| Can
we call ourselves hippies if we don't protest the injustices we see around
us everyday? Just because the 60's are long gone, have our consciences
gone too? Did we "cop out" and buy into the "system"? Do we
only care about our jobs, material possessions, and our vacations?
Don't we owe it to our children to set the example we set as children?
We never did finish what we started. Are you young hippies ready
to take up where we left off?
I think we must continue to protest injustices in the world. My husband and I are members of the War Resisters League and other political groups. We are constantly involved with protests, fund raisers, political actions, etc. But it gets tiring. What I really want is to find a small community of like minded people and leave the rest of the craziness behind. Many of us tried to do just that with our drugs and free love. But the work didn't get done. We have to continue what we started. We see the world getting increasingly violent. Love is far from being evident in our world. Sometimes it's hard to see what we are passing on to our children and now, for many of us, our grandchildren. When are we going to see the peace, love, and acceptance that so many of us worked so hard to see. We thought it would come while we were young. Now I don't see it coming even for our grandchildren. But as much as I would like to bury my head or hide in a peaceful commune in Oregon, I know I have to continue to work. If we don't work to save our world, who will. Certainly not the republicrats. It's up to us to stop injustice at every front. We need to continue to teach the young to continue the work we have started. Peace can be achieved. Maybe for our great grandchildren. A Tired Old Hippy
I am an old hippie and agree that if we don't either protest or take some direct and positive action regarding injustices, one can't call themself a hippie. Many have, but it was usually selfishness. The 60's and 60's may officially be gone, but we can bring it back in mood if we all come together in unity on this. It is a cop out, or escapism, to let our consciousness go and not get involved in at least some small way. Whatever way one can do, do it. Just try. I have found that meditation, chanting, music, and helping others is a wonderful way to get involved. Therefore we can keep it in check if we are becoming too materialistic or buying into the system. When you are talking to an abused woman, etc., it is hard to buy into the system. Helping others helps us. We do owe it to our children to set the exaple, otherwise we become the hypocrites we called our own parents. We did not finish what we started. Let's get back in there now and pick up where we left off. We have learned much with the years. The older hippies may have wisdom to offer the new and younger ones, if they want it. And they may have something to teach us as well. This is my opinion. Nice to meet everyone. Feel free to e-mail me. Sincerely,
P.S. Parijata is the name of a flower that grows in India. :)
Hi brothers. I think the question is a very difficult one. The real question is can we live without the system? I doubt it. Every systems has got his own lacks!
Our systems (Capitalism and
There's also an another problem.
It's hard to say, that the new hippies
If there's only one thing that people
shouldn't forget is that we're all
Some of you might say that I'm pessimist.
But our system isn't the
I hope you understood, because I
often think about it, but in French and
See you.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M ready Dave It was the best of times and now it seems the worst. A time that tests our faith in a higher consciousness. Those of us who are still visiting this site, still keeping the faith, right on man. In my heart these dark ages will pass and the age of aquarious will shine through once more. Thank you for this web site.
It has lifted my spirit. It's lonely out
It's hard to say if the message of the hippie is still out there. It's also hard to call yourself a hippie if you don't try to change things, like going to a protest, but yes, you can call yourself a hippie of you have the same feelings and ideas as the real hippies did in the 60's. There are still a lot of hippies out there. Just because you don't see one everyday, or you see more and more republicans on TV, doesn't mean that we have gone away. Yes, some hippies may of surrendured to the system, but the true hippies are still going stong, if they can after all that pot. : ) But what hippies have to remember is, that is it not just your job or your material possesions that are important, but peace and love around the world. There are people who are in desparate need of help, people who are starving or living in countries where they have no rights, so why are our vaction plans giving us trouble?? The hippies of the new generation are the children of a still very messed up society, and the older hippies maybe need to show us young ones the way, now that there are less of us. But like I always say "Hippies are like jeans, they never die, they just fade." Claudia--US 2 HAPPY@aol.com Definitely, you should always finish an unfinished job! HAY! my name is dave and I'm only 16 but I concider my self a hippy. I think that the older genoration has sold out and become the system. theose who were on the piket line in the 60's are now in places where thay could do something to make a diference but have lost the drive (of balls) to do so. I find it sad but I must say that the movement isn't dead. I'm doing what I can here in canada to push for the ideals of environmental safty and love and peace for all. the movement isn't dead in today's youth but is has dwindled in the older genoration to the point where it may be dead. if not dead then in a coma at lest Starfox :-)
Personally, I'm quite willing to take over. Hardly anyone has the stamina to stand out, and be different anymore, and I'm sick of it. The Earth is practically rotting beneath our feet from human infection, and all people are worried about is "What should I wear tomorrow?", ect. We new generation hippies should take a stand!!!!!! DAMMIT I"VE ALREADY STARTED MY QUEST FOR ABSOLUTE FREEDOM Many of the hippies of my generation, I'm sorry to say, have no concept of what it is to be a hippie. They do it just because it is a fad, and they don't really have the guts to stand up for what they believe in. They buy their bellbottoms for $60 at some big-name store, their jewelry at Worldwinds instead of making it, and they care only about looking like a hippie. I'm not saying that you have to make all your clothes and jewelry and everything just to be a hippie. Being a true hippie is not about how you look, it's more of a state of mind.....a state of mind that over half of the so-called "hippies" of this generation don't have. And a big part of it is standing up for our rights and voicing our opinions, no matter how small a difference, if any, it makes. That is what is important. No not if we don't help point out injustice. No they didn't "cop out" just a new generation of hippies have evolved and we have to expect to lose most of the many great rebels of the 60's to conformist, just as it has done so many times in the past (from the death of Jesus Christ to Bill not inhaling 'right') and they have left there children to carry on which is probable the hardest protest of all because they know what there" little babes" are going to go through and they must tolerate these actions too.This is so typical of time and the true hippies of the 60's who are still fighting respectively are leading the generation now and will lead generations in the future.Which mean that the hippie way of life will never die for there will always be people who don't conform to the norm and will take a stand. As an one of the original 'Hippies',
