Is another Hippie Revolution coming?

^^ your right, i see this topic comes up here often. There are just to many distractions in most peoples life, to seem to care (?) anymore about the big picture. Our Ipods, gps, 3g phones, computers, internet, ps3 ect has made our digital life wonderful, but works as GREAT distractions (in our case, bad). They should be used as our tool

 

peace,love,joy are timeless virtues thats for sure

 

Exactly! I wouldn't go so far as to say something like it will never happen again. Plus, I never said a movement that was EXACTLY like it. I believe a movement SIMILAR in terms of the cultural explosion/new agey/rediscovering spirituality/etc. COULD very well happen with the dawning of the TRUE Aquarian Age and the coming "renaissance" during the 2020's. One can look at the past renaissances and see that for the most part, renaissances bring about positive changes.

 

Every time I read one of these threads this song ends up going through my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt-lzUvH_j8"]YouTube- Talking Heads Nothing But Flowers

I love the beauty, irony, and truth to the lyrics.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

There can't be another hippie revolution because everyone has pretty much already figured out that taking a lot of drugs, having sex with strangers, and sleeping in the park will only make you insane, HIV positive and/or dead. The hippies died out because of too many drugs and too much commercialization... which is also why hippies nowadays are more just people who take drugs, have Jimi Hendrix posters and fall in love with some over-romanticized idea about what they think the 60s were like... but it's all just an image-- it isn't real.

But it would be nice if there was a sober revolution where everyone stopped trying to be flashy and get ahead... and everyone just lived simpler lives... if anything, we need to get more conservative-- I don't mean politically because everyone deserves respect, I mean in terms of all this 'being edgy' and 'being sexy' shit-- it would be nice if I could walk down the street and just see everyone in simple clothes doing simple things while showing respect for everyone around them... instead of people basically shoving their bare flesh in your face, or wearing some godawful shirt that says something like 'fuck you' or something rude like that... like daring you to tell them they shouldn't be doing something that's genuinely irritating for a lot of people. Hippies are sometimes awful with this, I have to admit-- even if you don't think you're doing anything wrong, sometimes you really do have to be considerate of other people.

I just in general hope that people and things get a lot less commercial, stop trying to prove to the world that they exist or that they're special or sexy or attractive or in control or powerful or ahead of the game or whatever, and just be able to discuss things rationally and peacefully in a normal, thoughtful way.

But first things need to quiet down so people can actually fucking think again.

 

I think we are far too complacent in general to have it happen.

Also the hip movement did not start out as it is thought of by so many today. There was so much done for rights that had nothing to do with the culture that has become what people think hippies were.

The sex and drugs are far more entertaining to read about.

 

Quieten down? Who's stopping you? lol

We're all so immature there's not much hope of us growing up without magic. I mean, fuck, nudity is illegal!

The elixir of life will soon be free, and you'll be thanking those poor dirty hippies who slept in the park so that you could purchase an electric blanket.

 

Here's the thing about "The Hippie Revolution". Ever since there has been a large establishment structure there has been a counterculture. I'm just going to limit my arguement to the 20th century. There was a reaction against WW I in 1914 during this time Dalton Trumbo (Who was also a Screenwriter who got blacklisted in the 1950's for being a communist) wrote "Johnny Got His Gun" which was banned every time a new war started until the Vietnam Conflict lost favor with the American People. In the 1930's there was a movement against the Spanish Civil War complete with marches in the street in both the United States and Europe. Then in the 1950's it was Bebop and the "Beat" movement which sought to rebel against the structure of then contemporary American society using profanity in poetry etc. and believe it or not it got commercialised. You used to be able to buy Beatnick "Kits" consisting of a beret, black turtleneck, and sandals just so you could "Look the Part". In the mid 1950's there were hearings by the House Unamerican Activities Commitie against 7 hollywood screenwriters (remember Dalton Trumbo) who were blacklisted and not allowed to work in the US some did prison time and some went into exile. Lenny Bruce was the first comedian brought up on obesenity charges and in 1958 Gerold Holtom designed what is now commonly known as the "Peace Sign". The design comes from Semifore a (A military code done by a man with 2 flags see the back of the Beatles "Help" album) for the letters N and D for Nuclear Disarmament.

