What does it mean to be a hippy in the 21st Century?

it means a few people, by now, really need a shower.

hohohohohoho.

 

Being a new age hippie (if yah even wanna use the word hippie anymore) to me rely's more on productivity. Gone are the days of lsd-25, (the real shit) and pot is stronger than ever now, acid, wish I could say the same. The wave of ravers, candy kids, hippies, jam band kids, moe. rons, bisco kids, phish people etc. are a different crowd. Some are kool, some aren't just like any scene. There's a lot more music and festival wise for us these days, from bonnaroo, to all good, to up north, to evolve, to starscape, to high sierra, to cochella, to the red rocks the list goes on and on. While the dead were paving the way with all that stuff, they were also struggling to find all the venues and keep the tour going. It's rarer today to see people get dosed at a festie, although believe me I have seen it. I'd say x has wayyyyyyyyyy more than taken over the scene these days, at least in the states. It reflects the society's personality, go go go go go go, psychadelic speed. I see a lot more pipe dreams today in the jam band world than what I hear about from old heads at festies. Luckily, today things have spread far and wide enough that you can have small festies, gatherings or whatever more often, with some pretty incredible people attending them. Alex Grey has been known to show up at the harvest festival in NY, and I've seen him painting with lotus and the biscuits before, pretty kool in my opinion, of course there's always painters. Pot isn't legal yet, acid is weak now, and there's a camera on every traffic light in the states. Indeed, we are all as phish said, slaves to the traffic light. What I see more in people today is that most of them have some pretty crazy jobs. You meet engineers, accountants, (a good friend of mine who goes to camp bisco every year with an RV is an accountant, and he still parties like there's no tomorrow, but does really well with his job.) Today's new wave seems to be more focused on being successful in the career world, while still enjoying a different life style. Like they say, work hard play hard.

 

I may be way out of my element as someone new to the community, but reading some of the comments from the older generations' in this thread makes me laugh. Our culture has flipped a 180 since the time of your "right way to party and stand for something"..

.. as a community, we should worry less about labels and being a subculture separate from others. I tend to think more of myself as a pioneer of individualism that contributes to the whole in a positive way; if I'm doing just that, I'm happy with myself. It's paradoxical of a self-proclaimed hippie to pass judgement on others. One love, people. Spread that love even when you feel you shouldn't.

 

In 2011, if someone is still worried about the hippie label and the superficial cosmetic things that go with it, they are probably doing everything for the wrong reasons.

 

precisely

 

The hippy of this decade is a bit more grungey than the stereotype. Today's stereotype is usually a drug user interested in classical psychedelic drugs as well as desiger drug research chemicals, also loosely included is today's entire stoner generation. Politically the hippy types of today are identified by a political affiliation with outside of the norm politicians on both the left and the right - such as Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders. Many supported Obama but the more intensified counterculturalists now despise him for numerous reasons. Many of the males in this social group have outdoorsmen personalities and most of the girls are just taking a one or a few semesters off from college, or so they say.

 

Hey Kids.

There are still real hippies around, and a few of them are "putting the band back together". So to speak. Its a big secret, so don't tell anybody. Okay.

Yes, in the 21st. century. Its true. Shhhiiiii.

 

We got two kind of people in this world:

-those that believe big brother is always watching and they are being screwed and.....

-those that don't give a shit whether big brother is watching.

The world hasn't changed much since the sixties. Business is still business, government is still government-yeah you can talk about communication devices blah blah blah, but not much has changed.

In the 60's I was younger, in the '10's I'm older, thats what matters to me.

Live your life the way you want-be what you want-lifes too short

Don;t like the system-do something about it

 

In 1970, one of my university friends and I smoked a joint and then he took me to the computer lab-he had written a program using batch cards-ran the program and we were thrilled=he had calculated that one plus one equaled two-and had his name and course number print-the computer was as big as the room-I think of that periodically when using the iPhone which has about a billion times more computing power-it was a magic time, the smoke wasn't bad either

 

I take issue with this segment of your post.

The issues you bring up in this paragraph mostly stem from poverty and racism. That distorted guitar sound is all over what are now obscure "Race Records" from at least the 1950's. From the poverty perspective it was the inability to afford proper amp maintenance and quality components. The speakers and tubes were lower quality than the "Hi-Fi" equipment that was also available. Cheaper tubes and speakers distorted easier. Combined with racist recording engineers who had the attitude that, "It's only race music for a black audience that doesn't really give a shit if it sounds good."

The result though is that you got alot of English guys who loved the music and the sound that emulated it and ran with it. Hi-fi aficionados still use tube gear but will spend the money to get good tubes that won't distort as easily and will buy higher quality speakers that sound clearer. Where as a guitarist will buy cheap Chinese or Russian made tubes that will distort easier and combine them with low wattage speakers that will also distort easier just to get that sound.