I still, as I did back then, carry
I teach my children that luxeries
though nice to them, are nothing if we
The evolution of peace is still
unfolding and though we are few, we owe
Have I changed? No. Peace & love,
No! Even though the 60's are gone, the spirit still remains! I believe that a sort of covert approach to changing injustice. It seems like major out front in your face protest just generates the very energy that is being protested. Whenever ego takes the lead we fall into that subjective loop. To influence change without taking charge or controlling. Subtle, clever, let them think it is their idea... that is what I think. Don McCormick
Yes, yes, yes! But ... Your question assumes a sell-out, and I don't think I have. I regularly reinforce and reiterate the theories, feelings and practices of the '60s right here at the end of the 90s. It's all about perspective. It's not like taking some old garment out of the mothballs ... I experienced life in the '60s and therefore it is in me. It has colored everything I have done and almost every opinion I have. I pass that on in uncensored manner (well, almost uncensored) to my 10 and 13 year old daughters. Yes it goes on. We never could stop it anyway. I feel the way of the hippies has never died. I never really classified myself as a hippie but I say hippies are rediscovered. I can't speak for everyone but I am ready to seek out peace through love and tolerance. Ive learnded to accept people for their differences and allow then the freedom to express themselves as I have been allowed to do. I am not attached to any material item. I belive I have been taught the virtues of life and will be like my parents. They have taught me well. I now embrace everything beautiful in life and still achieve many goals as happy and gay as ever. I seem to have a way of making myself strong and happy. I learned it from my elders. I do not think anyone should worry about the youth. If you help them to find a way to save the earth and achieve more freedom we will all succeed. I am a 20 years old hippie. Your question seems very intersting so I wanna write some words. I'm wandering if being a young hippie in 90's is a joke. I mean I don't even know if you old hippies were serious. Why did you give up. I see so many people who were hippies and now all they care about is money, new cars etc. When you were young and were hippies was only because it was ''in'' or was it just an excuse for smoking herbs, making free love etc. If that wasn't just a joke so why did you people give up. You never really finished what you started. There are so much injusties in this world, so much suffering people and nobody seems to care or do anything about it. I don't even know why I'm hippie. I guess it's because I love lovin' and am peacefull. I think you can't blame the young people for not being hippies because it you people who sometimes were hippies that killed the idea and gave up. When I say this I don't talk for all of you. I believe we can still change the world if we stay together. People have unlimitted power when they're together. Earth NEEDS to live in peace. Yes, we are ready to pick up where our hippy-fathers left off. We have the means, the ideas, and the motivation. All we need is organization. It's past time hippies everywhere got it together to do our share to end the absurdness in the world. Our generation may not be the generation to end it, but we can take another step towards our goals. So, let's get it together, brothers and sisters, and do what needs to be done. Dave sulak@wcnet.net The biggest problem with our generation of kindfolk is that we are completely unorganized. There are cohesive groups scattered all across the US(and the world) but there is no mecca(as was San Francisco) and there seems to be a lack of will to truly unite on sensative issues and makeourselves heard. It's all been sleeping, and the time will come soon when the pendulum swings back to finish what it began. I've already answered this question, over two years ago!! Please accept my invitation to view my answer at http://132.236.116.200/charles/0196.htm Peace... Charles
I am only 15, but I feel that many of the hippies of the 60's have not lived out their legacy. Some do, but you must keep on going. I know of many kids my age that would be willing to follow the hippies footsteps, if only there were more hippies around. We need the more experienced ones to show us what to do, to show us there is more than money and cars. There still are a few true hippies out there, but my generation needs more to look up to and continue to have hippies and therefore make the world a better place. hey man im a young hippi and totally believe in what you guys were doing back then manand I would love to pick up were you left off but we need a reason to gather together like you guys had wookstock then man we have lalapalooza but its only about comercialism everything is now-a-days man we need to strongly bring back "Peace, drug use for mind expansion and other positive reasons, and definately free love. But there are too many risks now man there aids thats scarey and then there's the fuzz man there getting on everyone's case man Hey man I hate to say it but the only way I think we can really bring back the hippy revolution is with another war thats what inspired the first revolution and it brought your generation together well anyway man write me back and we'll rap about how to bring back the hippie revolution, PEACE Those of us that have integrated into the major culture have an opportunity to further our goals and ideas each day. Just because we have integrated for survival purposes does not mean that we should abandon our principles. We don't have to go for the big statement, but rather we can strike a blow each day by living our lives and showing by example that there is a better path. In our work lives we make decisions each day. Perhaps we can make