Are Hippies Just a Thing of the Past?

i guess that the hippies died the minute the name was accepted by the mass media.

there have and hopefully will always be people around who look after others, have respect for everyone they meet - shit, we are all in this life together and its ours to enjoy.

most of the people i have met who claim to be 'hippy' are all kind of middle class assholes who buy hippieish clothes from expensive shops and compare piercings and tats and dont really care about the philosophies of it all. its just an image that is cool yeah?

i also know many people who would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it, these are true caring and real people.

are hippies a thing of the past? well, i still know many people who live by the same values. that kind of person is stillk around - most people i meet who say they are hippy are not - the most honest and true people i have met would never be labelled.

acting kind and looking after one another needs no name - it should be what makes us human

sorry for the rant, its late here

 

I don't think that's true at all. As you yourself say, the name isn't what matters. It's what's in your heart and soul that matters. The hippie heart and soul isn't dead.

Well, I dunno. Some would say that those who label an entire demographic of people as "assholes" are themselves the assholes. You say that the most "honest and true" people can't be labelled (which I quite agree with), but then you yourself turn around and label a bunch of people. I don't think that's what you really intended to do, is it?

Just out of curiosity ... do you consider yourself to be a hippie, however you define it?

 

Yeah, there were Bohemians, then the Beatniks to mention the two that preceded my dropping out.

I think Hippie is a word that was easy for the media to grasp in its sound bites. I don't recall even identifying as a Hippie at the time I lived as one. It was what the majority culture called us.

Then it caught on and apparently we owned the word. Sorta like blacks who have co-opted "******" and made it their own word.

So now I am an old Hippie because I was there living the lifestyle in the '70s. I still wear cutoff denim shorts and not much else. I believe in personal freedom and open sexuality.

However, I don't smoke dope or do any drugs any more, quit that early on actually. Does that mean I am no longer a Hippie? I don't rag on those who still smoke ganja (but I do bitch about tobacco smokers).

I think many of us represent that attitude of freedom, and those kind of ppl have been around a lot longer than the 1960s.

Now, where do I get my official Hippie certificate.

 

I dont believe that the hippy heart and soul is dead, and I hope for all our sakes that it isnt. BUT, I will always worry when a label - lifestyle - is attached to something so simple as looking out for each other.

I try never to label people, and yes it wasn't my intention to do that - it was purely things I have seen. I have met many many people who dance around, waving hands, dreadlocked hair - who seem to be doing it for a fashion/image point. They dont seem to be doing it for any other point than an image thing. I really hope im wrong sometimes, but im a cynical bastard.

Am I a hippy - fuck no - im me, and thats the best I can be

'its nice to be nice' - i learned that from an old 'hippy' when i was 15 and its the best lesson i ever learned - no image can change your belives

sorry once again for the rant

 

Hippies never completely disappeared, and in recent years they've made something of a comeback. There might not be as many around as in the 60s & 70s, but hippies don't really care whether or not they're trendy.

 

Many hippies you see today you wouldn't even know are "Hippy" because they don't dress the part. Luckily enough, there are still many who do.

There's a part of me that believes, or maybe just hopes, that these are just the early days of what will one day become a world-wide cultural force, much in the same vien as religion (John Lennon, you will be bigger than Jesus), as the world plunges deeper and deeper into turmoil and people will be left with little choice but to stop driving their cars (at least as a main form of transportation), get rid of their meat heavy diets (now and then there's nothing wrong with meat) and all those other great and wonderful hippie ideals. Let's hope it never becomes corrupt though...with hippie beaurocracies and some sort of giant hippie Vatican City erected at Yasgur's Farm...

 

Still very important. And we make the world a much better place.

:cheers2:

--QP

 

hippies don't grow old or disappear. they're everywhere. supertramp, I'm also glad I found this site. I can express myself like never before.

 

I haven't changed my views or my lifestyle much since the 60's. I believe in the same things but most of my friends are much younger than I am.......

Kevin

 

well, thankfully being raised by hippy parents (both 59 now), I can say for myself, the dream is still alive and is still important, if not to the world, then it definitely is to me. The term itself, hippie, is a very dicey term since hippies do come from all walks of life.

 

The hippies are "We The People of the World" who care for the whole and not the profit for the self. some are wealthy some are not but the "true" work every day for the whole.
the journey was to overcome the self for the good of the whole.

MANKIND IS ONE

 

A thing of the past? I think so, yeah. But that doesn't mean they can't be important or good. There are a lot of good things in the past. Not everything has to be cutting-edge up to date. Shakespeare is a thing of the past but people still read and watch his plays. People are still inspired and influenced by hippies.

 

Yes and no. Hippie is just the label that was put on you at the time. There always was and always will be some type of intellectual bohemian counter culture. Before the Hippies it was the Beatnicks. Before the Beatnicks it was the Trancendentalists. Meet the new boss same as the old boss. Like in music it is just themes and variations.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

Are you really no longer a hippie unless you've completely rejected the ideals and beliefs you held back then? I used to call myself a former hippie but now I know that's not accurate because I've retained a lot of that way of thinking. I still strongly believe people (and countries) should work out their differences through talk and understanding, and that violence or war should be used only as a last resort. I also believe in the importance of dissent and in recent years (while Bush was president) I marched in some demonstrations. I still like rock and roll and try to attend a few concerts and festivals every year. And I still get high occasionally and want to see pot decriminalized; in fact I just baked some pot brownies and they're cooling as I write this.

So here I am in my late 50s with short hair, and yes I've sold out somewhat in order to make a living, but there's still some hippie in me. I'm happy to say I haven't turned into my father, though I've gotten to be more like him with maturity. But I'm older now than he was when he balled me out for smoking pot. What a difference a generation makes.

 

the younger generations have absolutely no understanding of what a true hippie really is. here in the south, the understanding is that hippies are ignorant rednecks, country bumpkins and trailer-trash. those definitions couldn't be further from the truth. many people(including me) bring with us a definition from our youth that we are still able to carry with us to the present. our views are still relevant and practicable: politically active,health-conscious, open to new ideas, spiritual, caring, sensitive, peaceful, laid back, easygoing, etc., etc. i for one am quite easily able to adapt to today's worldview, comfortably, using the morals and ethics i learned in the original hippie era. paisley













skye

 

hippiedom has nothing to do with past, present or future. what it is all about is a way of living, a lifestyle using the lessons i learned in my formative and early adult years. just because iuse the things from the past to get me through life doesn't mean i live in the past. paisley.

 

People in the south see hippies as ignorant rednecks, country bumpkins and trailer-trash? Back in the 60s-70s it was southern rednecks, country bumpkins and trailer-trash who harassed hippies who dared venture south (see Easy Rider). And now that's the way they view hippies? Talk about coming full circle!

 

it all depends on ones viewpoint... would it be worded "of the past" or "from the past"? if we are talking "of the past", then it is a part history and therefore to be learned from. and that requires hearing, listening to those of us hippies who are still living and communicating about what they learned and experienced from their piece of history. if we speak of"from the past", all that means is that we speak of singular items w/o any value brought from one point, chronologically, to another, with no lesson(s) of importance to be learned. nuff said. paisley skye.

 

it's not so much living in the past as it is taking what i learned then and using it for today's living. i'm more of a realist now than iwas back then. that's probably why using yesterday's wisdom works even better today. paisley skye.

 

As I saw it then and still do now, being a Hippie is about holding a certain set of loving values that place people and the earth before profits and possessions. I am still that goofy kid sitting on a beater car. I have added many years, scars and people during my journey but I still travel with those basic values and a somewhat newer beater. Life is good for an old Hippie.