Have you ever been, are you now, or will you be in the future - A hippie?
Asked by
JLoon (
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)
January 9th, 2021
It’s starting to look way more healthy than drinking political Kool-aid.
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54 Answers
We require your definition
Well then I’ve always been a hippie. How’s THAT for an answer.
I was. Sorta. That 70s girl.
@Dutchess_III – I think I’m sort of attracted to that lifestyle (parts of it anyway), but it’s like mysterious history to me.
I could swamp you with questions, but that would be so uncool… ;)
I have a swanky lifestyle—it’d be hard to give it up.
But there is a part of me would like to just start hitchhiking across the country.
The fact that I’m here may provide you an answer.
No, but I kinda want to do unpleasant things to people who complain about “hippies”.
@JLoon You are romanticizing something which can no longer be realized. It’s equivalent to pursuing a stint at crewing a whaling ship or apprenticing for switchboard long distance “operator”. The society in which you are currently living has more stringent defenses against what you are entertaining than you can possibly appreciate at your age. The late 60s through middle 70s was the tiny window in our history when the middle class was permitted to participate in the “fad” of idealism. I don’t believe you can understand what I’m talking about, but unless you are blessed with a trust fund or assured a husband that is loaded, your fantasy amounts to dreams of tropical luxuriating on a pristine beach while shivering as you’re blanketed by heavy shelling in your rain drenched foxhole.
That wasn’t my intent. You seem to have the idioms lined up. Now if you can only revive the era when “tuning out” (falling behind) did not assure catastrophe.
Perhaps in your next life you can be born in the mid 40s through the mid 50s. (luck again!), or better (regardless of the era) born rich.
@stanleybmanly – As long as there IS a next life, I’ll take my chances ;)
Is a soul required for the next life. Is one required to realize the other?
@stanleybmanly – It was your idea, I thought you knew. Why don’t you just drop out with me and be a hippie? You know you want to…
@stanleybmanly care to explain to me what “hippie” means? I don’t think I understand this conversation, and I think of hippie as someone who rebels against the norms by being weird and contrary.
Because I’m older than death itself and no longer nearly vulnerable enough to Idealism. Worse, I have a wife, also formerly beset by hippie tendencies who fully appreciates the absurdities involved with people our age attempting to pull it off today. Back when we were hippies, there were certainly plenty of jubilant dropouts the age I am now. That’s the difference between then and now. “Sigh”
@Mimishu1995 that is the PRECISE definition this society requires of you regarding THE meaning of “hippie”. You need only insert the word “dangerously” before “weird and contrary” You are to react to the word “hippie” as you would to “socialist” or “pedophile”.
Hippies of the 60’s were phony, a waste of time and a joke. I was born in 1951 and never considered being a hippie. I never took drugs or engaged in unrest or war protests. I was too busy working hard to get through college and make a success of my life.
Yes of course. Remember “It’s never too early to stifle idealism!” “Phony” and “waste of time” are also suitable substitutes for “weird” and “contrary”, only again you neglect the preface of “dangerously”. Continue to wallow in your good luck at “missing out”.
@gondwanalon – Then I’m putting you down as a “no”. But have you noticed: phonies, drugs, and unrest everywhere – but no more hippies?
Hmmm… wonder what happened.
See, your mind works, whether you want it to or not!! Sorry for the cross you must bear.
@stanleybmanly oh, so “rebel without a cause” then? I can think of some people like that…
I used to be that wild, but now I have learned to pick my battle. No need to waste your energy on a fight you are sure to lose.
Mimi, there will be just as many times when those battles pick you. Wild does not equate with stupid or illegal. The opposite of a wild horse is a “broken” horse. You should always keep in front of you the most useful mantra of the hippie regarding existence in the service of “the man”. But I don’t believe you need worry. You’re a writer already. You will be revered and appreciated every bit as much as the most committed of hippies.
@stanleybmanly thank you for your advice. And don’t worry, I won’t give up fighting for what is right. It’s just that I have learned over the year to distinguish what is really the right thing vs what other people think is right/cool :)
Being raised in the 70’s, there are positives to the hippie life for sure. But as a sober kid watching them, I saw plenty of negatives, too. Hard pass.
Nope. I was never a hippie, but I was and will always be a long hair.
I was too young to be a hippie.
@stanleybmanly Yes I missed out on wasting my life on hanging out with creepy drop outs losers and using drugs. I retired 6 years ago after a successful 38 year long career. I have reached upper middle class with no debt, house paid off and far more money in investments and other sources than I will ever spend.
@JLoon I have an old friend that has been living a hippie lifestyle for the last 50 years. He refuses to communicate with me. Maybe he’s jealous of my success. He’s not a phony. He’s a true believer. So sad.
@gondwanalon: Not all hippies were creepy dropout losers and not all hippies stayed in that lifestyle. Many had a few years of fun and then went on to successful, more traditional lifestyles.