decisions based on our principle rather than the corporate structures wishes. Just consider yourself as an infiltrator in the enemy camp and do your best. Give me a break! Anyone lucky enough to have survived the 60's, the MOVEMENT and the Hippies should be amazed. Prescription perspective probably best describes the survivors. Face it, We Won. LAA LAA! I hope everyone invested wisely. Least I sound harsh, spare not change but a moment for those who were lost, caught up, and overtaken by the rhetoric and glow of the time. I have influenced everyone and everything anywhere I have been. "And I 've been everywhere man" Ti Juana (and the river -Tia-) to Singapore. What sort of change is necessary for the New Vanguard of society? New and improved Strontium 90 with plutonium enhanced anthrax? Hippies aren't dead or gone. They know that freedom of speech and freedom of individual or collective endeavor are never guaranteed. success is subjective and "what money can't buy I don't need!" Sooo...were we any different? Is the youth of today especially obtuse? If you draw attention to yourself you must accept the consequences. If the reason you are conspicious has meaning the consequences can eat the "big one." srhelms@sandiego.com dear brother/sister. i read the question of the month over and over, and i have to respond. you see, since i was a very little girl all i wanted to do was to make people stop fighting and living in harmony, but i'm afraid it's a thing i'd have to work very hard for. now, i'm from israel, haifa, and over here there is alot of hate among different people from different races. i have alot of arabic friends, but some israeli-jews just despise them, and there are also, of course, israeli-arabics who realy hate us. i always try to arrange parties for arabics and jews so that they'll see that not all arabics want to kill the jews, but it is very hard to make such an impression on the israelis, when almost every week we have to hear of another soldier being killed in lebanon, or about a mother and child and men who get bombed on a bus on their way home. it is very hard to make peace with "the other side" when you're threatened by them, if you know what i mean, and i hope you understand. i'm only 16.5, but i've been trying to make peace between us teenagers (as a beginning) since i was 11. up 'till now i believe i changed alot of people's minds about such issues, but i have to work very hard to reach such results. i was wondering if you could help me or give me any tip or even give me a little support for what i'm doing, because i really need alot of it. peace. love Maya. I'm just a kid but the answer is yes!!!!! I am 16, and I beleive there is a message to be relayed. Some people have been successful in teaching their children how to live, stand up, and achieve a sense of individuality and freedom. I am ready to carry on. But some people have indeed forgoten how to spread this lifestyle, they are wearing suits and sitting behind a desk, thinking "Well, I used to be a 'hippie'". That's wrong. There should be an openess, a feeling across the land, one that has been lost for many years. But who will participate? Who would join? And who would come in and ruin it all over again? I would certainly be willing to help in a world wide "restoration", if you will, of this time period, this idea. Who's with me? KYLE
I think that most true hippy's have not sold out (you can't carry on protesting forever ) but I dont think the younger generation get enough support from you we can only carry on and follow in your example. andy reid
Hey there Bro, To answer your questions.... There are many more ways of protesting the injustices than the large protests and "be-ins" of the '60's. Becoming involved in social justice movements, volunteering, making change within the social stuctures we see injustices occurring in. I believe the book "The Aquarian Conspiracy" has some good ideas in this regard. Did we "cop-out" and buy into the system? Yes! When the need to feed a child and maintain a family takes over and living in a capitalist system leaves very few other avenues to gain a living we had very little other choice. The extent to which we did though is depressing. We now have a corporate culture that is controlling the "New World Order" and Hyper-Capitalism is the reality. With this reality is increased disrespect for the poor and disadvantaged within our societies. Blaming the poor for being poor has become the societal norm.Cheering for the wars of the New World Order is also the "in thing" among many from our generation!! With the extreme success of the "Boomers" it appears that the $$$, vacations and consumerism is more important than the values that were held by many in their youth. Those values seem to be considered as youthful dreams that will never succeed and they have given up living them because of that thought. The values of Corporate North America have taken over. Working within the corporate culture forces this upon many! I strongly believe that we owe it to not only our children but to the World, to set the example once again. Maybe, I'm just experiencing a Mid-life crisis, but I have a clear need to live once again what was so precious and real and wonderful from the Generation of Love!! I strongly believe that if we don't change our ways, Humanity as a whole is in great danger of destroying itself and Mother Earth! We had the right ideas! We must live them once again!! Peace, Seventies Hippie
Hippie is a synonim for "I CARE!"Not for just one thing,but for the future of humanity.My question is:What happen to the "I care generation"?Did they just grow older and slide into conformity?Did we all just sit back and got a job..agreed to work our asses off so that our government could give it all to foriegn leaders in the form of AID!No one keeps an eye on big brother anymore.They just pass the legislation they want and the taxes they want in the name of progress.Bull!Young people of today are lost in the quagmire of socialism.They either go to college and get a degree in computer science and follow the path of conformity or they are lost in drugland,shooting each other for five dollars to buy crack or heroin.One group will enforce the beureacatic pied piper while ther othe will kill each other for NOTHING.Hippy parents of today teach their kids to love and care.Not to abandon.It's the generation of lost and abandoned thats holding the gun.They were not cared for or loved..and they are pissed off! to whoever asked this question, Q: Can we call ourselves hippies
if we don't protest the injustices we see
Q: Just because the 60's are long
gone, have our
Q: Did we "cop out" and buy into
the "system"?
Q: Do we only care about our jobs,
material possessions, and our vacations?
Q: Don't we owe it to our children
to set the example we set as children?
S: We never did finish what we started.
