The
Ways of the Hippy
from "Hippies From
A to Z" by Skip Stone
…maybe it’s the time
of year. Yes, and maybe it’s the time of man.
And I don’t know
who I am. But life is for learning.
Joni Mitchell/CS&N
(Woodstock) 1970
What’s a hippie?
What’s the difference between an old hippie and a new hippie? Once a hippie,
always a hippie? These and similar questions are the source of much debate
today. New subcategories like web-hippies, cyber-hippies, even zippies
have become fashionable. But what is a hippie and are you one?
To answer this question,
let’s see what defines a hippie. Some say it’s the way people dress, and
behave, a lifestyle. Others classify drug users and rock 'n' roll fans
or those with certain radical political views as hippies. The dictionary
defines a hippie as one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and
advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle. Can all these definitions be
right?
It seems to me that
these definitions miss the point. By focusing on the most visible behavioral
traits these limited descriptions fail to reveal what lies in the hippie
heart that motivates such behavior. To understand The Way of the Hippy,
we must look at those circumstances that preceded the birth of the hippy
movement, the important events that changed our lives, our resulting frustration
with society, and the philosophy that developed from our spiritual maturation.
Hippy is an establishment
label for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For
every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand
invisible members of the turned-on underground. Persons whose lives are
tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of
American Life.
Timothy Leary (The
Politics of Ecstasy) 1967
My view is that being
a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief system that transcends
the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be
it a class, church, or government. Each of these powerful institutions
has it’s own agenda for controlling, even enslaving people. Each has to
defend itself when threatened by real or imagined enemies. So we see though
history a parade of endless conflicts with country vs. country, religion
vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war and strife, in which
uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise above our petty differences.
The way
of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures
since these are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom.
This is why the “Establishment” feared and suppressed the hippie movement
of the ’60s, as it was a revolution against the established order. It is
also the reason why the hippies were unable to unite and overthrow the
system since they refused to build their own power base. Hippies don’t
impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to change the world
through reason and by living what they believe.
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
John Lennon (Imagine)
To be a
hippie you must believe in peace as the way to resolve differences among
peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love and
tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them freedom
to express themselves and not judging them based on appearances. This is
the core of the hippie philosophy.
…see the whole thing
is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe
to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to
work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want
anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, …all of them imprisoned in
a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision
of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans
wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making
children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls
happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen
to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also
by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody
and to all living creatures.
Jack Kerouac (The
Dharma Bums) 1958
The hippy movement
erected signposts for all to see. Some warn us of impending danger, others
direct us towards richer, more fulfilling lives, but most show us the road
to freedom. Freedom is the paramount virtue in this system. Freedom to
do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you, and to be open to new experiences.
This engenders an attitude that allows for maximum personal growth.
If you want to be
free, be free, because there’s a million things to be.
Cat Stevens (If You
Want to Sing Out)
Our society only
permits you one or two weeks a year of freedom to pursue your own agenda.
The rest of the time we are slaves to the system. Hippies reject the 9
to 5 lifestyle and therefore are objects of ridicule by those whose lives
run by the clock. Programmed people are jealous and resent the freedom
we possess. The unmitigated freedom that hippies represent is the greatest
threat to any system in which control equals power.
I like ideas about
the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested
in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems
to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom - external
freedom is a way to bring about internal freedom.
Jim Morrison
With all this freedom
comes a lot of responsibility. The system does not make it easy for us
to survive without sacrificing our values. Therefore we must discover alternative
ways to make a living without being a drag on our planet’s resources and
our fellow humans. Hippies have pioneered numerous lifestyles and alternative
businesses including communes, cooperatives, holistic medicine and health
food. We focused everyone’s concern on the environment to highlight our
responsibilities to our planet and to future generations.
I’ve been smiling
lately, dreaming about the world as one.
And I believe it
could be, someday it’s going to come.
Cat Stevens (Peace
Train)
Other beliefs that
spring from our core philosophy are: an earthy spirituality such as a belief
in Gaia (the earth as an organism), the Greens movement (political activism),
even shamanism and vegetarianism. These philosophical and political views
reflect a respect for nature and the planet as a whole, something lacking
in our capitalistic and materialistic societies. The world needs hippies
to point out alternatives to the entrenched system and warn of the impending
disasters that await us if we don’t change our lifestyles. The goal is
not to make everyone a hippie (what would we have to protest?). Rather
we can try to influence others by example, through tolerance and love and
teaching the virtues of the hippie way.
You create your own
reality.
Seth (Seth Speaks)
So being a hippie
is not a matter of dress, behavior, economic status, or social milieu.
It is a philosophical approach to life that emphasizes freedom, peace,
love and a respect for others and the earth. The way of the hippie never
died. There have always been hippies from the first time society laid down
rules, to Jesus, to Henry David Thoreau, to John Lennon, to you and me.
I believe there’s a little hippy in all of us. It’s just been repressed
by our socialization process. We need to find it and cultivate our hippie
within. Only then can we reach our true potential.
I took the road less
traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost (The
Road Not Taken)
As hippies age they
come to terms with the same situations all humans must face. Wiser than
before, let’s help the younger hippies find a way to save the earth and
achieve more freedom than exists in our wildest dreams. Let’s find our
common ground, build a worldwide community, and once again let our freak
flags fly and become all we are destined to be.
Peace and
Love, Skip
BACK
HOME