even relate to where that's coming from. But it has value for them and that's important. Love for everyone means love for everyone, not just those who agree with your viewpoint.

    Of course this isn't to say that we shouldn't try to stop oppression, but it's a foolhardy task that people have been beating their heads against for thousands of years with minimal results. Pick your battles and live YOUR OWN life. Whatever that happens to be.

    I imagine my view is not a popular one. But I believe this view is one of the only ways to acheive an inner peace and a peace with the world around you. FIghting every battle puts your mind in a constant state of fighting. Aside from that, I think the best way to live is by example, not running around and telling people what to do.

    Aside from all that I can only control one thing, my own universe, my body and mind.
     
  3. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    My post ran on a little on the long side just gettiing accross the points I was trying to make, so I kind of left a lot unsaid which you have given me the opportunity to say here.

    I agree that oppression has been around since humans have and I also agree that it isn't going to change anything to hate people or to just run around telling people what to do, as you say.

    Living by example is by far preferable to just standing on a street corner with a loudspeaker yelling at people. I'm not promoting "telling people what to do" so much as just not being afraid to show the world what you stand for and what you don't stand for.

    That can be done by getting involved in political activism; participating in boycots, attending protests, and things like that, but it can also be done in quieter ways....maybe like the students at one school who wear peace shirts to school one day a week. They are getting crapped on for it, but that's what makes them all heroes in my eyes.

    You can also just show the world that you support the hippie ideals just by dressing like a hippie. It might seem superficial, and sure, a lot, maybe even the majority of people, depending on where you are, will just see you as some weirdo, but the more such "weirdos" people see the more likely it will be that it will make people stop and think about it, and wonder, if nothing else, why so many are still choosing to present themselves as hippies.

    Showing the world that the hippie movement is not dead even in the smallest way is a powerful way to live by example and promote change.

    I agree that stopping oppression is about as unrealistic a goal as one could have and even if the world did become a fair and peaceful place, it could only be maintained that way for as long as people dilligently work to keep it that way.

    But I disagree that fighting opression has only yielded "minimal" results. Any result in fighting oppression is profound and meaningful, whether it is freeing india from Brittish rule or just gaining the right to be yourself in the place where you live and work or go to school.

    The important thing is not whether anything comes of what you do to fight oppression, the important thing is doing it because it's a choice that you make to be that kind of person and that kind of person is a hero. Even if all you accomplish is getting laughed at. (I'm pretty sure that's probably all I've ever accomplished) you still know that you are a better person for trying and that may not mean anything to anyone else but it means a lot to you.

    You can be an idealist and a realist at the same time...by working toward a better world even though you know that all that may come of it is feeling better about who you are and how you live your life. I'm not saying anyone should feel bad about themselves for not fighting oppression, I'm just saying that doing it is a rewarding experience in and of it's self.

    Well, here's another long ass speach, but it needed to be said. I know I'm starting to sound like a preacher, but I just find it depressing that so many people believe that the hippie movement was just a meaningless phase in history just because the world didn't turn around in two decades when so much positive change has already come about in those two decades because of it.

    Imagine what could be accomplished in a century if people just let go of instant and permanent results and keep working on a better world as a part of being a better person!

    LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES!

    peace

    P.S. I'm not pretending to be the greatest example of all this, I've attended protests, volunteered a little, painted signs, and I dress hippie a lot, that's about it. I'm not saying do everything....just don't do nothing, and whatever you do for the world, just do it for yourself because realistically, the world probably wont give a crap, but you will and that's what matters.
     
  4. dollydagger

    dollydagger Needle to the Groove

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    Here Here!!!
     
  5. Tamerlane

    Tamerlane Member

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    Hippies are crazed freaks, optimists and drop-outists, who think that protesting and loving one another to death will solve all of the worlds problems.
    After a night of hard psychedelia, with acid forcing itself down your throat and then back up into your brain, you realise that that was all that the hippies were: Acid freaks, pseudo-spiritual and armchair intellectual types who, using their parents money, did.... did.... did what? Drop out of college? Move into communal flats? Fry their minds on Elll Esss Deeee??
    They were a historical phenomenon. In this fact paced world, the hippies have no place. They will have no spectacular Woodstocks or Monterey Pops. There shall be no more Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia touring, giving out acid by the handful and thumbprint, no more Hunter S. Thompsons or Raoul Dukes.
    Get over it, guys. Being a hippie worked in the 60s. Now we need to find something new(to latch onto? to make a stereotype out of? hmm? hmmmmm?)
     
