How to be a hippie movement revivalist.

Once something gets popular, the original folk get bitter that the cats out of the bag. 'It aint like it used to be', and all that. I think it's total BS, as it really just justifies there love for that band, cause, or whatever it is that has now become 'popular' and therefore no longer cool.

It's asinine, and often counterproductive. Think about it. In the case of a hippy movement, it completely self destructs the movement. As soon as it gets popular, the true idealists are rolling out, and the movement peter's out.

 

^ You present a good point, but one would hope that that attitude would not be taken on when the movement is trying make legitamite progress in the world.

"The Hippie movement is timeless."
Yes, but there have been many incarnations of it BEFORE the hippies that I alluded to in my last post. The hippies were not the end all be all. They were just another set in a line of people working for peace, love, and a chance to live their lives.

"But it also has a lot of positive associations for many people who personally become aquainted with hippies and who are able to see how the world has changed for the better due to the hippie influence."

If hippie revivalism becomes a legitimate movement, no one is going to do us any favors by educating themselves on the original hippies. The ideas are dangerous to the system and to everything that about 80% of Americans hold dear.

"I don't believe the past mistakes and follies of the hippie movement can be erased with a new name. We can change the name to ________ , but then people will just think of us as the hippies who have changed thier name to _______ . It's just a kind of cosmetic damage control manuever it seems to me."

Personally, I do not think we should call ourselves anything. I know that the press names almost every movement, so it is futile to try to remain label-less, but we might as well do ourselves some favors and not give ourselves the "hippy" baggage. We can stand for peace, love, art, and so on, and we'll know where our inspiration comes from, but that should be about the extent of it.

"The only real way, as I see it, to change our image from the joke that it has become to being a respected force for change in the world, is to get over the fact that the work---far from finished---has barely begun, and roll up our sleeves and get back to work! If the ugliness in the world and the negative image regarding those trying to change it gets too overwhelming, forget about it for a while...smoke a couple joints, listen to some good music, make love to someone you are hot for, eat a good meal and get back to work."

I completely agree with you here. Whatever silly name we decide to call ourselves, the roots and goals are what are necessary.

I know I may come off a little anti-hippy, but I assure you it's not the case. I wish I was around for the 60s so much sometimes. But, I still contend that it is not the thing the do to live in the past. Yes, we can have the same goals as the hippies, but we cannot go about it in entirely the same ways.

 

Im new to this forum, but what Tamerlane said is the reason this world is the way it is.People just conform with what the government deems as acceptable behavior and most people think that the hippy lifestyle is weird and unacceptable but if I can ask"what is wrong with change"?

What the general population is doing as common practice sure the heck hasnt worked and what can be so wrong with loving everyone and accepting them for who they are even if you would never act or dress the way they do.
I really think that if we didnt look at people and think that they are just wrong and they should act like everyone else is just wrong.
If being different makes you happy then so be it.
My first babysitter lived at a hippie commune and I remember how happy they were but the town I lived in eventually weeded them out and I think it is wrong.
I have to say this Tamerlane but you need to accept people for who they are and what they stand for.Afterall what can be wrong with peace, love and happiness.It sounds pretty good to me.Dont just conform to what the government tells you, stand up for yourself and see that having feelings of love for your fellow people can feel pretty good.

 

The world does need hippies; its all getting worse and worse increasingly fast; the system just isn't functioning aswell as they try to make it seem like. I wouldn't know where to start when summing up the problems.
Ignorance of leaders of countries is a pretty big one; very idiotic decisions; laws that follow only their morals and might not apply to 70% of the population, and some political group ACTUALLY consider censuring art!
Whenever I follow the news I just get this helpless feeling that alone I cannot change it; there's no way they'll listen. A lot of people seem broken down into thoughtless routines, plain concerns they keep themselves bussy with because they do not want to see the real problems; a sort of blindness by choise.
People become increasingly unfriendly, to themselves and even alone they do not do that much; only very few people do what they actually want to do and just live in a way that makes very little sense to me, how can they possibly be happy?

Its just that feeling of standing alone against it all; only a handful of people seem to realise it and they never seem to reach the top where they are truly needed. True advice is being ignored, its just all so.. sad. Somehow in the 60 there were a few more people who wanted a change. I'm not saying I neccisairely want their change as I think some idea's are still a little far fetched and naieve but even a 5-10% improve would be a great change.