All of these events had an entire sub or counterculture that went with them, that culminated what we call today "The Hippie Revolution". Drugs were only part of the reason whay the revolution failed. Another reason is that society wasn't ready to change. Snd yet another was motivation there were leaders in the Peace Movement and the Civil Rights movement that honestly wanted change like Martin Luther King Jr. But the Majority didn't. The reason they wanted change was this egoistic need to say look at how we changed the world. There simply is no glory being a broke revolutionary. How long can you live in a shitty studio apartment living on Penutbutter sandwitches? So some claimed that they were going to change the system from the inside which was a cover for the fact that they were egotistical and greedy. Another fact of the matter is that going back to the land is hard work and if you know nothing about agriculture you will fail.

There were some that held on to the dream. They taught their kids right. The basic values didn't die with the last coming of the cavelry. I'm sitting crosslegged on the floor of a cheap studio apartment in Berkeley waking up having my morning coffee getting ready to go help disabled people for a low wage and sharing a little history with a group of people that I probably will never meet in the flesh. Maybe that is the new revolution. I used that Talking Heads song earlier because it talked about the Utopian Fantasy of society crumbling and going back to the land and contrasted it with the realityof how humanity has grown up and how once you have all of the land back to agriculture you will start to miss the creature comforts.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

I'm pretty quiet... and I don't call attention to myself. But I think that western culture in general is growing louder, uglier, more in-your-face and aggressive. People have stopped holding doors open for each other, or helping each other even in the most basic situations... even the smallest efforts to be nice and considerate are going down the toilet... and people just think it's funny.

If you ask me, it's the little things that make the most difference.

I don't see how nudity being illegal has anything to do with growing up. If your being nude bothers someone so much, then don't do it. On the other hand, I can't see anyone being genuinely bothered by someone who wants to wear clothes, depending on what they are... except in that whole 'she's hot and I'm a perv, so I want her to be naked' kind of way.

People can be considerate and respectful of others and little gestures like that can actually make the difference between someone believing in other people and not believing in them.

It's actually really tiring to hear old hippies going on and on about how they deserve respect and gratitude for all of the amazing things they've done... name one thing that you personally have done to help anyone else, and then I will thank you as an individual. But I'm not going to thank you for creating a market for lava lamps or drug dealers or something like that... and I'm definitely not going to thank some over-commercialized image of an unwashed, long-haired, tie-dyed Hendrix fan with a joint in his mouth-- because then I might as well go to church and worship some Europeanized portrait of Jesus with beautiful golden hair, fine English features and a soft, perfectly shampooed beard.

 

^I actually agree with alot of what you are saying. Alot of "Hippies" I meet today aren't really Hippies. They are filthy Gutterpunks who believe that being filthy gutterpunks is revolutionary. Or they are kids from the suburbs who think that the counterculture started and stopped in the 60's. Sometimes I feel like I need to come on to some of these threads and play alternative history teacher and show the bigger picture. To ask if there will be another Hippie Revolution is like taking a picture of a skin cell and asking is this a Human Being. You are taking a picture of a small limited part and acting like it is the whole thing which is rediculous.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Overpopulation. The little things prevail. Let's not let them become small for all that though by way of complaint!

Well, I do see how nudity being illegal is indicative of our immaturity. No-one cares if we rug up because it's cold, but we freak out if someone strips down. In short, we make a 'virtue' of seasonal necessity, and yet are foolish enough to think the naked form worthy of censorship. Sickness never had it sweeter. Fortunately the kings and queens of the earth are willing to forgive the moralising body haters, and are not out to destroy them necessarily, --it's as though we're kind enough to leave that little task to them!

Sure, but is belief really the issue when one is, as you say, in-your-face? Your general argument seems to be something like: "Steer clear of confusion with common courtesies" as opposed to "Overcome all error with love". Though, with respect, I get the feeling that in life, were it to come down to it, the latter would possess you.

If you are tired, you can always go to bed, or better, wake up!

But shhhh, that's the disguise! Think the infinitely wily Odysseus in old geezers garments amidst the insidious suitors to his throne.

First off, you can thank me for helping you to this here mutual human decency in indulging our ideas through written correspondence.

 

Well, didn't mean for this to cause debate. I just wanted simple yes and no answers...but anyway. I know that there are still true, blue hippies around. The movement never technically died out, etc.

 

No...

It's arguable that we're still waiting for the first one but I'll set aside my own opinions and accept the premise of this question that there was in fact a hippie "revolution" that wasn't style over substance.

