HIPPIES IN OUR MIDST

[Ocklawaha]

This doesn't need much from me, except to say the rumors of our extinction are premature, and we still lurk under the fabric of Jacksonville!

BEWARE OF THE HIPPIES!

First of all, the stereotype for hippies is about as reliable as the stereotype for any other people, that is to say not at all.  Hippy culture was never monolithic.  It encompassed well over half of every kind of kid there was in the late 60s and early 70s, and spanned every socio-economic strata of American society.  If you weren't a hippy in those days, what you know and think about hippies is probably wrong.  It's not your fault.  The media has distorted the reality as a part of the conservative culture wars.  They are, and have always been, threatened by hippies who never had any trouble seeing straight through them and who consistently called them on their bullshit...

For the rest of a Great little article see: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/9/15336/46019






















...And from JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, Mr. Scott McKenzie

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

~ written by 'Poppa' John Phillips, recorded by Scott McKenzie

The legacy of the hippies:

- There's nothing funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding.
- Peace is better than War, Love is better than Hate, and Understanding is better than Ignorance.
- An opened mind is a useful approach to life.
- People deserve to be loved, accepted, and cared for.
- Drug warriors and laws against drugs do infinitely more harm than drugs themselves.
- People should be totally free as long as they aren't hurting or causing harm to anyone.
- We should all have more respect, empathy, and concern for one another.
- War and violence suck and have no place in civilized society!
- Our government lies like a fucking rug and must be restrained by the people.
- The excesses of capitalism must likewise be restrained by the people.
- It is easier to mock, scorn, or trivialize than it is to understand, but understanding is worth the effort.
- OCKLAWAHA!


OCKLAWAHA

[Overstreet]

OCKLAWAHA made a post and didn't mention anything with rails.  I thought I'd never see that.

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

i had no idea we could use the F-word on MJ.

also:  hippies, next to ravers, are my second least favourite easily categorisable sub'culture'.  nothing against their goals, but their methods are hideously flawed--as is their music.

[BridgeTroll]

but their methods are hideously flawed--as is their music.

In what ways?

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

Yes, please elaborate. This is gonna be good.

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

having sex and taking drugs have never changed the world.  never will, and unless you count advertising their worldview as a method, what else have hippies done?  i've got some respect for the few that've actually gone out and chained themselves to trees to fight clearcutting (though i prefer spiking--less personal risk and more property damage), but for the most part their infatuation with peace prevents them from doïng anything actually useful.

[BridgeTroll]

You left out the music part...

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

oh, i didn't think anyöne was interested in my thoughts on the music...since it's based on opinion, what can i say except that i strongly dislike it?  i will now proceed to say more:  it's horrid and boring, i find the lyrics and composition ov most songs by most hippie musicians (i'm thinking ov stuff like grateful dead, the beatles, and strawberry alarm clock--not saying that they're all akin to each other, but to indicate the spread) extremely irritating.  i can't put a finger on precisely why any more than i can say precisely why i like the things i do.  part ov it could be the emphasis on love without ever having a well-defined concept ov what love even is--hippies and their music use it as a convenient catch-all feelgood buzzword without ever telling us what it actually means to them--all the music also tends to sound the same, which is no wonder as it was largely all 'inspired' by the same drugs.

tl;dr version:  songs about love and drugs bore me to tears.

full disclosure:  i do have soft spots for jefferson airplane, iron butterfly (but NOT that horrid drum solo everyöne's so infatuated with in 'in-a-gadda-da-vida', though it's a pretty good song otherwise), and, on rare occasions, jimi hendrix.  yes, this probably makes me a hypocrite.  yes, i've made my peace with that.

[buckethead]

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMTUyNDIzNTQ0/v.swf

[Traveller]

This thread reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman takes on the hippie music festival.  One of my favorites.

[braeburn]

This might sound horrible, but...

I think marijuana is one of the most beautiful, shrubby plants on the planet. Is that strange, or what? I would love to have that as a privacy hedge

[Jaxson]

Growing up, I admired the hippies because they were the ones who took action.  My generation, instead of taking action, sat around waiting for someone else to do something about things. 

[Ocklawaha]

having sex and taking drugs have never changed the world.  never will, and unless you count advertising their worldview as a method, what else have hippies done?  i've got some respect for the few that've actually gone out and chained themselves to trees to fight clearcutting (though i prefer spiking--less personal risk and more property damage), but for the most part their infatuation with peace prevents them from doïng anything actually useful.

Yup! Having sex only populated the planet, without those drugs we wouldn't be reading Alice in Wonderland to our kids, and world medicine would still be in the stone age.

Oh yeah...  RAIL RAIL RAIL!

That ought to about do it! I'm looking for that elusive 40 acre field... I plant to walk to the center and smoke my way out, bud by bud...

OCKLAWAHA

[simms3]

I think it is important to "expand the mind" in high school and college years, but if you never grow out of your "hippie ways" you are not going to get very far in life.  Hippies do many things right, but they probably do more things wrong.  A flaw that many southern conservatives have is that they do not challenge very many notions and they do not expose themselves to new things, but the real purpose of exposing oneself to new ideas, people, and cultures is to take the best of each that you find and hopefully further engrain your own inborn beliefs (in my case conservatism...I try to be liberal, I do, and most of my friends are, but all that does for me is remind me why I am a conservative).  Burnouts are a complete joke because they never got beyond their acid days.  Most of them usually have enormous chips on their shoulder anyway that prevent them from seeing reality and from doing anything with themselves by way of interactions with people who aren't exactly as leftist as they are.

[Ocklawaha]

Interesting take on it... Hum?  Guess I'm in a category of my own here, old hippie that still embraces the "eternal youth mantra," and really don't give a rats ass what anyone thinks of it.  As for drugs, I really hope nobody has written these very mature comments while sipping an adult beverage. But all kidding aside, "HIC", now that I'm grown and broken thanks to a little excursion called Vietnam, I get my drugs free for life and it's the HIPPIE experience that allows me to smile all the while.


OCKLAWAHA