Look Homey, the minute you had to perform a bowel program I almost guarantee you that the first words that came to mind would be "How much am I getting paid for this?" I've volunteered at food banks. I've helped my neighbors without charging. More often than not it feels like I'm getting paid to help out a friend. I like helping out and I like getting paid. I make no apologies for that. Peace Out, Rev J
I'm not asking for any apologies. However, an almost guarantee is no guarantee at all. I am not aware that anyone's suffering is special. I appreciate the sentiment that more often than not it feels as though you are getting paid by helping a friend, the measure you give is the measure you get. These words are true and there is no limit on the operation. Any trepidation we may experience regarding whether that measure be sufficient to sustain us is brought about by an education in scarcity.
OK let me rephrase that. The minute you have to stick your finger up somebodys ass to help them take a shit you will inevitably go "how much am I getting paid for this." I was trying to be polite but fuck it. As for scarcity I've spent years in and out of different youth hostels. Paid way to high rents in illegal units. Got all of my grocerys from the food bank. Shit right now I'm living in a rent controlled studio apartment sustaining on dollar store food beause the one client I had that was paying well died. I am thankful for what I have but I also know what it is like to go without. Minimum wage is only going to help if you live in your parents basement eating their food. Peace Out, Rev J
So, you are actually living the reality of a person following the "Hippie" ideal of brotherhood; sharing and helping others instead of philosophising and posing abstractions about it. Oh, pardon me for bringing this back to the original topic, but I admire your living the lifestyle still. I have on occasion done such service but one must have a means of self-sustenance. When I worked in the commune that ran the HEAD Free Clinic in New Orleans in the early '70s it was run on donations and we lived a very meager lifestyle in the building. It was nice to be able to do community service, basically without pay, but we were young and into the socialized medicine adventure. Also, we treated our own, mostly abscesses from dirty needles and OD's and bad trips. In India I worked at a free clinic in the rural areas, living on my savings from a world with a higher rate of exchange so I could go without income for a few months. All the other "right livelihood" work benefitting my fellows was done for pay - tho meager at times. Yes, you must be paid in the non-monetary rewards of doing your good works in order to endure it sometimes - and always be aware of burnout, lest you develop problems. There is just so much a caring human can do. But this is the spirit that I think came into vogue during the Hippie era.
The reason I started this thread was because when I looked at the majority of threads on this forum, they had nothing to do with being a hippie in my opinion. They seemed to be more about 'how I look' and 'how can I get stoned?' and 'what music should I be listening to when I'm fucking? Is this just my imagination running wild or is our society really changing drastically? It's starting to look like people don't give a shit about anything else but themselves. All the racism and hatred and greed that we fought against is just rearing its ugly head all over again and it is truly getting the upper hand and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Every decade from the eighties on, people have come out and said "if you thought the sixties were radical wait until you see this decade"........and in my personal opinion, people haven't done shit. This society of ours is changing drastically and for the worst. There was an old hippie saying 'when God created earth people were made to be loved and things were made to be used.' But now things are loved and people are used. And things are getting worse by the day. I always thought that the hippie movement would involve but it is no different than what it was like in the late sixties. There are very few true hippies and more people thinking that hippieism is just a fashion statement. It looks like that is exactly what we have now. It's too bad that being a hippie is too much hard work. I just don't have the strength to fight any battles anymore, otherwise I would be out there fighting a non-violent war. I may have changed my little world for the better, but all it is is just a little world. PAX
They are a pretty accurate litmus test of where humanity is... and what many people's take on what the so-called "hippie ideals" are. In many ways it's not too far off from the time from my perspective from what I saw and heard as a very young child at the tail end of the period. I'm very aware that I was not witness to the process that brought about the movement and that is going to limit my understanding of it so do bear with me. The big difference from my standpoint is the absence of a military draft which almost certainly had the effect of hooking the young generation into the political process even before they became old enough to vote because turning 18 also meant becoming old enough to be drafted and sent off to a war to possibly be killed.... with very little say in the process. There was a kind of collective awakening to the fallibility of our leadership... to a degree that it brought into question a degree of moral and ethical bankruptcy likely never before conceived among the rabble- so to speak... at least not to this degree and not in modern times- even during the McCarthy era in the 50's. The news media and press tended to treat elected officials with kid gloves this would undoubtedly lead many to consider that part of the problem at a time when the country got gut-punched a good number of times with assassinations, civil rights protests- not all peaceful; ugly politics with fundamental questions of states rights to enforce unwritten social codes based on racial lines and relegating specific groups effectively to second class citizenship. ...and then there was Vietnam I agree. Just look at how the retail marketplace