Q: Are you young hippies ready to
take up where we left off?
peace
a simple question, a simple answer....YES! kate no i dont think thats a '' sell out'' your older now and its time us yonger generations take a stand for what we belive in . so hell ya, and i think we're gonna give society a run for thier money. PEACE,LUV &HAIR GREASE TEIA M COOPER HI i am teia's mom and i was a 60's kid and i say our kids are going to take up where we left off and do more we need our kids to keep the right way going i know my 3 kids will because i have tought them just as i was tought!!!!!
right on
Subject: fuck yes we'r ready and i think we shoud all go to arizona and pray for peace this summer theres strength in numbers please be there Well, things are rather quiet here, so you, my unfortunate, unwilling electronic audience will suffer the cathartic outburst for which I am well known in certain circles. I'm getting into a serious beat/psychedelic sort of groove at the moment reading and listening to everything I can get my hands on...Leary, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Wolfe, Hunter S, Kesey, Gurdjieff...anything and everything - even got some Kerouac, Ginsberg and Leary spoken word stuff...seriously thinking about dropping out and going on the road for a while...time to further expand ones consciousness through a little civil disobedience and organic chemistry. Starting to despair at the conformity surrounding me...Johnny Howards spineless '50s government owes more to Menzies than St. Gough...they're banning all sorts of things left, right, and centre without even offering public debate (did you know Kava is now illegal here?), censoring art (where was the government support for the Serrano exhibition?), and literature (a lot of the books on E and the European rave culture are still not legally importable), we tote the American line, refuse the environmentally sustainable farming of hemp (for fear of retaliation from Big Brother Uncle Sam) but happily chip irreplaceable forests, destroy any near future attempts at drug reform (so much for the ACT heroin trials) and throw more good cash after bad by increasing funding to the policing of an unenforceable drug policy. The worldwide move towards religious fundamentalism will only accelerate as we approach the millennial milestone, the rights of the individual becoming meaningless against the fervent tide of mind numbing conformity sweeping across the globe. I can now eat the same McBurger on every major land mass, consume the same carbonated cola soma from the same bright red can.....it's time for some sweeping personal reforms....what to do when I grow up??? Where are you Neal Cassady now that I need you? Beat muse to a hip generation, forever searching for that new frontier, and never enough time, never enough speed....On the road with Jack, you blistered the American heartland chasing new tomorrows and left him to write the travel guide...Amidst towering ivory shadows and ivy clad walls you lit the torch , blue collar minstrel, burning the esoteric search for knowledge with your brutal acid reality, and within that boiling psychic maelstrom you held aloft the Philosophers Stone, transforming academic curiosity into Huxley?s door key, Leary into Benway, and then left the good doctor to tune in and turn on a new generation...On the bus with Kesey and Co., you drove the dancing day-glo swirls and neon painted children ?Furthur?, much further than expected, forever looking around that next bend, over the next horizon...Is that what you found in ?68, alone, away from home, beside the rails of Mexican iron? Was that the new frontier after which you chased so hard? And now , what for me, standing at the bus stop waiting? Languishing in this Antipodean wilderness, the icons of the past now merely museum relics and historical footnotes, curiosities to be discussed within the sanctity of our turnstiled edifices of higher learning, whilst the moral majority and religious fundamentalists nibble away at individual freedoms so hard won. We almost cleared that hurdle once...It was time in ?72, but after ?75?s passion play the flame had burnt too brightly and there was no longer anger enough to maintain any rage, just despair, and despair won?t burn, it can't burn - just slowly transforms into the spirit crushing wormwood bitterness of recent years. ?In darkest times we burn our brightest? and I can feel the blackness closing in...the funeral pyres fed with minds and books leap up in stark relief and I foresee once more the fall of man. In ?88 the concrete fell, but Neo-Nazi?s still march on through Berlin; and human flesh stained asphalt remains in Tiennaman Square as we fawn for trade in China; and innocence and lives and schools are smashed by airborne death in Tripoli to teach them terrorism?s wrong; and black Australia still cries for its generation lost but not forgotten because ?sorry? is too big a word for John to say: and starving Moslem children don't make the headlines in the Western Christian press as the US pupeteers make the UN marionette dance to their capitalist jig....walls fall, and walls rise, but the walls within the mind remain. The doors were closed in ?66, the keys incarcerated with Ken and Tim and William S. behind the walls of bureaucracy, and Hoffman?s ?Problem Child? is out of print...How did it all go so awry...the beautiful children of the '60s have become the power hungry adults of the current day, and although we expect the child to rebel against its parental guidance, how have we chosen this rocky path of Reaganism, conformity and economic rationalisation over the Aquarian ideals of a generation ago, built our colossal monuments to worldwide avarice...Perhaps I'm wrong, maybe I should just go back to sleep! The ill-famed ?mid life crisis? may be responsible for some of the aspect shifts appearing within my perceptions of reality and self, but isn't that merely a label developed and pasted to quantify an apparently universally experienced period of self examination. A point in ones life when you have absorbed enough structured and extraneous input that innate patterns and cycles within the swirling chaos of random events can almost be identified - where we are perilously close to grasping the profound, or at least so it seems. Where one has finally gained enough self awareness and confidence to seriously question many of the fundamental rules and rites that society has proffered as truths and musts. A lifetime of looking without for solutions and answers, seeking knowledge through the ravenous consumption of others experiences, adopting their perceptions and ideals and dogma as your own, is dramatically, sometimes in a single moments insight, replaced by a growing introspection and the dawning realisation that your own beliefs, emotions and thoughts are just as valid as those strident banner headlines quoting the expert or the famous. It becomes necessary to draw succour from self-approval rather than continue the movie watching social voyeurism in which so many of us partake, drinking in the lives of others rather than daring to defy the comfortable stupor doled out by a nervous social mass, preferring the warm glow of acceptance than to shiver and to stand alone, apart from the crowd, isolated from the familiar, no longer clad with the certain protective embrace of mundanity. We are lulled into the belief that the warm haven our current culture engenders is the ?right? environment in which to flourish, to achieve a ?meaningful and productive? life, when all it really allows is the opportunity to repetitively follow the ?meaningful and productive? lives of those that went before, to seek the same meagre successes on the carefully mapped and signposted path that our predecessors