Hard Work & Hippies

I am just about 31 years old, and have been within the Hippy community for about 14 of those years. I've been to Rainbow Gatherings, I've been on various tours, and I've worked on an organic farm, and in several little Hippy bakeries and restaurants.


I love hippies, I consider myself to be one. I would love to find an "Intentional Community" where I could live and work with open minded people. The one problem I have is this. I have noticed over the past years that where ever there are "hippies" there are certian people who hang around, because they are under the impression that there will be less stress, and less pressure to do an honast days work. These people (as far as I'm concerned) are not really hippies at all, but simply persons who are looking for an easy lifestyle. I'm definatly not pointing fingers, or attenpting to take anyone to task over this, its just an observation. Of course there are people like this through out society, but we hippies seem to have our fair share too.

My position is this. The Hippy lifestyle should be harder than the average American (or any other wealthy western) lifestyle. To me work is what should set us apart from the mainstream. I mean real work, honast work, building, and maintaining dwellings, growing food (and entertainment ), making clothing, cooking food (always from scratch), oh yeah and being good in bed, which can be hard work sometimes. I say living outside of the norm. is worth every bit of work and sweat that is takes.

I really don't know where I'm going with this except to say, Keep up the good/hard work all you commune hippies! If there is a community who is interseted in a hard working Bread/Pastry baker with 16 years of professional food experience, let me know.

 

While I completely agree, ever since I learned that our ancient ancestors spent about three hours of their entire day looking for food and the rest of the time screwing and napping, I've aspired to that. Not so much the screwing, 'cause I'm getting older, but the napping sounds way too cool.

Anyone who wants TV, internet, hot water and a soft bed needs to work a bit harder/longer for the priviledge.

 

i dunno ,,, i think overall ppl are not self starters nor self doers,,,, they want someone to hold their hand and guide them along... and then sit n babysit or help in whatever it is they are doing,,,, fact of the matter is when in a communal type situation there is always lots of things that can and need to be done and folks sit n go where do i start,,, thus resulting in the hangin round part....Its getting the inital energy going to begin a process that is the hard part...(myself included at times).
I know here (home n in my travels) that is how i have seen things.

We work in babble on and devote home time to doing what needs to be done,,,, cookin cleaning, gardening, mendin fences, cleanin pens, lawn care, etc etc... and folks have to be self starters because we are out of the homestead several hours a day (normally... not this week,, back injury ) ,,, we have a board with lists of what needs to be done on what area of the land n basically leave it to who ever is around and we cross it off as we go along.There are very few that this seems to work well with but it does work better than just leaving them completely to there own decisions and coming home to find them parked in front of a computer screen..

I dont completely get it either,,,, i would love to be able to stay round home and do my own thing for the better of the place daily,maybe i am nuts but it gives me all happy squishy feelins when i can see the progress that is being made.something i dont see much of when we are gone for ten hours n have an hour or two to work round here before the dinner makin session starts,,,,, (of course 90% is made from scratch here)

luv n lite

 

Indeed! I think you're onto something.

To me, there's nothing virtuous about hard work in and of itself. My stance is more along the lines of "Do what is necessary to live and earn what you desire - which may or may not necessarily involve lots of hard work, depending on what you want." And, despite popular belief, it does not actually take a lot of tedious labor to do so - unless you want a whole lot.

 

Have to say I don't agree with the last.There is a lot virtuous about hard work - not the least of which is self-esteem.
Question for you slackers out there would you really sit around and do as little as possible if you say had a million ?
I know that I would not mind having $$ but not to do nothing but so that I might do more.
When I can no work think it's time to move on outa this life into another one - there's just sooo much I wanna Do

 

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i thought living on a commune was to get away from the rat race ?? working 16 to 18 hours a day taking stuff from point A to point B then taking it back to point A sure sounds like the rat race to me .........don't get me wrong ,everybody should pull their load but if all your life on the commune revolves about how many hours you can work you might just as well set yourself up a business and get rich .......work should be so that you are comfortably self sustained and the rest of the time enjoying a rich and diversifying life with things that you would not normally have time for in a rat race society .........in communal living ,you should be able to do light work out of everything that has to be done because of all the manpower and be able to live way cheaper because of the shared costs of everything ....grant you there are a lot who will not even want to do the minimum and try to sponge off the rest of the group ..be productive,yes,but not to the point that you have no life outside of work

 

As a slacker, if I had a million, I'd be set for life. In fact, I only need a very small portion of that million to do what I wish to do with my life - the rest I'd donate or give away.