Yes and no answers do not make a discussion... if you wanted to have some sway over the nature of the response you could have created a poll... and still gotten the debate.

Lots of great food for thought already posted here

With apologies to any response this is redundant to...

Substantive change will only happen when that change is seen by enough people as necessary. From my perspective, it will take economic armageddon for enough people to wake the fuck up... and thus far most haven't. Age of Aquarius... age of aquarium... we're willfully held captive in glass bowls and offered the "convenience" of isolation in comfort- not having to interact with those around us... we're seen almost as a vast agricultural undertaking where the gardeners, corporations and the government, harvest what they already see as "their" money.

The system we've allowed ourselves to become dependent on is perversely altered to collectively fleece many of savings and retirements and the concept of home ownership becomes further corrupted by what should be characterized as a policy of swindling and misleading for the purpose of bloating stock values for the purpose of quick profits with would-be homeowners left out in the cold after they are discarded when the mathematically inevitable happens... and no one called the government, banking industry, or stock brokers on it.

Is it reasonable to expect a meaningful "hippie revolution" to emerge when most of the population isn't even willing to stand up for their neighbor who's being put out because of a scheduled, pre-calculated interest rate increase breaks his budget? "It's not my problem" is likely the mantra- the justification for looking the other way. It's all just part of that economic roller coaster ride.

What really caused the so-called hippie revolution to get its legs? There was a military draft that furnished the armed forces with fresh cannon fodder to be thrown into the front lines of an unpopular and bloody conflict supported by an elite whom we had not quite yet learned to completely distrust. A good number of the people around had lived through the depression and WWII- history suggests that immediately after Pearl Harbor most young men felt a strong sense of duty to enlist and defend their country. Was the insane Fascist dictator going to completely overrun Europe, creating a political beast that would then imperil the United States? Was there any way to beat the Japanese? It was this generation that produced the participants in the "hippie revolution"... and it was their character and sense of ownership and duty to their country that were impressed as values to their offspring.... who had guts to stand up against the system in such a visible and obvious way.

Who amongst us all has the guts to do that today? Who reared us and what kind of value system was impressed in terms of duty to home and ownership in what happens in government? Call your hippie revolution if you like but don't spend too much renting a hall to accommodate people who don't give a damn enough to even show. Big Brother in on ABC tonight I think.... can we put off the revolution a few days?

Hell, our most benevolent congress has seen fit that its decisions will not send our sons as conscripts to a deadly war, it's the least we can do for them... right?

Dumb, fat, and entertained... the garden is about ready for the harvest- and if managed well most will not see the destruction of an educated and involved middle class as anything more than the random happenstance of a crazy economy that takes few prisoners- so most won't even bother trying to speak out and finding that our "right" to free speech has been altered to sufficiently deprive an audience to anyone advocating real change. The problem compounds when you realize that when that happens most people won't notice... or care. They don't want to risk what they have- even if that is an illusion- to participate in "someone else's" movement.

OP- so... when are YOU going to start the hippie revolution and how do you propose going about that?

 

These two lines spoke volumes.

Who reared us and what kind of value system was impressed in terms of duty to home and ownership in what happens in government?

This is where it begins. The baby boomers (many of our parents) feel grateful for what they were given, they cannot begin to question how or why they got it, they just know that they are forunate. So can we really wonder why today's society is such a vain, materialistic one? Absolutely not. "Get a good job, make good money, have all these things that others can't have, get it all before they do." This is the set of standards that has been imprinted upon my, and a few other generations, and the pool is only getting shallower with each passing one. "Take what you can and don't ask questions." "THEY will make the money if you don't, they will have all the nice things." As for duty and ownership, there isn't much of that. Excuse me for saying so, if it offends anyone, but I personally don't believe that many baby boomers feel a great sense of duty for what they have. They received what they did out of necessity, not out of duty or change. They got because there was so much to go around, more was needed because of the boom, and they received because there was hardly a market at the time. My generation and the ones that follow will NEVER know duty. Baby Boomers didn't know duty, that sat back pacified while things came there way. "Where'd this come from, why is it mine?"

"Don't ask, just shut up and be grateful!" This is what we now believe today.

Dumb, fat, and entertained... the garden is about ready for the harvest

I could not have summed up society today any better if my life depended on it. "For all you do, this Bud's for you!"

 

In the light of this statement we could find ourselves forever awaiting critical mass.