has evolved and you get a good idea of why this might be. All the electronic toys; feature packed cell phones and PDAs... Ipods, Ipads, Wii, computers (guilty as charged!), satellite and cable television, home entertainment systems, and so forth... enable individuals to spend large amounts of time being fully entertained... alone. Back in the day we were given an hour or two TV time on Saturday morning... and perhaps a small amount during the week if we were doing well at school... but otherwise if the weather was nice we were told to go outside- and "burn some of that excess energy". We socialized with other kids in the neighborhood. We did find ways of getting into mischief... breaking windows, 'harvesting" green tomatoes from someone's garden and throwing them at cars... collecting dog shit and lighting a paper bag of it afire on someone's front step then knock/ring the bell and RUN!. Invariably a neighbor would spot one of us and soon the support network was phoning parents giving the heads-up. Got my ass handed to me and netted many weeks of groundings compliments of the friendly neighborhood surveillance service. Generally I'd arrive home after a session of adolescent nonsense and be greeted by a very unsmiling parent (well, foster parent in my case!). The questions as to my specific activities and my point to point whereabouts thoughout my evening (usually) and when the proper facts did not come forth I was told that I had one more chance to come clean- I was advised to do so as it would be in my best interests to do so. After some rather stiff and long lasting restrictions I learned to come clean... even if it meant ratting myself out. My point is that thirty-forty years ago in my neck of the woods, neighbors looked out for one another and kept an ongoing rapport with a few... even visiting, playing cards, helping out with some project- people felt a connection to one another and served as a subtle reminder that our fortunes are inextricably linked to that of our neighbors... and as a whole we acted more in accordance with that. Yes, but I hasten to point out that we all let this happen. gradually we've ceded more and more of what is "community" for what is corporate. The media messages that bombard us seem calculated to keep us suspicious of one another. Kids can play at home sitting on their butts with a game controller in their hand- and even compete against the machine with no interaction needed. We're frightened about what can happen to kids if allowed to play in the neighborhood- like previous generations had. We have a justice system that still practices injustice based on race- police who profile- a political structure that deals with past discrimination by implementing reverse discrimination by statute- not in small part because it is necessary. The idiot box chronicles and keeps to the forefront how disproportionately certain ethnic portions of urban areas get hit by violent crimes. Race is made a subject of news stories- even when adding that information adds nothing appreciable to the news value of it. We are being conditioned to polarize and I suspect it may not be by accident. My reasoning is simple... if the citizenry were able to unite and speak with a single voice we'd wield a very intimidating level of power against those who are financially and ideologically repressing us. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson We are not vigilant. We're kept so busy chasing an elusive standard of wealth that we have little time or energy to intellectually process what's going on in the country- and particularly its government. Bear in mind how legislation is worded- a very effective way of dissuading anyone from attempting to read it- so we leave the sausage making to those who would craft it favorably to those owed favors instead of those who cast the ballots and without a draft no one has any compelling motivation to bother caring. We've lost our spirit as a people and quite possible have collectively lost our character. In a sense what is happening to us at the hands of corporations and the government has been brought on by no less than the collective apathy. I would guess that if you people today whether there should be change they would say yes... but the question of whose job is it to effect that change might shed some light on the problem... I expect most would say that responsibility would be the government's... specifically those whom we sent there based on some accounting after the first Tuesday in November.... and it's also the foxes job to safeguard the chicken coop. For our type of government to work for its citizens, the citizens themselves need to stay informed, voice their opinion, and pay particular attention to what the congressperson is doing... find a direct way to call the person on it when appropriate. We've abdicated our place in the system and our voice... both essentially have been handed over to corporate interests.... but we care nothing about the person next door- let alone what is going on with our country. We are used because we allow ourselves to be. We are voiceless only because we collectively decided to stop using it. No one seems to want to be heard for the sake of others anyway... just for him/herself and screw everyone else... so we let others get repressed. We look the other way when a human is attacked in broad daylight- or when the system is stacked against a certain group of people... some would argue that after all, they're guilty of something and have it coming-- right? And so the oppression is permitted by the collective whole because we have allowed ourselves to be conditioned into not giving a flying fuck about anyone but ourselves... the problem is that when the powers decide they want to oppress much closer to home there may not be anyone left to speak up even if they were willing. I hope this held together... too damned tired to proof it... every time I try it keeps getting longer because I forgot something- usually veering a rhetorical detour back on topic. Peace
Society is always changing, and the last few decades I guess pretty drastic indeed. I'm not sure if it's only for the worse. I'm pretty convinced the lack of hippies isn't the problem though.
