What happened on January 25: Charles Manson and his hippie followers were convicted in 'trial of the century'
January 25th (yesterday) was Rabbie Burns day in which most Scots celebrate his birth with a special supper of Haggis, 'neeps & tatties and a wee dram.
Some say this day in '71 was the definite blow to everything hippie and peace n love .....the late '60s was only the start of a downhill process.
The thing is the hippie movement was destined to peter out, in its form. There was too much emphasis on the present, on the now, without thinking of opportunities, and consequences, in the future. I'm sure I could grow to accept, even appreciate and look forward to, growing my own food, making my own clothes, etc.: living off the grid. But I also love technology and doing my business in an indoor bathroom at all times of the year. Setting up a tent in the middle of nowhere and expecting the best isn't a recipe for success. But enjoying free love, exploring ways to create peace & truly helping humanity, being conscious of the health of the environment, questioning authority and even reality, etc. doesn't mean you have to forsake your corporate day job. The principles live on, even if the lifestyle isn't displayed so prominently anymore.
When you get someone who's truly demented but charismatic as Manson was it's a ticking time bomb. It's also happened on a much larger scale, Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Trump come to mind. First you get people to believe in you, then gradually warp your message. Manson got his most fanatical followers to slaughter innocent people by telling them they were starting a race war which would eventually put an end to American tyranny. Too much LSD put that idea in his head, never occurring to him that what would actually happen is the police would trace the crime back to the Spahn Ranch and bust everyone. Yes it hurt the hippie movement, along with the Altamont Concert, Kent State and the deaths of their favorite rock stars. Then the end of the Vietnam War seemed to be the final nail in the hippie coffin. And yet hippies are still around somehow. We've endured!
Yes hippies are still around somewhere , but it's not the same as in the '60s. Baçk then, hippies were hippies by cultural and social choice , today they are hippies because it's nothing but a fad. The spirit of hippiedom faded a long time ago and it will never come back as it was back then. Another thing: as a 60s hippie once told me "if we didn't manage to change the world for the better with the people power we had back then, nobody and nothing will ever change it".
I disagree, it's more than a fad and the spirit of hippiedom is still alive and well, though modified. And we did make some positive changes. Hippies, among others, provide a liberal counterbalance to the extreme right and keep them from taking over.