To become virtuous is the solution for any lack of virtue. A revolution is made of revolutionaries.

 

This is precisely what those in power want.

 

"Revolution is just this years 'flower power'," Frank Zappa.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Mushroom power's what's needed. Super Mario, but without all the pity that plumbing seems to cause us. We've always only ever taken a nibble and bowingly backed off so we don't stand out to get taken out.

I am willing to lead us all the way up the stem and cap the the thing off! But what's it going to take before this can happen?

lol

 

The original hippie movement didn't succeed (if it did succeed at all) by promoting responsibility, or concern, or peace, or love-- all of those things have always existed without anyone ever really caring about them. It succeeded because it made them cool... because it made them seem fresh and new and exciting.

Old hippies will go on and on about it like they're special, or they were so much smarter and stronger and more alive than people have ever been or ever will be again... but that had nothing to do with it. They believed what they believed because Bob Dylan told them to, or because it meant they could wear beads and have sex with young girls, or because it meant that they could think they were good people, or because it meant they belonged to something. It's not like suddenly people started asking questions... this had always always always happened... but they managed to unite under a single style and a single subculture.

The best thing about the hippie movement is that it managed to sell itself and slip a few positive values into the package. It had a style, a fashion, a symbology, a music. The ideas were there, but they weren't the draw... the draw was that they were tied into a young, colorful, exciting subculture. But the whole 'don't trust anyone over 30' part of it was why it went down in flames.

The huge reason that nothing is happening now is because most existing subcultures are essentially meaningless, nihilistic, destructive, pretentious or superficial... and worst of all, there are too many of them. In the 60s, you could be a hippie and be cool, or you were square-- that's it. Nowadays there are way too many ways to be cool, and none of them mean anything... and it means that everyone is more divided.

The big problem is that kids have all the freedom and all the money and the adults see themselves as helplessly locked into a life that they must maintain in order to feel like they're providing for their kids. Ideals are like a luxury for the young... and it's nice to see them have it, because they're going to have to get over it one day-- or so we think.

But the truth is that kids are not the answer... that was where the hippie movement went totally wrong. They need to be reached, but they're far too naive and shallow to be able to actually do anything. The only way to deal with kids is to give them the message and then hope that when they're older they'll be able to figure it all out.

I'd say the best hope for a decent future lies with the thirtysomething/fortysomething crowd... those who are at a point in their lives where they're willing to take responsibility and think about the way they're going to live their lives/raise their families. The real solution isn't flashy and vivid and exciting... it's actually ordinary and painfully boring. It's carpooling to work instead of taking your own car. It's refusing to do things that you should probably refuse to do. It's just choosing to live your life responsibly... and not filling your life with heaps of unnecessary crap. If everyone made the choice to live simpler lives, the rich would lose a lot of money.

The devil didn't make big oil rich, WE did. If you don't like the war in Iraq, STOP BUYING SO MUCH GAS. Find an alternative. Be creative. Don't be afraid of humiliation, or of sticking out, or of failing. Stick to your guns. Demand better, safer, more worthwhile things... and you'll get them.

I believe that capitalism WILL eventually evolve into communism-- values are certainly headed that way-- but it will be a slow, non-violent evolution... brought on by people being more aware of what they consume and the effects that it has... and just more moderation and real intellectual and physical independence-- more self-contained communities would be nice-- these skills would be so easy to learn now with the internet and everything... people need to take it upon themselves to improve and teach their children as well.

Seriously, wealth means absolutely nothing if you can't use it to make people do what you want them to... and if people take it upon themselves to be more independent of 'the system', then they're already half-free from exploitation. Learning how to better serve/look after yourself and your community will do wonders.

 

I don't think there is a word of stinkfoots there that I don't agree with, but this part needed to be singled out.

As long as people allow themselves to be distracted by bullshit, then nothing is ever going to change.

Part of that waking up will be realizing that capitalism vs communism is part of the noise that is thrown out to the sheep to keep them distracted.

First off, there is no such thing as a pure political system in existence, nor has there ever been one. The idea that one is good and one is bad, is just noise...

A society needs aspects of them both (along with a lot of other ideas) to function in a sustainable manner.

That will never happen without some form of 'armageddon'. The people who have the majority of the perceived power, don't want it. Those that want it (and have the real power, in numbers), are too busy arguing how bad one of the systems is compared to the other (amongst other distractions)....