Modern Day Hippies Vs 60S/70S

Do you think the modern day hippies of the young generation of today are consistent with the values/practices/beliefs of those who were in their teens/20s in the 60s/70s?

 

Depends.... Can they function without their smartphone?

 

They're not hippies. But many of those beliefs and values have become mainstream or at least outgrown the hippie subculture. Which is maybe why the new youth has no use for the hippie label. So as i see it the values and beliefs are there but not a hippie counterculture. There are many other subcultures for the youth. Apparently they want to have their own, not the one of their grandparents :-D

 

I stopped worrying if I was a hippie or not some time ago and just got on with it.

Actually I'm more of a beatnik like me Dad before me.

But if anyone tells me they're hippie then I just accept it no problem. It's not a big deal.

 

I am not a hippie....but I am a beatnik, too....with the art, writing, music, coffee........off the chart writing and phrases sometimes....things like that....like my dad, too....

 

I tried to like this but I ran out of likes for the day ha ha... so true though...

 

It's a funny remark. But its just a new tool. If technology was at this point in the 60s almost all hippie-like people would have had one too.

 

True... I guess there was the era when everyone started to have TVs in their homes and then video games... computers... now smart phones...

 

I don't think so... Seems the real hippies in the 60's were trying to get away from the norm, not join the herd.

 

It is not merely about joining or distancing from the herd. And neither about (video) games. Its a tool for news, music, comedy, social stuff and much more. Its intertwined with the tool that is the internet and it is not an exaggeration that many kids get inspired with ideals and joining some kind of countermovement through the smartphone and internet. Its easier to find likeminded people when it happens to be so there aren't any in your class etc.
Just like hippies that were trying to get away from the norm still made use of the telephone and toilet paper and occasionally enjoyed a tv show, so are teens that will become great environmentalists or bring great social change etc. making use of the smartphone.

 

So, your point is?

 

hippie culture around here used to be in Asheville..its like an hour from where I am. Now the town is crawling with junkies

I actually think the counter culture of the 60s has become the mainstream culture of today, marijuana is widely accepted, gay marriage is legal, no one really cares if you practice free love or not

Anyways I bring up Asheville and the drug problem because I think today's youth is dealing with a whole new set of issues compared to the 60s. I think its hard to really compare the two generations

 

Looking at the previous replies, I'd better add my disclaimer and say I too am not a hippie, not a beatnik, not even a punk come to that. Used perhaps to be a bit of all 3 over time, but now just me. If people want to call me a hippie or whatever, it's their game not mine.
I don't particularly look like one, so if you didn't know, you would probably not think I was ever a hippie. But it's hard to see oneself as others do.

I've met lots of younger generation people who look like hippies, but they're nothing like hippies used to be back in the day.Some are very smart, and ahead of where my generation was at their age - in some ways. Far more conditioned by consumerism in general would be one criticism I'd make .Different generations have grown up under different influences and during different eras. A certain amount of the stuff hippies wanted to change - eg styles of acceptable dress - have shifted for good from what they were prior to the 60's and 70's. Social attitudes tend now to be more tolerant in some ways. Still some distance to go.

I think the hippy era is now history really. The younger generation will need to come up with their own solutions. Will probably embody some of the old hippy values etc, but in a new form for a new time.

 

I like your answer here, Bill.

I like what the hippies stood for...peace...make love not war, etc...but I fight against being ever called one, because I am not into orgies or many sexual partners like that. I am a prude....

and I never took LSD or all that drug culture stuff..

and my style of dress is not hippie...it is very beatnik, artistic.

 

That just because they're not hippies and make use of their smartphones a lot doesn't mean a certain amount of them shares similar values and beliefs.

 

Freaks is a good word and more encompassing. There are plenty of people today who dont relate to the hippie subculture of the 60s or even the hippie subculture of today but are still outside the norms of society

Wave your freak flag high yall

 

By 1975 we called ourselves stoners.... It was a well deserved name. We were into loud stereos, fast cars, and copious amounts of drugs. Usually all at the same time.... some of us didn't die.

Opinion:

First to clarify some things... By the time the 70's rolled around the "hippie" subculture had either moved up country and formed communes, or had been re-assimilated back into society, for the most part anyways. Yes there were freaks and stoners, but the "hippie" thing was pretty much over. So lets just look at a short time frame of about 5 years 65-70 as a time of "real hippies" (whatever those were)... It wasn't even a generation.

My point about smartphones is as follows... "real hippies" were one of the few non-religious groups in a modern affluent era to cast off the trappings of affluence to find a greater freedom. They didn't all need the latest Polaroid camera to take selfies in the park. They didn't all need a new transistor radio so they could each listen to their own music on the bus. Information was word of mouth, news may be a few days old and read from a cast-off newspaper, or it was alternate news written by themselves about topics that concerned them and printed on cast-off equipment with a very limited budget. They weren't obsessed with watching TV... All those things would have been their parent's "bag"... not theirs. So, if there had been smartphones and an internet back then would the "hippies" have needed them? No I don't think it would have been their "bag" to be involved with it. Fast forward 50 years... can a "modern hippie" put down the smartphone, all the other crap we all seem to "need" to survive in 2017 and live what was going down back in 1967? Or are they just modern kids wearing tie dye, listening to "the Dead" while taking a selfie of themselves smoking a joint in the park? It's not the same thing at all.

 

That's an interesting way of explaining it... I see what you mean now... and I think the answer to that last part about modern kids doing all those things... I wouldn't know personally on either side of the equation but I was curious to see what the overall thoughts were regarding to two groups...

 

Exactly...and they didn't treat others like shit with their overblown egos, either. They were all brothers, and sisters.

No comparison these days. There are still a few who have the spirit, and they are refreshing.