I have a question ... what is a hippie? From my point of view, you can get the label just by wearing corduroy rags, smelling like patchouli (spelling?) and listening to jam bands ... although I guess that's the neo-hippie. Obviously tie dye and long hair can help ... but all that is superficial. I am wondering what are the fundamental characteristics of a hippie??? How do you use the term?
many people use the word so differently... like the guy who yells out of his car window that I'm a damned hippy or all my brothers and sisters at the gathering calling each other hippies It appears that a hippie is someone who loves the Earth, and can hear her message. In a nutshell.
I guess I fit the bill then. Although I have to say that I am not as morally checked as I wish I were sometimes ... I am constantly improving. Yeah people use the term differently all of the time ... sometimes it's an in-group term and sometimes an out-group term. Hippies have been positive in my life ... if I can call them that or even categorize them.
I think a hippie is internal, that is, a way of thinking and doing. The outward stuff is for entertaining ourselves and making somewhat of a statement to the world. But inside, that's where it all counts. I love animals and the earth not because I've considered myself a hippie all these years--but because it's an extension of who I am. I still wear patchouli and grow the patchouli herb plant from seed even. I wear Hendrix on my T-shirt and don't care who doesn't like it. I'm in my 50's and am still very much the militant and rebel. Aaahh...the love of it! Cry when you need to, laugh when you can.
Hippies weren't all Tiedyes and funny pants. Hippy was a movement, a rebellion. I knew lots of hippies who dressed straight and carried out with their jobs. You do have to survive no matter what. Not all hippies went to communes and made free love all night. That was just a small part of being rebellious. Hippies rebelled against the system, against Government actions that brought the planet to the brink of extinction. They rebelled against wars because for once they saw wars were fought, not for the people, but for profit and political gains. Wars were killing the planet. Young folks wanted better. They wanted the wars to stop, the threat of nuclear anialation to go away. That meant rebelling against the status quo. Not all hippies understood or cared about that. Many became hiipy for the drugs, the "free love" lifestyle. They gave the rest a bad name that carries over even today. I like to think the hippy movement was why Vietnam ended, but I know it is only one small part of it. I like to think we changed the world but look at the world today. We are again on that brink of world anialation. We need new age Hippies to restart what the old boys started. They need to win completely this time.
asked this question some time ago here as for myself i see my bing a hippie much as hooty said. that is what being a hippie is.
I have to agree with you. Being a hippie back in the day was about changing things in the world for the better and bringing attention to those things in whichever way we could. I suppose some had thought me weird back then since I didn't wear flowers in my hair and actually had the audacity to hold a job--and LIKE it. We weren't born with cell phones in our hands or a laptop to fool around with. Communication was limited so you really had to speak up, make yourself very clear, and be heard above the roar to get your point across. Some of my friends went to Viet Nam, and only my friend Joe returned---saturated in Agent Orange and addicted to heroin as he begged the US government for mercy and help. They of course refused to give aid to a vet just as they do today. He was a nice guy, poor Joe and he would look at me with the most haunted eyes, always in pain. I do a lot of things today in memory of Joe. What happened to him and my other friends enraged me and I take a very proactive position towards the things I care about even today. I think the world was changed a little back then, until the "old boys" got..well..older and a bit less equipped to run the race. We need someone to pass the torch to.
A lot of Native friends in Canada joined Americas forces and fought in Nam. They were dirt poor and the paychecks ruled their minds. Some never came back, some came back shot up all to hell. Some came home really messed up in their heads. No one had any sympathy for them because they voluntered for a war we were not involved in and were against anyway I never gave up on them. Most came around to thinking like we did about the war and Government. Washington abandoned them, keeping no promises of medical help or financial help after the war , leaving Canada to foot the bills for medical, mental and welfare needs forever pretty much I came to feel bad for Nam vets because they were treated so badly when they came home. Most believed in what they were doing and should not have been condemned for that, just like we believed in what we were doing. Iraq reminds me of Vietnam, being a war that needed not happen, that few believe in. Wish we had young people today who would create the same problems for Government and the big boys that we created.