It seems like online these people exist; why does no one start anything? Is it the same problem with everyone; the ultimate self focuss everyone seems to have? Bring out your idea's form groups, try to accomplish something. Theres enough left to when structured a little change atleast a few things. I wish it'd just happen.

 

Totally! We should make a statement! Show the world something needs to change maybe this time it will get to everyones thick skull.
And as more here say, we cannot do this seperately, we have to form unity. Me and my friends are working on a dutch peace forum but we need to enlarge our community, and there should be more little unities, and later we can coöperate for a shared purpose: general awareness, a better world and less violence!

http://peacerevolution.forum2go.nl
check it out if you can speak dutch, it mught be interesting

 

the more hippies the merrier

 

This is a great thread! I agree with you on a lot of this, groovecookie! You too, floyd.

 

You know, I was thinking about the whole thing and just wanted to add that making a hippie statement can be one thing for one person but another for another.
One person can easily do a lot of creative things to spread the message of peace and love, while, foranother person, just wearing a peace symbol or a tyedye T shirt may mean facing hostility from everyone that person knows. It may not be for everyone to support a movement that has always been so hated.
A lot of people want to support the hippie ideals but want to do it without the hippie label because of the negative associations with the word hippie. I don't insist that hippies be called hippies, but I do want people to wear funky colorfull clothing and dance and get involved in life and trying to make the world a better place by excercizing their freedoom of speach and other freedoms we are supposed to have. I think there will always be people who want to call themselves hippies and as long as hippies are still as much associated with support of peace love and freedom as they are with drug abuse, bad hygine and nieve optimism, I'm going to call myself one.

 

naieve optimism is exaclty what this world needs! I hear people say a lot that this world cannot be how we would like it to be, and how my ideals of peace and love all around just cannot be realised, but we need to listen to our hearts and not to what society says, because it;s society we want to change, right?
I try to contribute by talking philosofy with people and dropping quotes and wisdoms on the street here and there, like in a toilet booth. Some people only tend to read when they look around while taking a shit. Even if you only reach one person, ít's worthwile.

 

No jive,........spacechive. ^

PS I'm a bit of a potty poet myself....usually just go for one or two words well chosen to make people think while they potty. he he like "got freedom?" stuff like that. cool huh.

 

It can really get into peoples heads, at least it works on me. When I read stuff it makes me think, therefor I try to make others think by doing the same for my message to others. It is pretty cool^^

 

Yeah, I was just thinking, I don't know what it's like in Holland, but in most places here in the states we got garish advertizing splattered everywhere all the time so what's the difference except that what we do actually means something. I'd much rather see stuff that means something any day than advertizing. That's one of the things I hate about the states. Trash culture.

 

Same here, posters everywhere, and on tv sometimes more ads than shows.. Supermarket culture. It's all about consuming, spending and giving nothing back to nature but toxic waste

 

yup.^ It's sad too that in a culture of consumerism no one learns how to live or be content. They only learn to
consume.

 

Well, I read most of your posts and agree on many points (not in the mood to list points as I did not have my coffee yet).

I am currently attending a 4 year college pursueing my Computer Science degree. My family supports this as do others. I do in a way also but most of my life I felt like something was missing and still is. At times I do not feel comforatable with myself and that I know is important. I do not dress as a so called "hippie" and try to take care of my hygine. I am not really driven by the need to hoard money either but know many who are. I do not really want to live off the land but just want to be as least wasteful as I can possibly be. Whenever I get my own house I wanna as much off the grid as I can possibly be. Possibly sell back energy to the power company.

I do enjoy material things such as my computer that I type on. But I do not believe in wasting many things. I like to recycle when I can also. As a person in the computing field I see when people upgrade they just throw their old machines out. If I see a machine in the garbage I will probably take it out and salvage parts out of it or just convert it into a server of some sort.

If you are into computing like me then you'll probably like Linux and thei philosophy. Go here to learn some more about it: http://www.linux.com/whatislinux/119700

As for the hippie movement I do not think its really dead its just within ourselves just as prior posters said.

Well, thats all I can think about for my first post here. Time for coffee and breakfast

--kc2keo/George

 

hey man there arent any guidelines on being a hippie. all that stuff about hygene and hoarding money shouldnt mean your a hippie or not, its just a lifestyle but its mostly how you think of things. the "hippies" on this forum all have computers, even though your trying to say hippies cant. there arent specifics on being a hippie, just live your life with LOVE

 

^ hasn't had his coffee yet. lol

 

i consider it a prerequisite to not shower if ure a hippy, maybe im just an oldschooler, nah im just kidding, im a dirty fuck

 

Sounds like you want to fight some issues in society. Not sure If I'd call myself a hippie. Surely didn't think I'd end up the way I am. So this is what I think when someone talks about us weirdo freaks. I think of us as people who search for our own peace.

