This book is groovy. It teaches almost 200 about being hippie, including how to wear your hair like a hippie, how to care for a fern, and how to milk a goat. What hippie would want to be without this, man?
Sounds interesting, but would such a guide not lead to some kind of stereotyping? Well, I looked down the toc of it and I found no chapter on philosophy or politics? Either I don't get some point, or I am just to demanding? Anyway, now I'm curious and gonna try to get it. Anyone minding listing the names of Essential Hippie Movies and Books in there, to be found starting page 164?
I admit that it doesn't teach anything about philosophy; but it's not that kind of book either. Hey, you want hippie philosophy? Go ahead and dig this then: Groove-adelic Feelings (Feb. 25, 2005 9:30pm – 10:30pm) Groove-adelic feelings are, like, totally groovy. I mean, they happen all the time, you just have to notice them. People are so wrapped up in their bags and school rap and what’s groovy and what’s not that they just don’t know when they happen. But they happen a lot; some of them are even self-induced, man! And what’s so cool about them is that you don’t need drugs to dig these feelings regularly. People always stereotype hippies as druggies or stoners, but that’s not what it’s about, man. It’s about freedom! It’s about heavy stuff on the inside, and it’s about searching for a higher meaning. You can be free, man! And it’s the best thing ever. No more images to uphold or labels to battle, and to think it was in my reach this whole time. You can break free from the cycle of hate and learn to love! We took a step in that direction and we are so totally diggin’ it, dude! Because that’s what it’s all about: freedom. I totally thought I was alone in my philosophical searching. I thought I was the only one questioning the grain of society, thinking to myself, man, something just isn’t right with the world. And I found it. And I was free. And it blew my mind, man. All the tensions melted away, all the questions were suddenly answered, because I had finally found a lifestyle that unlocked the door to truly living! My shackles of peer pressure fell away and the veil of prejudice was removed. Now, I used to be a very innocent child of nature, man, and then something happened to me. I found the internet. More importantly, I found chat rooms, and I was introduced to a lot of social gunk in the gutter. Lastly, I was taught by someone whom I looked up to and followed the basis of prejudice and label-oriented hate. Young and still entering puberty, I was easily swayed to buy into the system. And for the next 5 years, my life was filled with hate and loathing for people who had never even talked or looked at me. Now how pointless is that? It’s mind-blowing how easily the system can take hold of you; the media, your reputation as a teen, and your friends can be such a great influence on this. Hippies weren’t a fad, man. Fads are things that come along every ten years born of fashion and hit tv shows. Hippies had a cause, a goal; it wasn’t, “Anybody who’s anybody is a hippie”. It wasn’t, “If you’re not a hippie, we don’t want anything to do with you”. It was…how can I begin to explain such a thing? It was…well, freedom! There’s just no other word for something so great! It was…the way things were supposed to be. And it still is, man! There are still hippies out there, people like Gamma Ray and Satellite, still working to bring down the institution and welcome Jesus as the hip and happenin’ ruler. Now, after a week, you can guess that I’m still having troubles adjusting to such a groovy lifestyle. I like, once read in a book that “We were not raised in an environment that valued us for who we are.”. And it’s true, man. It’s sad, but it’s true. People have so much power to change, but most would say they don’t know what to do with it. After a lifetime of hatred and blindness, this is like, some sort of crazy roller coaster ride of a rehabilitation, dude. But I gotta take the leap of fate. Even if I fall one hundred times and go through fifty bad trips, I’m going to learn to fly. I have in my dreams, man. I flew. And it was the most groove-adelic feeling I’d ever felt. My chest swelled, I was as light as a feather, and there was nothing I couldn’t do. You can totally do it, too. Until we accept the fact that hating gets us nowhere, we are like doves with clipped wings, struggling to fly all the wrong ways. So becoming a hippie was like some kind of healing light for me. And now, this dove is bushed. Peace, baby.
If you like the handbook but want more of a philosphy than try her Dharma Girl or Wild Child: girlhoods in the counterculture. Great reads.