  6. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    A good laxative or maybe even an enema would work wonders for you, dear. And if that doesn't get the Rush Limbaugh out of your system, maybe a little Elll Esss Deeee would do the trick.[​IMG]
     
  7. Tamerlane

    Tamerlane Member

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    So renew the hippie movement. When you succeed, come to me and I will bow down before you. "How to be a hippie movement revivalist" ? The term sounds tacky and plastic, prepackaged hipness you can buy by following some sort of guidelines. Hippies didn't come about as a result of some concious decision by a group of likeminded people to change the world. They were just a bunch of people in history, doing their own thing, something that, having now passed, will never come back in its previous splendor and grandiosity.
     
  8. dollydagger

    dollydagger Needle to the Groove

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    why are you here then? this forum is obviously not the place for you.
     
  9. EliWhitney

    EliWhitney Member

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    That was a very good point Groovecookie. I don't care if its long as long as it is good...and it was. See to me communication between people is very important because it can have a positive or negative effect. For ex: I don't think that Tamerlane really got your point because I'm sure that he woul agree with parts. Tamerlane I don't think that Groovecookies point was about bringing back hippies I think it was to make as deep of an impact in the world in a positive way. The same thing happened with Vietnam...America thought Ho Chi Minh wanted communism but Uncle Ho wanted Vietnams independence. Communication is key.
     
  10. hailtothekingbaby

    hailtothekingbaby Yowzers!

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    If the hippie movemement is still alive as you say, it don't need revivin'.
    Just... reinforcing.

    But, I agree with the general gist of your thread.
     
  11. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    I don't think it's so much the movement it's self that needs reviving, as much as it is the beleif in it as being a still important and positive force for change. Certainly more hippies would always help.

    But the media has been waging it's war against the hippies for a long time now; painting all hippies as burned out drug addicts who champion a dead idealism and painting the movement as dead.

    The owners of the media know that when they want a political candidate to win an election they use the media to create the public impression that the candidate is winning, (whether it's true or not) and just making people believe it eventually makes it true.

    They do the same thing with the hippies or any other group of people who pose any kind of threat to the societal status quo....they keep pounding it into the mind of the masses that it's all washed up and create that reality with spin power.

    I can see how easy it would be for them to erase the important distinction between having ideals and being idealistic, and to paint those who today call themselve's hippies as a bunch of idiots who still think it's the 60s. After all, hippies use drugs and, as everyone knows, (because the media says so,) anyone who uses drugs is out of touch with reality.

    Most people who were'nt there don't know that it was mostly hippies (or, if they were'nt hippies they sure looked like em) that overwhelmed and shut down the WTO meetings in 1999. It was the small handfull of vandals and the police rioting that got all the attention.

    Yes, the hippie movement is alive and well, which is why we hear so much about it being "dead".
     
  12. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    I'm not trying to bring back hippies because they haven't really gone anywhere. I'm more just trying to do what I can to counter all the spin about it all just being a hopeless drug induced dream which Tamerlane has obviously bought into.

    I'm not really responding to Tam unless Tam comes up with an argument worth responding to. So far it's just been media spin regurg. Tam will have to work a little harder than that to draw me into a discussion. [​IMG]
     
  13. Natima

    Natima Member

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    ARGH! soooo much writing, i read your first post, the speech.
    I have to say, that touched my heart.
    You could not have gotten any closer to how i feel about it.
    And im only 17.

    Maybe we SHOULD rally another woodstock.
    That would really blow our minds. as a people that is.
    Maybe its just what we need.
     
  14. SpaceChive

    SpaceChive Member

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    Right You All Are, Show Love And Peace To People Who Need It The World Will Become A Better Place
     
  15. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    Not to discount you in any way, but I think a big part of the problem right now in this whole thing is the focus on the past and how things were and what hippies were. There actually was a second woodstock but it wasn't like the 60s all over again. It never will be.