I hold the same anger about this world. But my fighting it is searching for my own peace. We arrange our own realities. Like Janis said, there's always gonna be a huge bulk of straight people. So when I think about the problems in the world and my dislikes, I just say "fuck it."

That is a true hippie attitude. We don't make signs. Signs signs everywhere there's signs. We don't march. We certainly do not march with signs.

It's that attitude of mine...that made me realize....whether I meant to or not.
I have turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.

 

I like what you're saying, and I do agree it needs to be revived.

But I think it's a little shallow to try and bring back that style as opposed to facing the issues we have now. The issues may be the same, but as great as the '60s may have been, it was ultimately unsuccessful.

Most of the hippies were not radical activists. Most of them did not genuinely practice some kind of Eastern philosophy. The hippie movement crashed and could not sustain itself for a reason. It's a paradox: if there was no direction, it couldn't last, and if there was a clear direction, it would remove the "freak" individualist ideology and defeat the purpose of the movement entirely.

Timothy Leary was no leader. Neither was Ken Kesey. The Grateful Dead could not carry that torch because of their own self-indulgent lifestyle that ultimately killed them.

However, I love their music at least as much as any hippie. I listen to every live recording I can find. I've got long hair and I'm proud that I can wear a tyedye shirt and people will tell me I look like Jerry Garcia. I love hearing the all the stories from former Deadheads. Some of them have jobs and have joined mainstream society again. Some of them are drug addicted and don't have the mental capacity to have a job and support their families. I play music with them and I love all those people. But I know that I can't revive the movement beyond those ecstatic jams and the mystical acid trips.

First of all, let's take a look at a great hippie who did make it.

Allen Ginsberg is a great example, and my personal favourite.
From the very beginning, he studied literature and was a brilliant academic that way. He went back and saw that William Blake and Walt Whitman were expressing something similar to himself and were true hippies in their own times. Ginsberg also became involved in political philosophy, as a strong leftist. This is no surprise, as his father was a poet and a teacher and his mother was a radical Communist.

We've read about him with the Beats, through his own writing and through Kerouac's. He contributed a sexual liberation as well. But throughout that time and afterwards, he was seriously studying Buddhist philosophy, as well as many different traditions of literature. Kerouac did too, more by learning from others, notably Gary Snyder (another hippie to check out...) But Kerouac's drinking killed him. Ginsberg went on with his writing and studies, both academic and spiritual, and then founded a college based on a combination of these teachings (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics). He took acid and went to Dead shows, but was never self-indulgent in the same way so many others were. He died 10 years ago or something, but he left an enormous body of work.

"Howl for Carl Solomon" though written long before the summer of love era, really does show (what would develop) into the hippie movement in a less glorified light... "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness..."

If there's one person I respect the most, it would have to be Allen Ginsberg. Maybe it's because I see a hundred different parallels between him and me... but he kept the hippie movement alive from long before it emerged until long after. He embodied the movement in every way...artistically, spiritually, sexually, politically...

My point is, if we compare him to Jerry Garcia for example, which man should people of my generation be looking to for our path to reviving the movement. Arguably, Garcia was the major cultural icon of the movement, but Ginsberg sustained the spirit of it. For that matter, he helped people to look as far back as Blake to find the roots of the movement.

To be a hippie movement revivalist, there's no way we can give everybody acid and go to Phish concerts and think that it could be revived.

What we've really got is a generation looking for something and becoming completely lost.

No, you can't make everyone recycle and you can't make adults listen by telling them off. But you can read and pass the ideas along to your friends. If you hate the government, read Marx and think. If you hate the media, read Marshall McLuhan. If you hate your parent's religion, go study Buddhism or read Sartre. These are just examples. Go learn whatever it is you want to learn.

If we want to revive the movement with any kind of depth, what we really need is thought, discussion and philosophy. Coloured shirts, trippy music and pot are a lot of fun, but we all need to accept that if the movement comes back, it won't look, sound, feel or trip the same as before.

Don't think I'm saying I'm superior to anyone or anything because I know very well that I'm 17 and don't know any more than most of you. I'm just trying to learn every way I can.