have already worn deep with multitudinous heavy dragging steps into the hard surface of reality. And its so easy just to follow, so easy to stop thinking and let inertia push you along the acceptable, and so very hard to blaze a new path into the wilderness, a task made even harder when a society fearing change builds fences along the path making it all but impossible to leave - most don't wish to, and most of those that try are crushed against the razor wire topped cyclone fences of law and tradition. Those not already asleep, those that haven't freely swallowed the saccharine sweet directives fed to us as children - the great Protestant work ethic, the destructive and murderous fraud of national pride, the emotional soma of religion, the assuring caress of conformity - are further mollified with the overpowering intellectually attractive arguments of logic. We continually hear how one must make some sacrifices and allowances in return for the great benefits bestowed upon us by an omnipotent social structure, just small things mind you, individuality, personal freedom, dangerously subversive thought. How generation upon generation of toil and innumerable spent lives have resulted in what now confronts us, the highest pinnacles of human social achievement, why, to reject any of this is a form of disgraceful and disrespectful de-evolution. And then, the most convincing and disarming argument of all, the question normally posed from within before once more returning to the downcast shuffling fold, the highest wall confronting any transgressor before the dark unknown - do you honestly believe you are the only one that's got it right? That the entirety of society is misguided, but that you know the way? How can that be? How can I, the cliched 32 year old white Anglo-Saxon male of non-descript background, doubt what so many undoubtedly much more worthy individuals believe is right - and yet, against this overwhelming tide of opinion I simply and completely know that I do. It's a difficult and tenuous predicament in which to find oneself - rejecting much of what society offers, much of what it stands for, the direction in which it seems to juggernaut, and yet not knowing what it is I seek. It is doubtless cold and lonely, perhaps even terrifying out there, but the urge to try, to experience whatever else there is outside of the multi national cola dominated flavour-identical Maccorporate world is building within, disaffection begins to overwhelm acceptable social teaching. Making this all the more difficult to rationalise, particularly to someone raised to hold the scientific method aloft as the illuminating beacon of logic, is the vast trail of failed alternative social experiments that litter the second half of the 20th century. So many have already rejected the dominant system for a myriad of reasons, and with the fires of righteousness burning brightly they built their brave new worlds and their ivory towers simply to see them torn down by conflicting forces from without and within, and they watched powerless as their leaders were martyred to their causes or were seduced by that which they had already rejected for it's lure is strong and its resources unlimited, and the survivors disillusioned, disbanded and having lost direction and resolve were once more swallowed by the ever consuming capitalist maw. So what is it I'm attempting to
say...I'm not sure, perhaps it's not even
I think we should the system has gotten really bad since then and we should start a the protesting and the fun times and the appearal!!! It was great but hopefully its not gone.
Tristan
What was the question again? Oh yeah.... Right. Well, I thought we WERE the social conscience people. The hair is great (if you have any left); the garb is great; the brotherhood is great; but if you stand for nothing, you ARE nothing. Hmmmm Did I really say that? I feel that I cannot take the place of the original " hippie" state of mind,but, I do feel that inside I am a true hippie. I live in the ways of spirituality, peace, and love everyday of my life. Eventhough the world has gotten much worse for the youth of today , inside my true self reflects in everything I fight for. Times change and so do people but, one thing always remains the same, and it is that you always end up with yourself the rest of your life, and you can either fight for what you believe in and take a stand , or you can shut yourself out from the rest of the world and not give a damn about changing it! Sincerely, SexyLeo78 I'm ready! You know Im a young hippie and my parents wern't hippies but preps. I've always wondered though why does growing up have to mean leaving behind all the things you supposedly stood for in your younger days. I know many people that were hippies in the sixties and they are now doing the things they protested or looked down upon in a groovy kinda way. They are some of the plastic buying war supportin meat eaters. so whats up with that you pink housed lexus drivin' x-hippies. And now all of my friends think that I should be growing out of this phase called life at 20. 20 is young and I wanna enjoy my freedom but alot of my middle class (remember my preppy middle-class parents) buddys think its time to grow up and sell the bus. So whats up with that they were hippies just a few months ago (???) and now its "Im 20 let me be a flippin yuppie now" I just dont understand why this lifestyle that permeates all parts of your life can be ditched so easily. CRAZYJENJEN Crazyjen4jc@hotmail.com
yes! we can call ourselfs hippies. everything change , even hippies. the 60`s are gone but a new century is coming and I think that can change peoples minds , a new begining , a new start. even if the hippies don`t have been much active for a while don´t mean the"flower power"time are gone , let`s hope that this new millenium will bring new thaughts. I know that it will. john schmidt
I was browsing the web and I came across your question and decided to give my opinion. To start off, I'm not a hippie (although I guess we've all got some hippie inside), but I just thought about the question, should we protest about the injusties of everyday, and I guess we all should, in one way or another, and i also guess that we're all doing it one way or another. So, if someone started this thing of hippies, i think that many people should have backed it up, and if it was kind of terminated, why shouldn't it start again?(They told me once it's from a dumb person to answer a question with another question) I wish the best for you all, Nico Gibson
Most people that were hippies in the 60's aren't anymore. There's not that many left, most of them have defintily bought into the "system" and stopped protesting about things, I guess they just stopped caring. I'm only 14, and I wish there were more hippies around to set an example. I know that when I grow up, I'm going to set an example for my children and keep the tradition alive. peace, "maryjane"
Your question makes the same mistakes as the hippy movement did in the sixties, That is that there is nothing to carry on. The hippy movement tried to force belief on people who were not ready to believe for it is belief that is the cornerstone of the universe, with out it the universe would not exist, nothing would. But to answer your question, are we the next generation ready to carry on the movement the answer is there is no nead. For the path that we as individuals have come to chose on our own is the true path, and others will follow in time. There is no need to force the issue as eutopia will happen, as it has done before and it will do again. Look to the circle and you will see that all that is required is spirit and nothing else. Live every moment of your life now........Projector.
