Are you a hippie?

Thanks Man.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

The term ''hippie'' is a state of mind and lifestyle focusing on anti-establishment/anti-government views and often rebelling against society's ways in a peaceful manner which was inherited from the Beatniks of the 50's.

I don't see the words ''smoke'' or ''60's music'' in the sentence I just said.

 

I see them in the sentence below though.

 

I am more of the goth persuasion.

However hippies rock

 

I don't know how I feel about calling myself a hippie. I think that tag is for an older generation that was around during the 60's and 70's. I think being a hippie doesn't have anything to do with drug use, although the two do go hand in hand i've noticed. It's about standing up for your rights. Real hippies were around during the sexual revolution, to protest the war in vietnam, to wear their long hair proudly even if it meant a beat down from certain douchebags. They had alot to fight for. You can't just throw on a tye dye shirt and grow your hair long and call yourself a hippie. You have to make a difference or atleast try to better this world.
Being hippie back in the day was something you HAD to fight for, nowadays it's turning into a fashion trend. Walk into any mall and see several items clad with peace signs and tye dye. And people calling themselves hippies.
I think it's also a state of mind. A peaceful hopeful state of mind, that one day the world will be free from unnecessary war, that people will come together and a sense of unity will be found amung them.

I frequent protests, I was at a free marc emery protest last weekend and this weekend one to stop bill s-10 (originally bill s-15). I feel as tho I can relate to older hippies in a way. Sometimes I believe I was born in the wrong time.Would I still call myself a hippie? No.
Other people call me a hippie that is unavoidable.
I just think our generation needs to get its own tags.
We need to stand up for our own problems.

 

Actually, you can. In the end it's just a word.

I thought they do.

 

I'm not quite sure where you're coming from. No one said the term ''hippie'' had to only be a 60's thing. Being a hippie was originally a culture, lifestyle, and an outlook on life. For example, consider a genre a music. In this case, let's say metal. Metal may have developed and became a type of music in the 70's, but it's still a type of music still being made today. Though metal is from the 70's, it's still considered metal on any time line in history from the 70's through present time. Just as ''hippies'' exist in today's modern time.

 

If I've said it once I've said it a million times you don't have to take drugs to be a Hippie. They can be a fun diversion as long as they don't control your life. I went through a long period of not smoking dope. I was also one of the most GQ slick looking motherfuckers you've ever seen but I was still a Hippie.

The thing is that there have been numerous Bohemian movements throughout history. I did a fill in attendant job for an old anthropologist who told me about his father being a part of anti-war protests in the 1930's protesting the Spanish Civil War. There are continuous back to land movements, communal living experiments, polyamory etc. All of the things that we attribute to the Hippie movement has been going on for hundreds of years with different names put on it. When I was a teenager the derogitory term for you if you displayed Hippie tendancies was "Granola". I allways had a harder edge than alot of them I think it was because one of my best friends Dad's was a Biker. I allways thought that the granolas were too hypersensitive and almost never completeley informed. That is how I got to be every Punk's "Hippie" Friend.

If you want to be a Hippie in the modern world you must simply see yourself as another spot on the timeline. Understand the past while moving toward the future. Don't try to recreate it. Make your own experiences. Live your own life. Use your own resources. Ask deeper questions than "What were the 60's really like?"

At this point alot of the books and films that helped to define the culture are still available. Read them, See them. While you're at it see "The Chicago 10" which does a good job at showing some of the conflicts that even happened between the hippies.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

I have a beard, I am the hippie king

 

Make love not war! Now I'm a hippie

 

^"It takes more than going down to your local video store and renting 'Easy Rider' to be a rebel," Dennis Hopper

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Who's talking about rebels.

 

Actually it was a statement that it takes more than screaming a catchphrase or growing a beard to be something. For example I can say Deutchland Uber Alles and that doesn't make me a Nazi.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Makes U weird tho.

 

Yes- I agree... being able to comprehend the difference makes him quite the oddball. Frankly, the world could use a few more such weirdos!

The ability and willingness to peel back a facade to see if the contents justify the cover is becoming a lost art.

 

That's the thing. In our modern society we are constantly being sold the package and not the content. I believe a few weeks ago Shale started a thread with a Justin Beiber t-shirt. I just recently saw Justin Beiber on Saturday Night Live. When he had to sing something the first verse would be horribly excruciatingly out of tune but as soon as the first chorus kicked in everything sounded perfect. So we have this little boy who looks cute and can dance but can't sing (I'm sure if I were a trained dancer I'd tell you he can't dance either). He is well packaged though. He makes 14 year old girls panties wet with his nice smile so that counts. But truth be told the packaging is what is being sold. It is like one empty package that is trying to replace something of quality.

So today's kids are being told that if it is in the tie-die package it is a Hippie. They can buy the package anywhere and be just as ditzy and clueless as the Justin Beiber fan. Part of what makes this consumerism dangerous is that any con man can put on the uniform and take advantage of a clueless 14 year old with no street sense.

So I guess these threads that sometimes I think are kind of stupid questions about "What makes you a Hippie?" or "Are you a Hippie?" gives the older generation a chance to educate the younger generation so we can avoid seeing the same old burnt out 14 year old drug casualties living on the street with some douchebag mooch with a dog thinking that they're being hippie. To me it is kind of sad when some 14 year old girl walks up to me at a show strung out telling me "You should worship Satan because Jerry Garcia is dead in hell with him." That actually happened to me in a String Cheese lot. I sometimes feel that those are the kids that need to be reached and helped either out of the scene into a cleaner life or shown a better way on the scene.

I bitch about the kids from the suburbs who jump on for a phase and jump off but maybe if we can educate them they can bring some of these "Hippie Values" back to the straight world when they go. That to me would be truely subversive.

Peace Out,
Rev J