@gondwanalon “Yes I missed out on wasting my life on hanging out with creepy drop outs losers and using drugs. I retired 6 years ago after a successful 38 year long career. I have reached upper middle class with no debt, house paid off and far more money in investments and other sources than I will ever spend.”
How many multi-billion dollar computer companies have you founded?
You know, it’s astounding how many people miss the point (as well as the truth) around hippies. I know more rich ex hippies than stick-up- the ass square business pricks, and will not apologize for it. And again, it was pure luck that put me coincidentally in San Francisco in 1966. I had never heard of a hippie. I was simply disgusted by a blizzard and hopped a Greyhound. I regard that decision and those years as the best of my long life. And I tell you this country is by no means a better place because there is no way in hell I could get away with it today.
Hippy Freebie. And you know when I think about it, my hippie friends aren’t actually ex hippies. And neither am I. It’s like allowing someone to label you an ex marine. If there is one thing that experience taught me it is to recognize an insult.
Yeah, mainly, especially in recent decades, the word “hippie” is used as a negative judgement or attack. People who resent, fear and/or despise (what they label and insist is true about) “hippies” still are violently attached to their insistence on vilifying what is now almost entirely their own term.
i.e. It’s become a defensive conversation that their egos regurgitate to shame away from their thinking any thoughts entertaining that they’re own ego identity and life choices might not have been entirely authentic and fulfilling.
Kind of like how certain people who may tend to overlap that group somewhat, jump to label as “Communist / Socialist / Soviet / impossible / bad / wrong” (also in a Cold War era context) any suggestions of change to arch-capitalism.
“hippie or hippy ... (1965) : a usu.young person who rejects the mores of established society (as by dressing unconventionally or favoring communal living) and advocates a nonviolent ethic; broadly : a long-haired unconventionally dressed young person…” -from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
IMO, a carry over from the 50’s era beatnik, who was, IMO, a carry over from the 40’s era “hipster… (1940) : a person who is unusually aware of and interested in new and unconventional patterns (as in jazz or fashion)” -also from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th ed.
I disagree @Zaku. They were far more vilified in the 60s and 70s by The Establishment.
Long Haired Hippie Type Pinko Fag.
Long Haired Hippie Types Need Not Apply.
@gorillapaws I did not say that I’m some kind of a great success story. But I made it to the bourgeoise. Woopty doo! HA!
Ditto @Dutchess_III About the vilification. People hated our type. The Rednecks in particular. But now I’m guilty of stereotyping myself. Being a military brat I could only go so far, after six months I’d be required to get at least a semi haircut. I still hold a lot of the ideas and ideals I had then, in some other ways I have become more semi traditional. Those were the days though. I don’t feel like a sell out either. Which is more than I can say for (cough) my sisters. Although at least one has gotten much more liberal under my tutelage : )
@Dutchess_III Yes. And it was said so much more often back then, because it was such a current and new and more visible social phenomenon at the time.
What I meant was that back then, I think there were also more people who might tend to be using the term in other ways that were not so negative. That still happens, but more often, it seems to me, especially on typical social media, if I see the term “hippie”, it’s usually some conservative type flailing judgements at imaginary targets.
The term itself was first used by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen and other local reporters to describe proponents of the youth counter-culture movement that seemed to congregate in and around the San Francisco area in the mid-to-late 1960’s. The counterculture of that era crossed boundaries with several other fledgling sociopolitical events, such as Vietnam War protests, women’s liberation, gay rights, organic food, civil rights and others. The opposite of “hippie” at the time would be “red neck”.
I think the opposite of hippie (at least according to hippies) would be “business man”. Hippies were in effect “red neck intellectuals”. There were more deserters from the heartland and redneck country than people today would ever believe. No, the enemy wasn’t rednecks. The hippies were right on the money. The enemy was (and remains) the Chamber of Commerce and its slave/enforcer —the governments.
Do you want to know my proof of how I am convinced the hippies understood the lay of the land? It’s simply this: I understand that my belief is shaded by where I live, but the concentration of millionaire “former” hippies here is absolutely staggering. You want to talk to someone who KNOWS what the country and business are about? Find yourself a successful hippie and light up.
@stanley Isnt a rich hippie called a sell out? Kids are still raped, elderly still die hungry, homeless abound, etc… I thought hippies would be our heroes but they took the payoff instead.
They, like the rest of us, are in fact denied a choice. Hippies understood the consequences of “dropping out”. And the Chamber of Commerce (government) ratcheted things down to make such a choice a virtual impossibility today (as you would of course be expect).
@stanley Quite disappointing for this 70’s kid. I was inspired by those ideals and we seem further away than ever.
Take hope. The world has survived worse times than these.
The irony of it all is that I am now a hippie who commands “respect” through the deceitful addition of the simple adjective “retired”. If only I’d known in my 20s.
The opposite of the hippies was “The Man.”
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