My father was a hippie back in the day. He knew the issues and protested everything he was against. Now that i am grown up i have become what might be called a neo-hippie. I feel an obligation to help this planet since i am part of the problem. Without a problem like Vietnam to protest, we can be part of the solution to this societies many other problems. Whether it be to protect women at abortion clinics or protesting for a person's civil rights. Sure times have changed, but there is no reason to not be aware. There are more problems to be protesting now than there were then. There is no excuse not to protest and to be seen just because we don't have Vietnam. bring peace to this world, skye
Well,as a matter of fact,I do think that most of us young and old,are ready for almost anything thats ahead of us,the hip,cool,clothes like stuff,but there are some people who want to be just like the sixties,witch,in a way, is fairly scary!I,personaly want to be a sixties hippie,but without drugs!Now,I bet you think I sound like most of your parents,but if you stop and think about it,there right!I dont know how many of you belive me,but I also think that some of the hippies who dont listen to other people that know more about the topic,end up as "wanna-beez!"And I also think,no,we didn't"cop-out". Hi I'm a young hippie (16) and I want to help finishin' the work that was started in the sixties. The problem is that nowadays there aren't many young hippies anymore. I'm the only one on my school. But if all the young hippies work together we still got the power to finish the job and make the world a better place!!! Stijn if 31 counts as young so be it.i still beleive man and do what i can. i have a nine year old son and i'm showin him the right path if ya know what i mean so i'm with ya brothers and sisters peace! jonesy ! I think that a lot of people have forgotten what their learning experiences through the Grateful Dead and other Hippy interests taught them. I never was a "deadhead" but I think I have conserved a compassion that was created by their message. What saddens me is to find my friends of today, who were convinced five years ago to "love one another" have become bitter and unresponsive to many humanitarian and enviromental interests. They were the ones who taught me to think about the other side and suddenly they've all disappeared. I used to be on the outside looking in, strange how circumstance changes. Can we call ourselves hippies if we don't protest the injustices we see around us everyday? No, and I no longer call myself a hippie. I have become part of the silent majority that I used to hate. However time and age as well as social changes forced me to become the corporate geek, middle-class moron that I used to loathe. Just because the 60's are long gone,
have our consciences gone too? Did we
Do we only care about our jobs,
material possessions, and our vacations?
Cyrano
Hello, I am a Hippy!!! Yes, I do believe that hippies today need to pass on their way of life to their children. It is the responsibility of us, the remaining hippies in the 90's, to further what we have learned, loved, and lost. We need to open these young minds to what makes life full-filling. If we fail, where will their love go? Peace, Sugar Magnolia
yeah man,i think we are.there might be alot of us that are'nt ready for that kinda journey but i think that alot of us are man.and like just because we don't get as much publicity from the media does'nt mean that we're not all out there trying to make a difference.just as you(old hippie)feel that your generation should set the example for us the second generation hippies..well like we feel the same way about settin' that example for our kids man.because we must never let the world forget what it is we all have together.the beautiful people must keep shining their light's for all the world to see."unity i spoke the word as if a wedding vow,ah but i was so much older then i'm younger then that now" we have to keep fightin' against this worlds cold injustices and if we don't take freedom then there ain't no one going to give it to us man."one way or another this darkness got to give" keep truckin', Love'n Light me and a circle of brothers and sisters have been tryin' to get people up and kickin' again... I think that a real hippy has to care about everything around him. Though the 60's are gon it doesn't mean that hippies are gone too. There are passive and active hippies nowadays. Passive just enjoy what they see around them, active, like GreenPeace fight against evil and injustiness. Shurik Moscow, Russia
I think it depends on how one defines "protest." In the 60's there were basically two groups - the political activists and the dropouts. What many today think of as hippies were in the drop out camp. In the broad sense of the definition they were protesting the insanity of their society by refusing to be part of the mainstream. The other group - of which I was one, still believed that changing the system was possible and their protests were more visible. As to todays hippies, I believe both camps are still needed. Indeed, all of us perhaps find ourselves in both camps in varying degrees. As to your qustion. My answer is a resounding no! It is unthinkable that one could be a hippy and not protest the established society in which we live. How would one be a hippy in any stretch of the definition if they did not either 1) drop out of the mainstream or 2) attempt to change the mainstream through protest, political activism, etc? Protest is the very core value of being a hippy. I am ready to take up the sword of freedom once again by living freely and in line with my own wisdom and conscience. I do not advocate violence except in defense of ones personal light, life, love, and liberty...and then only as a last resort when violence is being used against myself and the ability of myself to attain and maintain these inviolable personal rights. I find myself in a situation now where I can not seem to work within the system and remain peaceful so I am having to look at leaving mainstream society in order to avoid being violent and thus being demonized. I am a loving, healing, old soul who refuses to be demonized or forced into negative or violent situations due to lack of willingness of others to make an attempt at understanding me. I have given all for love and now love rips my heart out and laughs. I hope to discover a sanctuary or place to survive on my own long enough to find love and support amongst friends and cosmic brothers and sisters in the multiverse. I don't know if I will succeed in this incarnation but I can't let that stop me from being "me". I have attained successful unity and symbiotic integration of the pertinent macrocosmic forces governing the multiverse at the present and would love to apply my skills and talents to productive ends with loving beings. The address I am leaving is 1109E. 200S. SLC, UT. I have a 1974 Dodge Van that I may