Whatever Happened To The "Hippies" ?

(I took this picture of a "Hippie" Drum Circle in Woodstock, New York just a few years ago.)

The society in the United States in the 1950's and 1960's was a very restrictive one. It excluded many non-whites, kept women as second-class citizens, demonized the LGBT community, and looked down on anyone who didn't want to live their lives as proscribed by that society.

But in the mid-60's, the Baby Boomers began to come of age. And they didn't want to live in a society so restrictive and demanding of conformity. They began to rebel. In 1967, thousands of them participated in a "Summer of Love" in San Francisco. They shucked off society's restrictions and made it clear they would no longer conform. It began a movement that quickly spread across the country (and even to other countries). It became so popular and so widespread that it spawned a "count-culture".

This counter-culture had different beliefs than those in the larger society (culture). They believed that everyone was equal (regardless of race, color, sex, sexual preference, etc.). They believed that love was more powerful than hate, that peace was better than war. And they believed that all people should have the freedom to live their lives as they wanted -- even if that was frowned upon by those in the dominant society. And throughout the late 60's, the 70's, and early 80's, that counter-culture was large and it was vibrant.

That counter-culture doesn't exist anymore. Which brings me to my question -- Whatever happened to the "hippies" that inhabited that counter-culture? Did they disappear into thin air? Did they "grow up" and abandon their hippie beliefs? No. Neither of those things happened. The hippies are still with us -- and most of them still embrace the ideals and beliefs they had in the counter-culture.

So, what happened? The larger American society (culture) changed. It expanded to include all races, genders, sexual preferences, and even the rebels who didn't like the government or the society. It included them all. It was no longer unacceptable to be different or to want to live your life in a different way or to have different ideas about what was good and what was not. The counter-culture was absorbed into the larger culture of the country.

Does that mean we now have a perfect society and culture? Not at all. There are still many battles to be won to make this society better for everyone -- but the society has expanded enough so that a separate counter-culture is no longer needed. The changes can now be made from within society.

The hippies are not only still with us, but a case could be made that they won -- won by forcing the larger society to change and become more inclusive and flexible.

NOTE -- In this post I have used the term "hippie" to designate the members of the counter-culture. That's because that's the term that most people accept for the "flower children" today. But they did not call themselves hippies. They called themselves "freaks" -- because they knew that was how many straight people viewed them, so they embraced the term and made it their own.

A Few Hippies Or A Nationwide Movement ?

Many of the politicians, especially the Republicans, would like for Americans to think the Occupy Wall Street movement is nothing more than a few hippies raising a little hell. Newt Gingrich even said they should just take a bath and get a job (even though his party, with blue dog help, has systematically destroyed or outsourced millions of American jobs, leaving  a double digit number of applicants for the few jobs available).

The above map shows what an outrageous lie that idea is. Each of the red pinpoints above represents a city where Occupy Wall Street protests have been and are being held. That doesn't look like a few hippies to me. That looks like a nationwide movement demanding change. The politicians of both parties had better start taking this movement seriously, or they could well find themselves part of that change (and out of a job).

NOTE -- This map was found at Daily Kos.

Blame The Bankers And Politicians - Not The "Hippies"

Ever since the demonstrations of Occupy Wall Street started there have been those on the right (and among the 1%) who have tried to demonize the protesters. They hope that by demonizing the protesters they will take the country's attention away from the very serious economic and political problems the protesters are trying to point out. They have called them "socialists", "anarchists", and "anti-American", but perhaps the silliest charge they have made is that the protesters are just "hippies" (as though that would somehow make what they are saying less true).

I don't think these efforts to label and demonize have been very effective. People across the country can see in their own lives and those of their neighbors the truth of what the Wall Street bankers and the politicians have done to this country. That is why large numbers have joined or supported the OWS movement.

One of the best responses to the name-calling I've read can be found at the blog Thurman's Notebook (and I think he got it from DKos). I'm reposting it here for your perusal, and I freely admit I liked it because I'm an old "hippie" myself:

I don’t want to make this all about hippies… because it isn’t. The #OWS movement is a phenomenon all to itself. Blaming it on hippies is just typical weasel behavior from the champaigne-sippin’, caviar-dippin’ greedheads of Wall Street crowd – you know, the ones who got us into this mess in the first place. It’s just their way of avoiding responsibility, and boy howdy are they good at it.

But hippies, young and old, are involved…and that’s a damned good thing.

Let me tell you something about hippies. Hippies didn’t export anyone’s jobs, hippies didn’t lie us into an immoral war, hippies didn’t  conspire to steal anyone’s pension funds, hippies didn’t order anyone tortured, hippies didn’t steal so much that it crashed the economy of the entire world, and hippies don’t go on national tv and spew nonsense and propaganda for a very nice living.

So go ahead and blame hippies for everything…as if they had ruled us for decades. We should be so lucky. But we weren’t that lucky – not by a long shot. Instead, we got you.

So if the hippies have some advice for you Wall Street assholes, maybe you should listen. You could do worse. You did do worse. You did a lot worse.

Hippies told you to mind your planet. Hippies told you to make love not war. Hippies told you to not let greed grab you. But did you listen?

No. You and your minions in Congress and elsewhere turned your backs on responsibility. You abandoned the people and sold your souls to the highest bidders. Consequences be damned.

You should thank what gods may be that there are still hippies, that there are still people who put humanity over corporate profits, that there are still those who insist that we do the right thing rather than the profitable thing. We just may save the planet from assholes like you.

Meanwhile, our bought-and-paid-for politicians can’t do shit:

Global warming? Sorry.

Unjust wars? Nope, nothing to be done.

An oppressive and unjust Military Industrial Complex? C’est la vie.

Class warfare by the 1% against the 99%? It’s only class warfare when we say it is.

The disastrous drug war? Whatcha gonna do?

Loss of precious civil rights? Quit yer bitchin’.

Mercenaries on the streets of America? What’s to worry about?

Corporate takeover of the country? Yawn.

No, our bought-and-paid-for politicians can’t do anything that doesn’t involve shoveling cash into the coffers of the already filthy-fucking-rich. And by their inaction they would doom us all.

You greed-deranged fools who have done these things to us had better hope that the dirty fucking hippies come riding to the rescue. Otherwise we are all going to suffer a fate that only you deserve.

I don’t care what anyone says, there is something sweet and pure about old hippies like Ben Masel and others. People who still retain their principles and ideals and are still willing to stand up for humanity in the face of unrelenting tyranny. They deserve respect not scorn. Bless them all.