My definition of what a Hippie is comes from my parents who were beautiful flower kids , and Thank God, raised me with their values. A Hippie is a person that looks beyond the conventional world and all its trappings , and creates , or attempts to create the world as it once was , a world where all creatures , including man , can live in harmony and balance with one another. Where all mankind is once again one huge extended family , and where everyone is equal , there is no social class...there is no one forgotten and unloved and left behind. A hippie is born a hippie....it is an unshakeable belief system , quite like a religious zeal. and i am very thankful to my parents.
Bless you erzebet, This is a great interpretation. I have had great pleasure of being a family with many people like your parents. Peace.
Can't say I know an exact definition to the word hippy, or that there is one, but from my point of a view a hippy was someone who rebelled by listening and being themselves. They knew peace and happines. Anyways, Thats just my definition, and its sort of something I came up with without doing any real reasearch on the subject...so correct me if I'm wrong Peace
Uhhhh .. when was humankind ever in "harmony" with nature? And if it ever was, then why aren't we now? Humans have always been extinguishers of resources, killers of species, polluters, and so on. THAT is natural because that is our past.
I feel the reason we are not in harmony is that we have trashed the earth and complacency has sunk in. We just don't get it. Take it all for granted. Some of us are doing what we can, living from the earth and putting it back, some are not. But, it is just not an issue of life. Now, it is almost as if it is "then new thing", to be "earth friendly", has become a cliche. So sad. Hip to be green, how odd is that.Now, if it were something that became serious with all, then another change? I am 60, and what I lived in the 60's and early 70's was monumental to my being then and now, and it is not something that was "hip". It was a way of life and a state of the minds, and we had convictions. Our music was so much a part of it. In San Francisco, 1966, it became a world wide wave, a BIG social change happened. Society as everyone had known it changed forever. After SF and LA, I went to a commune to live in New Mexico, and lived as harmoniously as I could with the earth and my fellow people. Some chose not to go to communes, some left and went east. "Hippie" was a conotation, a label, a word that later became associated with getting stoned, having long hair, dressing far out, dropping out, so to speak, loving freely, accepting everyone. Flowers in the hair and painting faces was done in Golden Gate Park, on the big lawn on Sundays and at festivals. (I am sure other places in the country). Not daily life, as depicted by many. Well, nice concept, but those of us who were true to our hearts and convictions, did not think this "hippie label" was good. Many of us had a life. When we had the "death of the Hippie" March/funeral in SF, it meant something very heavy and was to show that hippie is no longer, but the way of life, to be in harmony, is to be forever. It has been for me and will always be. I still wear sort of far out clothes, my Birks, peasant stuff, I am not hip, but I look like a time warp. People can tell. I get some nice smiles from people my age, if they figure me out, I guess. For those who have gone to a Dead concert before the tragic loss of Jerry, then you know what a time warp is. Young or old. Hippie will be forever, but always remember, it is not about what is outside, it is about what is inside, what you give out and spread around, and be sure it is YOUR groove, not others, and what you truly believe in and then it will be eternal, and it will never die. If you want long hair, grow it, if you want to meditate, then do it, if you want a career go for it, if you want to grow your own food and live close to the earth, then do it....do all these things, whatever you choose to do, but do it all with passion, truth, and love and keep your strong "hippie" heart. As Neil Young says "...there's a mansion on the hill..psychedelic music fills the air...peace and love live there still...in that mansion on the hill..." I still give the peace sign to many, even road ragers. (really flashes them.."see that? The idiot gave me the peace sign!"). So give it to someone and it is like a big smile. Surprises them. peace, Kar
In my opinion, a hippie is a person of any age who is loving, caring, and free. Somebody who sticks up for nature and love, peace and equality the way it was intended to be. Somebody who listened to what was right instead of what the government said... But thats just what I think =]
well the simplest answer to that question, is, Highly intellegent people persuing infinate enlightenment Or you could go off into a whole rant of the meaning of a hippie, the meaning of the hippie lifestyle, is it style or way of life, does it mean that you have to live off the land grow your own food, not rely on the store. does it mean you live in the city places like san fran, or asheville, and smoke nothing but dank ass weed and american spirit. or are you looking for more of a phylisofical answer, the only answer i can give on the phylosiphy is what is a tramp, True Ramblers Always More Proud What's the difference really?