As for Synthesisers. You never saw any band from the 60's use them live as they were delicate, expensive and a bitch to haul around. An early synth was the size of a computer at the time and you had to have someone changing patches manually unplugging and plugging in cables to change routing. They were also usually built into studios and a rarity.

"Youth Culture" was hardly a new concept either. From a business perspective the youth have always had less responsibility and more disposable income to spend on things like movies, records etc. I seem to remember Pepsi having commercials from the 50's with the slogan "What it means to be young". There were movies like "The Wild Ones", "Rebel Without a Cause", and "The Blackboard Jungle" that were openly marketed to this youth culture. If you ever see the movie "Absolute Beginners" with David Bowie it talks pretty openly about the rise in youth culture and racism in early 60's England.

As for drugs there have been volumes written about how the drug war has largely been racially motivated. When it was still largely blacks doing it it wasn't a problem. When that started spilling over into white society is when it became a problem. If you ever read the book "Junkie" by William S. Burroughs he talks about how most drug slang was adopted from the slang the inner city blacks were using at the time.

To me the Civil Rights Movement didn't really take hold until middle class white America got involved. It's easy to not give a shit when people who don't look like you are on the receiving end of the fire hose. When all of a sudden it is your kid being attacked by dogs and getting hosed down you will find a reason to care. That's just human nature.

The internet has made access to information quicker and easier. It has also made access to misinformation quicker and easier. For example I've seen video and read interviews with Todd Rundgren discussing the role of the internet and new forms of media in the music business in the 21st century. I went to google to see if I could find it and in the top 10 results was a link to a Neo-Nazi message board. Not exactly what I was expecting.

We have also made it alot harder to get away with shit than it used to be. Probably about 90 percent of the people on this site already carry a camera with them at all times. It comes standard on your cell phone. On top of that if you live in an urban area you get your picture taken at least 70 times a day. I am thoroughly indifferent about that fact. Here are a couple of examples of why I feel that way. Looking back at the Duke Lacrosse rape case one of the guys the victim picked out as one of her attackers was videotaped at an ATM across town at the time of the attack. On the other side two men beat a guy to death in downtown Oakland in broad daylight and were identified by security cameras on every shop they walked by after the crime. Also another interesting fact about Oakland is that all of the cops have cameras in their uniforms recording while they are on duty. That makes it really hard to shoot unarmed suspects, accept bribes etc.

To me being a hippie in the 21st century means breaking away from dualistic thinking. It means looking at the facts clearly and making your opinions based on that instead of some knee jerk reaction. It means helping others that still need help. It means transcending your own bigotry. I have known people who decry bigotry but still lump entire groups together be it the police, conservatives, the rich, etc. This to me is still bigotry. It is about understanding the fearlessness of painful honesty.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

excellent post

There were also the likes of Stockhausen and Evangelisti in the classical world and a some of the jazz people who were making electronic music that sounds like the ahead of it's time stuff today never mind the 60s.....

I was more talking about things that got 'on the telly'. I wouldn't claim for a second that any of the 60s rock people invented playing with feedback, but in terms of putting into pop songs they were the first. And I also find it interesting how the blues had to go to England to become popular in the US. I guess it's because we didn't (don't?) have such a big black/white thing so our white kids playing the blues was more acceptable to American white people than having black rock stars....

I know youth culture wasn't a new thing, the 50s also had plenty of amazing music and culture aimed specifically at young people, but you can see the change in the 60s as it becomes less restricted (of course this doesn't happen on Dec31 1959.....)

With pop music you can see things like they stop wearing suits to go on TV etc. I know as well that the Jazz people were much more into their drugs than the hippies so that wasn't new (and in those days a lot of the illegal drugs were still medicine....) but like you said that was all kept in it's little ghetto rather than seen as mainstream music....

 

Sorry but living in a surveillance society is not something I would enjoy tolerating. Despite the few “good” things you mentioned, the potential for abuse far outweighs any.
The people who love to spy are also generally enemies of the counterculture. I already
feel like we’re in the early months of 1984.

 

Maybe bad shit did happen in the 60's-but I walked to school, hung out with my friends outdoors all day, walked for miles on Halloween, always felt safe. We were thrilled to wait for film to be developed.

Most of your "survelliance society" thinking has been driven by the advent of the net and ease of information transfer. We are a society that now needs immediate gratification. We don't have to interact with other people. You can travel the world without leaving your chair. Folks sue their neighbours because they don't like the color of their dog and the courts allow it, often because we don't know our neighbours.

Cut down on forum reading, walk out your door and join society. If your not fucking up your neighbor, you shouldn;t have to worry about the camera

 

from outside, there is and has never been a counterculture

the hippy ideal was ultimately more self indulgence, something which the capitalist system was happy to oblige

 

Good points about the Jazz scene and Stockhausen and Evangalesti even Varese had his influence with his use of magnetic tape and musique concrete which could be heard on everything from Novelty Songs to psychedellic music.