live in for a while or I may live on the street. I have no friends as most everyone I know has been positioned around me to manipulate and control my symbiosis and the natural power resulting. I feel like a leper due to others paranoia and fear about me. If you have advice how to seek sanctuary and have local tribe or family in this area, please feel free to approach and speak with me. I am real...My name is Kurt. Peace and Love. You are still hippies because you are the creators of it. When you have a family it is hard to go out and do the things you used to. I think you should teach your childern about the hippy way's if you do that you are still definitely hippies. I think the generations before us, owe the upcoming generations a better place to grow & live. Not just the hippies, but all who witnessed injustices. We as people are to learn from our mistakes and not let them continue. Every life has a time period in this world, this is the only time we as individuals have, why not change the wrongs. All I know is when I start something I truly truly believe in, I have to finish it -even if that finish line is 12 feet below. The hippies of yesterday have disappointed me and I feel have "SOLD OUT", but any hippie reading this today, you can truly call youself hippy : ) But ask yourself this, "Have you waived your white flag and given up the purpose, all the protests? (Deep down I really don't think so) I know the struggle ahead will be a big big thing, but who would want something easy? kantCme
well, about that it's like there are now several ways that with this internet thing we can now express our views with e-mails and other forms of electronic stuff. the spirit is still there and still some people are expressing their views in the traditional ways.we had already took of but in a different form. I personally Think HECK YA, I mean i'm only 14 but I protest the system, Take school for an example , i try to change the system in my high school and get in plenty of trouble for it but it won't stop me. Ever. Ethsay68@cyberdude.com Most of the hippies today are either politicians or business men and women. Alot of their kids are all grown up now. Most of their kids were kids when I was a kid. I don't know if they wiil start where their parents left off. About half of these kids are messed up because their mother took drugs during pregnantcy. These kids are basically vegetables. I have seen so many of them when I did Special Olympics. I feel sorry for the kids whose lives were ruined before they were born. Dam right I peddle pititions, go to meetings, get kicked out of meetings, call my city leaders state and federal officials, I bitch about a lot things. Somethings get changed some don't but I fight like hell. I've gained a lot more respect now but in my flowerchild days respect was hard to get. Hang in there young hippys and start bitchen! Cicely Lee
I am a young hippie from Wisconsin and I believe that today's hippies are as true to their beliefs as the ones that came before them. We are not the most popular group that everyone wants to be in, so only those that really believe join. We will not sell out and become the problem. We believe in peace and love, love our Mother Earth and try our hardest to fight for our beliefs. But we can only do so much. We are a small voice yelling to be heard and the support group behind the hippie culture is not as big as it was in the 60's, and 70's. This young group doesn't have voting rights -- or at least I don't-- and a lot of the wannabe hippies from the 60's are coming back to say that the hippies were nothing and that people who think they were great should be locked up. That is where we need the old hippies. They can help us to do what we're trying to do by not telling us we're out of line and off base. The old hippies have to teach us younger ones a few things yet. To answer your question, young hippies (and yippies) are more than willing to take up the crusade. Our radicalism may be quieter, more fragmented, and in general harder to find, but it is there none the less. We will become the teachers, the public defenders, the hackers, the volunteers. What we truly need from those who preceded us is not to be labeled "generation x" or apathetic, but constant encouragement. We have seen many of those we admire and aspire to be "sell out," disappear, drop dead, or worst of all, become cynical. Too many people have told me, and others like me, that "when I am older I will know better." I don't want to know better. I will not accept the
bitter, defeatist
Thank you. Deborah Salzberg
I don't know about anyone else, but just because the 60s are gone does NOT mean I have stopped protesting the injustices in life. In fact, that is what makes me the person I am. I work for the rights of the mentally handicapped/developmentally disabled, truly the group in our society who NEED someone to stand up and speak for them. Truly our society's last needy bastion. Being an old hippie, willing to question the dictates from a political governing body, to advocate for the needs of my truly forgotten, forsaken members of society, gives me the tools, the balls, and the disregard for the political well-bing of the self to fight for the rights of our population. Not only that, we DO NOT get paid what similarly educated peers make, you know.... the ones who make their $150/hr fees from bored housewives and drug users court ordered into counselling. And I picked this work for the real potential it gave me to really MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of these people, to gain that self-satisfaction for a job well done that comes rarely. HELL YES, old hippies exist and work. I'll have you know that I AM finishing what I started and encourage the younger people I work with to do the same. What makes me sad is the myth surrounding hippies in today's youth. Sorry folks, being a hippie had little to do with drugs, sex and rock and roll. Those were the things we did for recreation when we weren't busy trying to CHANGE THE WORLD. Proud to be a hippie Betty Patrick wildhart@infocom.com Of course we can pick up where you guys left off!!! I hear what your sayin man and as a representative of young hippies in my community we are ready to take action and start where you guys left off. Unfortunately social injustice is still very much a part of life and the fight against must go on. Many people prefer to turn away and pretend that they cant see what's up. If you have some advice for me please tell me what I can do. Well first of all, I am only 15 years old and I sure dont know much about the real world but if their is one thing I know about is the " original hippies." And I think that a hippie is someone who is their own person, they dont care what other people think of the but they wont think bad things about someone else. You dont need to protest to be a hippie. You dont even need to tell people your oppion about something much less start a protest.
