Is it ever coming back?

The way you kids talk you think it was all dancing in the mud and saying fuck you to authority. If you get a chance to see Easy Rider and forget all about the wonderful people road shit. After they get sent to jail Jack Nicholson tells our heros how lucky they are because the last 2 longhairs in that jail "Got their heads shaved with a rusty razor." Or the fact that at the end they were shot and killed by 2 rednecks. Boy I hope that comes back. Part of the reason I leaft the small town where I grew up is because I am still called "Faggot" by homophobic rednecks because I have long hair and an earring.

Even though I wasn't there I think I got a very accurate view of what it was like both good and bad from people that were there. I keep hearing the kids on this forum talking about how awesome it must have been with major pieces of the puzzle missing. Getting taken down with a firehose over your beliefs. Having to dodge street hustlers looking to cash in on "Free Love" and "Free Dope". Fuck the Cops man the "Free Loaders" were much more dangerous. And they're still around. I've read interviews with Bob Weir talking about walking down Haight Street seeing 14 year old flower children from the Mid West strung out on dope and turned out by local pimps. I still see that shit going down in lot's at nearly every Phish, String Cheese, Widespread, Dead related show I've been to. Pax Man started a thread on here about helping a girl find a place to crash in the Haight. A couple of days later he ran into her again and the guy and some of his friends gang raped her. A couple of days later the girl killed herself. Pax ran into the guy and asked him about it the guy just mad a comment about "Free Love Man."

Take off the Rose Colored Glasses. It's weird for me at this point in my life I'm about 35 and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to be nostalgic about things that have happened in my own lifetime let alone before I was born. I think the Hippie Movement was a nice starting place and the concept should have evolved and should continue to evolve.

For me it has since I wasn't brought up upper middle class I didn't/don't have that level of comfort to give up to truely live a Hippie/Bohemian lifestyle. I enjoy the work I do helping others. It's a great thing but the pay sucks and you generally find yourself living in the cheapest places you can afford. And for alot of kids I see who have this romantacised view of the sixties and Hippie Culture come from that affluence and probably couldn't make that sacrifice. I don't begrudge you that but at the same time it can be frustrating since I get lumped in with it.

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

the rev is quite correct in what he just stated!:sad:

i live through the that shit of the 1960's.
the u.s.a. almost went into total melt down, with another civil war or revolution!

i lived through the backlash from the sixties too... nixon, reagin, bush, etc.

peace, love, "free love," drugs and, rock and roll.
free love too often ment cheap exploitation sex. i saw a lot of people, who rotted out their cunts and dicks from repeated infections from vd.
i saw way, way, too many people who deep fried their brains from mis-use of drugs.
i saw way, way, too many so called "hippie" brother and sisters, fuck over their hippie brother and sisters.

a lot of you miss the point of what the 1960's was REALLY about!

the 1950's was the start of an active civil right movement.
by the end of the 1960's there was a student right's movement, a gay right's movement, a women right's movement and, so forth.
all these different movements were all crying out for the same thing... DIGNITY!
that is what the rebellion here in the u.s.a. and, in the first world nations around the world in the 1960's was about.

we are still in that war in 2010!
the recent court victory in california; striking down proposition eight, is a prime example of that war. the majority does not have the right, to subject the minorty to second class citizenship status (indignity).


in a way we still are in the 1960's.
the spirit of the 1960's still lives on in the war to extend dignity to all!
arty:

 

Guess I'll have to add some more rain on this "Back To Hippiedom" parade. As Rev and Blackcat said, it wasn't all the good that young ppl have created an image of.

It was a moment in time, brought on by a very uptight culture - hence we were the Counter-Culture. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (Sorry Charlie but it's still true).

We young ppl of the time were the biggest ratio of young ppl our culture had seen. So we could make a revolution just by our numbers. And, coupled with teen rebellion and the abysmal culture from which we came (sex negative, racist, homophobic, manifest destiny war mongering) we could affect change by passive resistance. Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.

But that was a moment in time. Times are diff now, tho the struggles in which we engaged are not complete. So, you can live the counter-culture ideal of our generation by finishing the struggle in your generation.

But know that is more than wearing costumes, getting stoned, fucking freely and quoting period slogans.

Far Out Man! Keep on Truckin'

 

Is it ever really coming back? I always thought that what would happen was that it would evolve into something bigger and greater. When I first got involved in the hippie movement it seemed that most people that I met were more interested in what they could do to make the world a better place. I can recall numerous times sitting with a group of people discussing the world with all it's problems and how we were going to make it better. In the beginning we all tried to give something of ourselves- but unfortunatley it did not last very long. Once the media got a hold of things,they just glorified it. They made it seem like everything was free and you didn't have to work for anything. Did they ever get it wrong. Being a hippie is a lot of hard work to say the least. By the time the summer of '67 rolled around, the Haight had gotten infested with a bunch of freeloaders. All they wanted was to take take take. Very few people were giving anything in return. In my opinion, the so called summer of love was nothing but the equivalent of spring break but instead of alcohol it was LSD and pot. And when the money ran out, most kids ran home. In '68 when our commune broke up, we left with the intention of going into the straight world and changing it from within. It saddens me to remember how many people couldn't handle it and ended up becoming a part of it. I'd like to believe that I wasn't one of them. So if you really want the spirit of the sixties to come back go out there and try to make this world a better place, not just for yourself but for everybody else! And, after the work is done, party hardy because you will have deserved it.

PAX

 

well said brothers.
we must take personal responsibilty for ourselves, our lives.
there is no magic pill. beautiful concepts are easily brought down by harsh realities.i wanst there, but i can dig the hard work involved by EVERYONE to pull off a communal type lifestyle and make it work.
i wish all you old geezers woulda made a checklist of ideas that didnt work.pitfalls that were hard to avoid.
peace

 

If Woodstock came back, bands like The Killers would play. People will be listening to their Ipods on the campsite, updating their status on Facebook- the times have changed, it would not be the same now.

 

good luck to you..

 

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times-nothing has changed-at least we had no guillotines, we would of used them

 

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=409999&f=12

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

There are myriads of ways to be counter-culture and that's a good thing!
We need builders, dreamers, free spirited wanderers and people with roots in the land, city people, folks in the country living on little farms or intentional communities.

We are all programmed to one extent and often in ways that we are not aware of. You need to break free from being a cog in the wheel, an apprentice to The Machine, and find out who you are, what your gifts are.

You don't have to have all the answers yet. Muster your courage and try different lifestyles, different crafts and hobbies. If something doesn't work for you, try another path. It's okay to screw up a few things along the way. You'll find out where you belong in due time.

The hip thing has not died. Maybe you are hemmed in some little world where you are not meeting free-living people. But there are millions of people who are kindred spirits and already have their freedom. Millions more who want to be free, but are afraid to cut loose or don't know how to. They might look nerdy because that is all they know, but they are not your enemy.

I have met hippies in the Little Five Points area of Atlanta, hippies in little North Carolina mountain towns, hippies hiking the Appalachian Trail, hippies skinny dipping on our coastal islands and sand bars. I know that some of the folks who are working at health food stores and studying alternative medicine are the children of the hippies. Maybe you will meet some at Bonnaroo music festival. The organic farming community, nudist camps, renewable energy people...
Be of good cheer! We are your kindred spirits and we are everywhere! Come find us and join the dance!!

 

Everything comes around more than once.

:sunny:

 

Did it ever really leave?