It seems to me though that England had it's own issues with race. I seem to remember that up until the 70's there were still signs in parks that read "No Blacks, No Dogs, and No Irish". I guess if you were a Black Irish Setter you were SOL. I also remember reading about race riots over there too.

Racially integrated bands were also not that big a deal over here. Granted there wasn't as much TV coverage. You had Booker T. and The MGs and The Funk Brothers (Motowns House band) who had "The Oreo Cookie Guitar Section (Two black guitarists with a white guitarist in the middle). Although it is interesting to me how the English kids knew the names of the session players that were on those records even though the Americans didn't. By the end of the decade you also had bands like Santana and The Allman Brothers Band who were a racially integrated band from the Deep South.

The interesting thing about the suits is that American Jazz musicians wore black business suits to camouflage themselves and their drug usage. If they wore black business suits the cops thought that they were business men and wouldn't fuck with them. Add sunglasses to hide the eyes (either contracted or dilated pupils depending on the drug of choice or bloodshot eyes) and you have the Jazz uniform.

To me the whole "Hippie" thing has always been there it has just evolved. Just as the Hippies evolved from the beatnicks who evolved from either existentialists or transcendentalists (depending on the beatnick) who evolved from some other movement that came before them.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

As you say this on a public forum that even if it is erased it will probably exist somewhere until the day you die.

How are you going to deal with the cameras? Throw rocks at every one you see? Start smashing cell phones?

It could be worse we could fall into Max Headroom territory where they outlaw the off switch. We still have the off switch now. In 1984 even your house and room were wired with cameras. At least with your web cam you can shut it off.

I think that one of the most prophetic films that I have seen was "The Running Man" with Arnold Schwartzenager. If he wasn't in it it would have been very poignant social commentary about the use of creative editing including the use of CGI to alter video taped events after the fact. In the age of "Tru TV" I'm sure that "The Running Man" would be a huge hit.

By the way the cops hate being videotaped too. I believe that the quote I read was "How can we do our jobs when people are looking over our shoulders?" The thing is that I'm pretty sure most of my illegal activities go on where there isn't a camera. The ones that go on on camera are fairly low priority. I'm pretty sure that there is hours of footage somewhere of me Jay Walking. BFD.

When I hear people talking about the government wanting to chip everybody I laugh heartily. There are over 6 billion people on Earth and we think they can get everybody.

Here's a true story:

I work as an attendant for disabled people. In California last year they did a mass background check on everybody who does my job. They tested 250,000 people in the county where I work. I stopped receiving my paycheck after 6 months because even though I passed most of my background check they still hadn't verified my Social Security Number. I had someone working on my behalf to get my checks coming and now over a year later there is a note on all of my check stubs that says "Emergency Check". This means that they still haven't verified my SSN. Do you honestly think they can do that for 6 Billion people?

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

I see it as the opposite. There has always been a counter culture. When I was a kid I was one of a handful of hippie kids. Among us most of wore clothes that were home made. A few of us had families that raised our own vegetables and livestock. Yes we had some store bought things but what was being sold to us was more mainstream crap than anything "counterculture".

The "Hippie Ideal" was to break away from the self indulgent capitalist system that has been forced upon us. The system in turn tried to latch on to it and use it as a marketing tool.

In situations like this I generally refer to Bill Hicks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo"]Bill Hicks on Marketing - YouTube


Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

Here's the problem: how many "hippies" nowadays would know how to make their own clothes or raise their own vegetables and livestock? This isn't a criticism by the way. I'll use myself as an example. I was born and raised in a typical suburban middle-class paradise. I don't mean to sound like a spoilt child, but I hate it. The people have no direction, no purpose, no souls. The only thing they care about is money, and they have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that might threaten their little paradise. The only "hippies" around where i live are lazy, pot-smoking dickheads (i don't call them hippies, but everyone else does).
I discovered true hippie counter-culturalism initially through music, but I discovered everything else about them through sites like this. I love the ideals of the movement; the sense of community, the love, the freedom, and the idea of be self-sufficient. But I'm under no illusion: I don't have a clue how to make my own clothes and grow my own food etc.. I would love to learn how, but where the fuck would I do that? Find other hippies you might say, but again, where and how? The only real way I know of would be to move to a hippie community, and most of them are in America. Not only do I not have the money, but because of all the post-9/11 anti-terror bullshit it's next to impossible to move to another country (unless you are very wealthy or have excellent qualifications, which again requires lots of money). There are a few communities in England, but again, MONEY. It always comes back to fucking money.
The only way to be a hippie in the 21st Century, it seems, is to be born to hippie-ish parents, or ironically, to have enough money to start a self-sufficient lifestyle.

 

Actually my dad now runs an international school for sustainable living in Maine. If you want more info PM me and I'll shoot you a link.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI&ob=av3n"]Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It - YouTube