I think my point is better clarified by saying that "work for work's sake" is stupid. But work in the context of fulfilling a meaningful goal is fine.

It may also boil down to what one's specific perception of "work" is. When I think of "work." As always, there are many things I enjoy doing that others may consider "work" and vice-versa.

Also, this is my own jaded perspective, so take it with a grain of salt - but I think for a lot of people "hard work" is more about self-image or greed than much else. There are people who (for some reason) find moral virtue in work for work's sake, so they use it as a means to feel morally superior and smug. Also, it takes a lot of hard work to acquire a lot of material pleasures in life, so I see a lot of "hard work" going into fulfilling greedy impulses, as well.

 

yah - been working for myself for a long time - guess most people think of work - for someone else
And in that work becomes a joy and even fun - though there are plenty of things I procratinate in doing - once done , I definitely see the joy.
Never did mean that all there is to life is work - but if there was only play - maybe we'd yearn for the work huh ?

 

hey man I know exactly what you mean I have TONS of folk who get on board my buses and think all the6y need to do is dance to survive
my hands are cut, bloody kinicked and scratched ....you can always tell a worker from a lazy motha from there hands.....something my brother and I always do ..laugh at the others hands if there smooth the more laughs they get
peace!!

 

perhaps maybe they are just a little more careful when they work and take better care of themselves.....try some lotion

 

or they hang insulation wich eats the callosses off..

but i diegress,..

perhaps hes speaking of the eye to eye contact an the firmness of the handshake an the love in the hug that follows..

goddess knows it guides my life..

luv n lite

 

I don't know anyone who works just for "works sake". There are always benifits.

 

i know plenty who work just for works sake...even if they don't realise it ..point A to point B to point A

 

cooloner, that's why i laugh at liberalisms widespread influence on the campus ground--or maybe it's just that i find modern day liberal politicians to be just as corrupt and misleading as the conservatives representatives. in any case, i'm guilty of capitalising on our society too, it's hard not to at some point in life (unless you were given a bunch of money to start a farm, but then where'd that money come from?).

it makes for an interesting arguement that by virtue of living in the united states we are automatically assimiliated into the babylonian way of life. no matter how hard we try to resist it, we must participate in some facets of it to survive. i personally enjoy most of it-whether i like it or not, one thing i don't enjoy is watching a small portion of our populace soak up the majority of the wealth -- thats the dregs of capitalism.

 

Why would I yearn for something so negative and tedious and humiliating as work?

Though, again, it could depend on the definition of "work". I see "work" as being forced labor. Voluntary activities are not under the banner of "work" the way I see it (even if some of these voluntary activities can be made into jobs).

 

Not sure exactly what you're getting at with this... but...

In my eyes, there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of the resources of something you despise. If you were in a prison, would it be hypocritical if you took advantage of finding food to eat in the prison, but avoid forced labor?

 

for me, hard word is NOT for squares, it is where/how you put the hard work.... I think too many alternative folks have become lazy, like they have attained a state of semi-nirvana, and being actually as narrowminded as the squares....
The more energy u put in something, the more you'll get out of it.... it's natural logic

 

Blinkin the more I read your post the more my stomach turns. I have the softest,cleanest hands youll ever see. Laugh at me? I worked my ass of for years in jobs you most likely never tired. Don't fucking judge people.

 

Wow... I very strongly disagree with that statement... Not that you are wrong... this is all opinion and personal ethics... but to me a commune is about shared ethics (not religion), goals, and security. I'm not conspiracy theorist or radical in any way. But America, while I love her, is headed the wrong way in a hard way... when we enter another recession because of oil and military overextension the people who will be least affected are the people who live simply... unforuntaly that will make the have not's (us according to some) the have's and the new have nots (the formerly oil dependant) will come looking to take what the have's have... only a community a small seflf sufficient community will be able to survive the external pressure.
To get back on topic... I would gladly work 18 hours a day to be self sufficient and independent than 8 hours a day with a big house and tv and all the "comforts" of modern society. But hard work is not "the rat race" the rat race is competing for meaningless superficial things... bigger tv's, faster cars... working hard to build food stocks, or a stronger fence for your animals is not the rat race... it's security, real security, not the illusion of security that social security and 4 story condos offer.