Drifting Away from the Hip

I was browsing these forums, and it gots me thinkin', ya know?

I remember that when I first started posting here, when I was 16 or so, I was much more hipped out than I am now. I've never really considered myself a hippie, but I was pretty damn hipped out. I was all about the peace and love, full of such pure idealism.

But, now that I look at myself, I've grown away away from that.

Anyhow, what made you grow away from the "hippie"? We're all still pretty jive hip cats, but I guess the more stereotypical notions, both negative and positive, seem to have evaporated in most of us. Do you think that it's just a part of growing up? Discovering the world? Or whatelse.

I do wonder how much more of a hippie my dear hip comrades were when they were younger?

To the ones that still consider themselves "hippies", what has made you stick to it? Is it just something that you've always felt? How do you integrate your way of life and personality into society?



I myself think that it was just part of growing up and understanding the world a little more. It's beautiful to believe that everything is rainbows and flowers, but... you eventually just open your eyes. I often wish that I had the idealism of my youth, I miss that passion... but at the same time, I feel like I know enough about the world to survive in it and actually know what to do with myself by now... and much of it comes from being a tad more observant.

I still really like incense and wear my Guatemalan dashikis




Anyhow, I thought that this could make an interesting discussion. Sorry for making it sound like a test questions... I'm just truly curious.

 

i really wasn't much of a hippie, even when i first started posting here. but i wsa full of idealism and wanted peace all around.

i put it to getting older and learning more. i've become more realistic, but i still carry quite a bit of optimism. my optimism and hope is more directed and drawn in, instead of being a whole of hope for the entire world. i love working with kids, and thats where i can really focus on making this world better.

 

You've based your question on a couple of assumptions... one, that we all went through some sort of hippie phase and two- it was something that one eventually grow out of. I would respectfully contend that very few of us really consider ourselves to be hippies and if it was a finite phase that was grown out of then we never really were hippies to begin with, just followers. What's really needed isn't some nostalgic revisitation of a bygone era where incense is burned and tie-dye is worn but a call to arms- the specifics of weaponry being information and truth calculated to break the stranglehold that the industrial military has on us. We can be revolutionaries bent on breaking the hypnotic spell that the false comforts of the disinformation pipeline holds on most people- keeping them from realizing that a crime of unprecedented scale is underway; its perpetrators being the malpractitioners of policy that we "elected".

 

I can relate to that Fitz, I do feel optimistic, but on a much smaller scale. I've found things and people that I love, and that makes me happy.

Nah, I don't really assume that we all went through such a phase, which is why I say most... neither do I assume that all of us grew out of such a phase, if there indeed was a phase... but my question is indeed directed mostly towards people who did go through some sort of a phase and grew out of it.

But I do agree, in an ideal world the word "hippie" would be associated with the people's struggle, and not with stereotypic notions.

 

My usual response to this kind of question is, "I'm just here because hip chicks love to fuck."

But I'll give you a real answer. I was never much of a hippie. I was in the military, I'm very cynical... I always thought of it as more of a trend.

But I have met a few really awesome people, who have wanted nothing but the best for me, and for everyone. Really kind great people, who have embraced the same values as the hippie community.

I think most people gravitate towards labels like that because they find them comforting. Once people feel more secure in themselves, they might not be as inclined to adopt a label to describe their philosophy, even if they agree with a lot of the precepts.

 

IM A MOTHERFUCKIN HIPPIE!!!

Ill smoke a bowl with you if u dread my armpit hair??? maaaaan

 

I think about Ms. Oh's hips a lot.

 

I feel like when when I was younger I really enjoyed the stereotype...I liked wearing big peacesigns and 60's band clothes and stuff etc. etc. etc. and saying maaann lots...

I feel what has really changed is that I've grown into a practical culture of my ideals...and if it's seen as hippy that's what people will see it as.

If I want to eat and live ethically, work on social and environmental activism, continue to question societies images of beauty and ways to act proper then that's my lifestyle, and I enjoy living that way. I like traveling around performing with my guitar and poi, communal living, not altering my body...etc.