It's funny how this thread keeps trading places with "What are you wearing today?" And "What song is stuck in your head?" It really backs up Pax Man's point. It's funny that I was born in '75 so I was on the tail end of "why don't you play outside?" And the beginning of the "Home entertainment revolution" i.e. Pong, Atari 2600, Cable, VCR, Home computer etc. But with the exception of cable and a second hand 2600 that I got when one of my friends got a Nintendo I didn't get any of that crap until later. The rampant consumerism really kicked in during the 80's with Ronald Reagans artificial prosperity. The hippies had turned into yuppies and handed their soleless little yuppie spawn everything that they wanted and we became complacent little consumers. And now Just for Men Haircoloring has a product called "Touch of Grey" and use stock 60's footage for the ads. I wonder who they are marketing to. Unfortunately our society has evolved in such as that the packageing is more important than what is in the package. I saw Justin Beber on SNL last week and you could hear when they turned autotune on because miraculosly in the middle of a song his vocals were in tune and his voice sounded good. But damn he's so cute and has a nice smile. If you watch movies now most hippie charachters are almost like most Blackface charachters in the early 20th century. Most Hippie characters in movies are steriotypes put there for comedic value. For most kids this is their only exposure to Hippies. So their thought process is "If I wear these clothes, Listen to this music, and get stoned that makes me a hippie." And as a part of human nature anything that isn't their parents is cool until they grow out of it. That's why you see so many Hippie Parents (who stuck with it) with conservative yuppie kids until the kids out grow it. Or you get Trustafarians (White kids with dreads trying to act Rasta with a trust fund) or kids who put on tie die and go to shows then put on their designer threads in the lot on their way home. They have the have the package right but it is empty. They don't want to put in the time to figure out what it really means beyond "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll." They never see the ugly side of that Dionysian Utopia. The blood, the vomit, the hangover, the VD's, the OD's, the unplanned kids, the addiction, the paranoia. It takes a strong person to continue after that. Peace Out, Rev J
Status and looks were always important in societies. I can understand this materialistic and superficial behaviour is bothering people but it's human and has been long before the entertainment industry grew so big. Some people seem to state this absence of a hippie movement as the downfall of your society, but hippies are just as human as us and lots of them were also just 'hippie' because of the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Have some trust in your fellow man even although they don't seem to wanna drop out.
In my opinion what is at issue here is 'what are hippie values' and how they have changed since the sixties. Unfortunately I don't have the energy to write a long post at the moment but I will at a later date. Things have changed drastically since the sixties and not for the better AT ALL. It's really unfortunate that the right wing is taking control of society as we know it and it's not going to be pretty. STINKFOOT: Your post was interesting and it took alot out of me to read it but it was well worth the effort. JC: It's too bad that you are the exception and not the rule. PAX
PAX-MAN, you might have a point. I just went to the Forums page to see how many people were currently viewing which forums, and here are some of the results: Protest - 0 Latest News - 0 Living on the Earth - 1 Art - 2 The Environment - 3 Books - 8 Politics - 11 Hippies - 31 Fashion & Crafts - 53 Marijuana - 198 Random Thoughts - 345 Psychedelics - 404 Love & Sex - 405 It seems the majority of Hipforumers are looking for entertainment rather than information!
I don't think a hippy is defined by sex, drugs, and rock and roll at all. It is just an awareness of the superficial and egotistical values of mainstream society, and finding a way to go against those ideals.