No, we cannot call ourselves hippies if we have copped out &/or sold out to become "grownups" & pursue material things. We must not ignore what our capitalistic society is doing to us & our offspring, otherwise they will not have the opportunity to pursue the goals & ambitions we held so dear. As to the question are the young hippies ready, well I
just don't know.
I know for me...I'm willing to take up where the others left off...just need to know where to start! reply to shara@abraxis.com
The young hippies of today's world must answer the call of true spirit and stand up for what they beleive in. The new generation is impressionable and can easily fall to the corrupt leaders of the world. We cannot let them succumb to the things that a majority of the old hippies did, the "system". We can't do it alone. We have to pull together as a family once more and teach the young the way of the earth and all that is in our minds and souls. If not, then we all are surely doomed for once we run out of openminded people, the "system" will creep up underneath us and pull us to our destrustion and demise.
I don't know that young hippies have to pick up where anyone left off. We are all in this together as citizens of Planet Earth. An older hippie can start a demonstration or protest or whatever. It shouldn't be up to young people to deal with this alone. We need the knowledge and guidance from others. I think there are probably some that copped out and bought
into the
Have you ever been to a protest or demonstation? I haven't been to one since high school. We used to have lots of them in 1969! The one I remember most was the biggest one we had back then. I attended Ward Melville High School in Setauket N.Y., and half the school marched about 5 miles from the school to a large park in the center of town. The reason I remember this one the most , is because of a large photo in my high school year book. I was THE school folksinger. The picture is of me (wearing a poncho to try and cover up the fact that I had gotten pregnant during WOODSTOCK) playing guitar and singing anti-war songs and behind me is a fake casket with a big sign on it that said 40,000.(the number of U.S. servicemen/women killed in Vietnam to that point)I believe the most requested song that day was "Dead Girl of Hiroshima". D. Econoply
I've been to several protests and demonstations. I go to protests when I feel especially strong about an issue and when I have time from my BUSY life. The last one I went to was a couple of weeks ago. The protest was against Governor Bush's (He's the governor of Texas, where I live)decision to dump some nuclear waste from Vermont and New Hampshire in a tiny town called Sierra Blanca, which s located in West Texas, near a fault line, and not too far from the Rio Grande River. The majority of Sierra Blanca's population is poor Mexican-Americans, and they had no say in the decision of this nuclear dumping. They were simply told that this was going to be the site, thank you very much! The protest's theme was "nuclear-circus" meaning people painted their faces, and tied scarves and dressed up in costumes, and carried ballons. There were people that rode on unicylces, basically we did whatever we could to attract attention and draw the eye and make the cause of the protest known. It was fun, and I hope that we made a difference. It's just really sad that our government makes nuclear-dumping decisions based on environmental racism. I PROTEST THE FACT THAT THERE ARE STILL HIPPIES ON THIS PLANET!! DIE HIPPIES DIE DIE HIPPIES DIE DIE HIPPIES DIE yes i was at a protest against the double execution happening in chicago illinois, all we did was walk around in a cirlce screaming chears and smoking, all in all we did not accomplish anything , because a few months afterwards i heard that both men were dead. Later aaron
I proteseted on my senior year in 78'. Me and my pals went to Florida to see the epcoc center, when we arrived there was a band playing outside our cheap but nice hotel, it looked as if it was a V W van load of hippies and there was upper class people throwin tomatoes at them and calling them names. well as me and my friends being young teens we decided to help out the hippies, we formed a protest and we were determined not to leave the parkin lot the whole weekend, finally the police came and took us away and we were realeased. i was pissed, because we were standing up for what we believe. peace love and music. mary
Yes, I have been in a protest, when the government was considering boming Iraq with tactical ground piercing nukes, A bunch of us were at the Capitol in Vermont, I made a sign with half a tree on one side and the other side was a half of a mushroom cloud, under the tree was written life. Or was written in the middle and death was written undet the nuclear blast.We would talk to people on the side walks, And a third wouldn't talk to us, a third would be against nuclear war, and a third would be for it. We even entered the state house and our leaders got a chance to negotiate with officials we got a press release, but don't know if it made the news. In my opinion peace will only come if we trancend our harsh growth and our bloody and firey past. This will be hard, and I do not know if we can give up weapons and still survive against the elements and the ravages that all organisms continually battle. It is a dream I hope it will come to pass. The Peace Beast Yeah, we burned our bras! An Idaho "hippie chic" I have been to two protests/Demonstrations, both of which I was one of the main organizers. The first was 2 years ago at my old high school. We had a walk out protesting the treatment of the teachers (they didn't get their promissed raise, and were made to work overtime without pay while the superentendant took a raise for herself). After the walkout, a sit-in was planned, but called off because we got a meeting with the superentendant (who had only visited the interior of our high school twice in the tree years or so that she was in office) and the principal. We got media attention for both attempts. The seccond was a small demonstration against Cassini in I believe October of last year. It was in down town amherst, mostly for the purpose of getting signatures for a petition of another group. We collected about 530. Actually there is supposed to be a big event at look park in western MA protesting Cassini, that I am on the commitee for. If nayone is interested in going, you can Email me (Rowan407@aol.com). Both experiences were great and I really learned alot about change. Love
Unfortunately, I have never been to a protest or demonstration. I think there was one back in the early eighties for the punk movement or something like that, but I was never a punk. Once I thought about holding a protest at school in 1985, but I knew most of the other students would not be able to understand my reasons to protest America's involvment in the war in Central America. I don't even know why we were involved in that war anyway. For those of you who don't know, during the middle eighties America was helping Central America fight a civil war in Nicaragua or something like that. That was also when we were trying to feed the hungry in Africa. I was only 14 at the time. |