I think I feel just as idealistic as I ever have too, but now I am finding real resources and motivation to be involved in making the changes I want to see happen instead of just talking about it all the time. There are soooo many groups to be involved with, so many inititives...

And as I get older I find even more and more ways to celebrate these ideals and more communities to do it with ina realistic way.

I don't know if that answers your question...but I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think I've grown out of this phase and hope not to for the most part, but grow with it. Like I don't need to base my life on stereotypes anymore or live by little fantasys. I don't want to live in the 60's like I did when I was 14. And I now have the ability and resource to create whatever kind of lifestyle I want in a sustainable kind of way...

don't know if that's makin' sence.

 

I'm still pretty idealistic in a lot of ways too. I have strong beliefs and I live by them. I have many human rights projects I'm involved with. I believe in helping out anyone who needs it.

It still feels like I'm in a constant battle of my cynicism vs my idealism.

 

I've been attending a lot of workshops and classes latley though that say that hope and dispair are not on different sides of the spectrum but that you need them both to live- more like a circle. Like dispair can inspire hope and motivation. So cynisism and idealism don't have to battle but learn to fuel each other...like being cynical of groups that perhaps take advantage in stead of really helping but being idealistic enough to keep trying and finding the groups that really do good...

 

I suppose that's true. Being overly idealistic will oft result in being taken advantage of by people who have their own priorities first. Although I personally think it would benifit me to be a little less cynical.

Those workshops sound intriguing. Is the hope dispair dynamic the main focus of them?

 

no, not the main focus. It's just a topic that has come up in a lot of them recently. Like I'm in a course called Voluntary Simplicity and we've been talking about Hope and dispair a lot. Then I was in a yoga sutra workshop, and a anarchist-eco-feminisim (really just talking about ending oppression in general) workshop and we discussed the topic in both of those too. All in different context and with different examples, but the same message.

I've been writing a paper on hope for the Voluntary Simplicity class, so it's been on my mind a lot latley.

 

You were talking about those papers you were writing a few days ago. It sounds like you're taking a lot of great courses.

 

I was very hip when I first started coming here, and then I became not so hip, and now that I am dating a hippie I am sort of moving back into it. Still a sarcastic hippie though.

So maybe Pavel, you will someday go back to the hip as well!

 

I don't think I'll go back to the pure hip. I think that I've always felt a little closer to the Beatniks anyhow... but I don't feel like a Beatnik either.

I'm wearing my bellbottoms today tough. I'm wearing a black military jacket with them though, so... it doesn't look that hippie....but, I'm wearing flipflops with them... argh!...and wait, a green shirt that just says "peace" that's made out of natural Alaksan clay or some shit. Hemp fucken everywhere. Argh!

I think that I'm just such a mix of everything that is cool in this world, like some kind of God

 

Whatever helps you to get through the day Pavel.

 

I think I was more idealistic when I first joined here, so I agree with you, BSR.

 

I can kind of see conflicts of cynism and optimism in me too. I used to be extremely cynic during my early teenage years... but my eyes just opened one day, and I smiled at the world... I've been pretty damn chilled out ever since.

Man, I think that what you're doing is great.

I wish we had some more organizations over here. There are one or two radical organizations, which are pretty cool. We do some cool stuff like starting a co-op and a food pantry. We're also starting a tutouring program for highschool kids in the co-op together with some shows and stuff.

But... when it actually comes to real issues.... all they really do is talk really loud without giving any answers. Sadly enough we spent much more of the time on bullshit than on actually helping the community.

Silly college kids.

 

I now have 5 people who call me God on a daily basis... it's great. I call one of my best friends "psycho", I've been calling her that for a long time now, and she calls me "God". Whenever strangers visit her house, they always start giving us the wierdest looks.

Anyhow, God... yes, God!

<-Your local God! Ha! Worship me, non-neanderthals!

 

Surprisingly, I've had few people refer to me as the One Man Orgy.

It's a travesty!