    We should learn all we can about the past, but only so that we can better adapt to how things are now and prepare for the future without repeating the mistakes made in the past.

    Right now, as I see it, we are in a phase where idealistic optimism has mostly turned in to disillusioned pesimism. It's gone from one extreme to another, and out of the two extremes, we need to move to a balance of idealism tempered with realism.

    We can change the world, but it will take a lot more than a big shindig. That's where the realism comes in. We need to keep our sights on the goal, but at the same time, not decieve ourselves about the challenges we face.

    Still, if we hold the spirit of the 60s inside and just keep being examples of the hippie ideals, I believe some day we can have a woodstock such as has never been seen before!
     
  16. Natima

    Natima Member

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    hehe, once again. Oh so right.
    Allthough, im not so good with my phrasing at times.
    I kinda meant to say that, we are all here, but scattered arount.
    When i said we should rally another woodstock, what i meant to imply, was that we need some sense of unity. We need to see our numbers, and celebrate them together. Personally i feel sorrowful at the sparseness of it all.
    I just feel that there are no real congregations of hippy's anymore, none that could unite us, or have a meaningful effect at least.
    Sure theres glastonbury festival, and the big green gathering, but they stand for nothing, they are the drugs without the hippys.
     
  17. longhairchief

    longhairchief Member

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    Being hippie…
    Neo hippie…
    I think just be creative, rebellious…
    And don’t forget that ‘bed peace- hair peace’. Live with nature all the way, no matter how urban your life is…
    Experiment and be open to anything…

    Being hippie – may be it is just as being beatnik, or something that was before…
    Vienna was the center at the beginning of the 20th century, but no such thing as term hippie was known then…
    Jesus could have been a hippie…

    Just remember that search for love is the most important…

    And for Peat’s sake! Get rid of the Super Ego and popular culture!

    Be original and natural!!!
     
  18. Whiskers123

    Whiskers123 Member

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    Hippie movement dead. I dont know about that but im going to tell you how I became hippie-like.

    As a small kid I always was an environmentalist. I used to always say I was going to re-plant the rain forest. I used to pick all the baby trees out of my moms flower gardens and plant them so they could grow. (Otherwise they were picked like weeds :p)

    When I was in grade 8 I had to go to my first semi-formal dance. So my mom took me shopping to get something to wear (I grew up really poor and as far as I know this was the first time I got something special to wear for an event.) I ended up buying a tie dye t-shirt from the bay. I got to the dance and was the only kid in a T-shirt. Thats how I got my first tie dye shirt and I still wear it to this day.

    At that time I had a buzz cut though, and was still a Catholic. Not very hippie like, just had a tie dye shirt and environmentalist views. (I have never been very materialistic) Then in grade 10 I stopped getting hair cuts cause I hated hair cuts. Every time I got a hair cut I would hate my hair. I ended up growing my hair to my nipples. My mom bought be some more tie dye shirts, and now I make my own. Around the same time I turned away from Christianity because of its sexist and judging views. I got more into pagan and naturalistic religions.

    People started calling me a hippie. I researched hippies and was shocked by how similar my views were to the hippie's. I never tried to be hippie-like. It just happened. Even the drugs hippie's believe in are the same.


    Am I a Hippie? Or a Neo-Hippie. I am only 19 years old and this isnt something I tried to be, this is who I am. I cant be the only one, I believe the hippie movement could be reborn. Maybe not to the same magnitude but there does seam to be a spiritual neediness in our society that just wants to come out.
     
  19. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    I know exactly what you mean. We do need more of a sense of community and reassurance that we aren't the only ones. That's probably the main reason I'm so addicted to this website. There is the rainbow family gatherings too, but I havn't made it to one yet.

    Things will get better. They may have to get worse first, but, sooner or later, society will get sick of it's self and realize that there is something missing, and as long as there are still hippies around, they will be the ones to reintroduce society to it's lost soul.
     
  20. groovecookie

    groovecookie Member

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    More proof that being a hippie is something that comes from within and is not just another brand of conformism within a subculture as many people like to believe.
     

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