Hippie

a hippie is a person who was raised under the ideological system that came out of the tumultuous 1960’s in north america and western europe. they are either of the flower-child/baby boomer generation or that generations’ subsequent offspring. they possess a core belief set revolving around the values of peace and love as being essential in an increasingly globalized society, and they are oftentimes -ssociated with non-violent anti-governmental groups. there is a stigma of drug abuse attached to the hippies that is prevalent to this day, specifically the use and abuse of marijuana and hallucinagens. many rock movements,poets, artists, and writers from the 1960’s to today have -ssociated with this movement, most prominently the grateful dead, bob dylan, janis joplin, and phish. there are others too numerous to name. the movement, then and now, is considered a sub-culture by sociologists that -ssociates itself with the left in all its political opinions. the conservative right often berates and abuses the opinions of people who -ssociate themselves with the hippie movement and/or lifestyle, as the consider it dangerous and degenerative to a society to favor liberalism to such an extent.
“when we heard about the hippies, the barely more than boys and girls who decided to try something different… we laughed at them. we condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. we hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money-bitten, frightened, adult lives.”
author: june jordan

“how many times must the cannonb-lls fly, before they’re forever banned? …how many deaths will it takes till he knows that too many people have died?”
bob dylan- blowin in the wind.

yay!
one who embraces life to the fullest. promotes peace, love and happiness, but sure as h-ll sticks up for what they believe in. anyone can be a hippie, not just that dirty dread-locked tie-dyed pothead with the dead shirt on. hippies are wonderful people!!!
jerry garcia, all the amazing dead-heads, jimi hendrix, janis joplin, you, me
one who looks upon all of these negative definitions and shakes his head thinking how sad it must be to no longer have the ability to dream of a world that we were all taught to strive for as children. one who loves everyone without prejudice.
a person with a non-conformist state of mind. non-conformist in the sense that they don’t conform to the socially accepted, but in return conform to other hippies with the same peace of mind ideaology. not always disillusioned by the use of psychedelics, marajuana, or other drugs. which is a common misconception. their common ambitions are for a utopia. they are anti war, many are vegeterian, and act in non violent protest (if they do use violence they are hypocritical) it is unfair to make steriotypes of these people who just want to live their lives with equality and love, and peace.
“hippies started the ecology movement. they combated racism. they liberated s-xual stereotypes, encouraged change, individual pride, and self-confidence. they questioned robot materialism. in four years they managed to stop the vietnam war. they got marijuana decriminalized in fourteen states during the carter administration.” timothy leary
one who believes in values such as peace, love, and happiness. however, the rest of the world can not seem to grasp these concepts and chose war, hate, and misery. thus, they despise the ways of the hippies.
hey, the hippies say that there is no need for our pointless violence. why don’t we listen to them?

why would we do that when we can continue to live our in our hateful misery?
originally a term thought to be used by harlem’s black neighborhoods to describe the white “flower children” who could come and go without trouble. from the 50’s; stemmed from the bohemian movement started by professors and students in the san francisco bay region who were experimenting with acid’s effects. the idea spread in the mid to late sixties with the help of the grateful dead and the merry pranksters as they toured the country, and eventually organized the electric kool aid acid tests (a book was named after these).

as the vietnam war continued, those opposed to the war joined together under the leadership of such people as abbey hoffman, who helped radicalize the anti-war movement of the seventies. the police, or the “fuzz,” eventually tried to stem the prolific drug use by recriminalizing marijuana, and making lsd illegal, thus uniting “hippies” and their activist counterparts, the “yippies,” under one common struggle aimed personally against them and their friends’ “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”. also during this time was the s-xual revolution, which got women out of the kitchen and into the workforce, and eroded many taboos of the time.

generally, there was a move toward utopianism, where everyone would have everything they needed to survive – thus, people often only had one set of clothes, which were dyed and redyed, patched, mended, faded, torn, and dirty. as with the rampant homelessness and vagabond life, soap and trimmed hair were considered secondary, and sometimes unnecessary in the great scheme of things.

as time went on, the touring grateful dead had a major following which brought new generations into the movement; the rainbow family continues the utopian tradition today; and organizations such as norml and greenpeace came from 1970’s idealism.

tv shows such as southpark portray hippies as tie-dyed, pot smoking, dumb high school dropouts, who can organize a gathering, but don’t actually do anything to stand up for what they believe in or are protesting. this is a typical stereotype across american media.

often, the “hippie” stereotype includes a teenaged to 50-60 year old adult who believes that peace, love, and happiness is there for anyone who wants it. they tend to be non-conformist, are considered liberal, and left-wing politically, often, if registered to vote, are independents or democrats. they don’t regularly cut their hair or buy new things, and tend to wear the same, faded clothes for years, some of them patched and re-dyed many times. many are environmentalists, pacifists, and nonviolent.
“if you call yourself a hippie, you aren’t really a hippie.”
a hippie is a person who is comfortable enough with themselves that they do not hold judgements against anyone else. they are usually happy people and tend to/try to spread their happiness everywhere they go. a true hippie does not categorise themselves by the way they dress but by the way they act. to be a hippie is to be part of the larger view of peaceful activism. there are although, many different groups of hippies:
1.the gonja tye dyed hippie
2.the holistic healing hippie
3.the festival touring hippie
4.the hipster/weirdo raver hippie
etc.
there are so many different types of hippies in the world that they have become a whole different race of people.
i think, if the world was consumed by hippies, if we took over the population, things would look much more green and beautiful.

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