What's wrong with being a hippie?

[YmirGF]

EEEEEEEEE! Someone on RF loves Indian music!!!! Do you look at Indian movies or just listen to the songs? When you say songs, do mean devotional songs such as bhajans or songs from movies? I'll PM you one of these days for more info, if you don't mind **bats eyelids innocently and puts on a cute puppy face**

On occaision I watch the Hindi channel. Although somewhat garish by North American standard, I love watching Indian video's. They are SO colourful! I don't mind the pop music either. I had a cabbie recently who turned down a song I was enjoying, thinking I am sure, that it was driving me nuts. He was quite delighted when I asked him to turn it back up!!! He was SO surprised. You have to understand, I don't speak a word of the language, but I love the feel of the music. It is so rich! However I do prefer things like Ravi Shankar and more classical sounds.

I saw Ravi once live (He was the warmup act for George Harrison back in 1974.) Sadly he doesn't come to my part of the world much. I was disappointed when he walked off stage and the "real" show began. It was a bit anti-climactic. I could have listened to him for another hour or two easily.

 

[Hema]

On occaision I watch the Hindi channel. Although somewhat garish by North American standard, I love watching Indian video's. They are SO colourful! I don't mind the pop music either. I had a cabbie recently who turned down a song I was enjoying, thinking I am sure, that it was driving me nuts. He was quite delighted when I asked him to turn it back up!!! He was SO surprised. You have to understand, I don't speak a word of the language, but I love the feel of the music. It is so rich! However I do prefer things like Ravi Shankar and more classical sounds.

I saw Ravi once live (He was the warmup act for George Harrison back in 1974.) Sadly he doesn't come to my part of the world much. I was disappointed when he walked off stage and the "real" show began. It was a bit anti-climactic. I could have listened to him for another hour or two easily.

I'm loving this! BTW, I'm not from India although my ancestors were. I live in Trinidad (Caribbean). There are many Indians and Hindus here. They were brought as Indentured Labourers to work on sugar cane plantations in the days of colonialism. I haven't hearnt much from Ravi Shankar but there's a song "Prabhujee" which I can listen to over and over. I have to leave now, I'll PM you another day. Keep well. Oh and I don't speak Hindi either.

 

[xexon]

Hippy is a state of mind, not an appearance.



x

 

[Radio Frequency X]

It's sad to see so many people still have this view of hippies as dirty, pot-smoking people.

Why? The stereotype is propagated by hippies, not by the media or entertainment industry. The vast majority of hippies fall into the categories of counter-culture and revolutionary/reactionary. They overwhelmingly oppose traditional values. They overwhelmingly advocate the dismissal of private property laws, draft laws, and drug laws. They tend toward Marxist ideologies. They tend to be environmentalist. All the tendencies create the stereotypes and I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as people realize that it is possible to find a clean, drug-free, capitalist, nature-hating hippie. They are just going to be one strange cat.

 

[Comprehend]

It's sad to see so many people still have this view of hippies as dirty, pot-smoking people.


Why is this? When you think of hippie, what image comes into mind?

I thought a permiscuous dirty pot-smoker was the definition of a hippie. In the 70's all the hippies were dirty pot smoking free-loving homeless bums weren't they?

 

[Valjean]

Why? The stereotype is propagated by hippies, not by the media or entertainment industry. The vast majority of hippies fall into the categories of counter-culture and revolutionary/reactionary. They overwhelmingly oppose traditional values. They overwhelmingly advocate the dismissal of private property laws, draft laws, and drug laws. They tend toward Marxist ideologies. They tend to be environmentalist. All the tendencies create the stereotypes and I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as people realize that it is possible to find a clean, drug-free, capitalist, nature-hating hippie. They are just going to be one strange cat.

I'm not sure what you mean by traditional values, RF, but hippie values are exactly those propounded by Jesus in the New Testament. All these staid, sober, anti-social(ist) lovers of mammon are actually worshiping a "dirty hippie" (Jesus never had a shower in his life), who denounced their values and lifestyle.

Are these values counter-culture or revolutionary? Perhaps they are. Our society loves to pay lip-service to Christ's values, but when a religious group actually tries to forge a lifestyle in imitation of Christ we find it profoundly disturbing, not the least due to the unconscious recognition of hypocrisy it engenders.

A clean, drug-free, capitalist, God-hating Hippie?

Well, there's nothing in the Hippie religion that prohibits showers or abstinence, ans Capitalism, as long it doesn't become an obsessive love of mammon and predatory lifestyle, is acceptable.

I never heard of a God-hating hippie, though. Hippie's generally revere Nature and strive to live "natural" lives.

This religious movement is greatly misunderstood, especially by the right-wing (odd, inasmuch as they're the ones who most vociferously advocate it's tenets). The media, I think, are mostly responsible for this, as they delight in emphasizing the odd, the unconventional aspects of the sect while ignoring its philosophical underpinnings.

 

[NoahideHiker]

Let’s face it; the hippies of today are not the hippies of the 60’s and 70’s. I have nothing against the hippies back then. They were for peace and love. No problem here. If they want to be dirty, patchouli smelling potheads that’s their prerogative. However, today we find the “hippies” to be little more than angry, often violent, misguided people who have often fallen victim to socialist groups that manipulate them for their own causes. Go to any peace march and you will see the underlying agendas bleeding through. Anti-government. Anti-Capitalism. Anti-Israel.

And look at the peace marches of yesterday and the ones today. Back then everyone got together and carried a sign. Now it’s more of a competition on who can be the most offensive and gaudy. It’s not “Look at what we feel is important!”. It’s simply “LOOK AT ME! LOK AT ME!!”.

 

[xexon]

Also, nature seeks a balance.

Hippies were born out of a time where much like today, conservative values are being forced down our throats.

The hippy is nature's response.


x

 

[Valjean]

Let’s face it; the hippies of today are not the hippies of the 60’s and 70’s. I have nothing against the hippies back then. They were for peace and love. No problem here. If they want to be dirty, patchouli smelling potheads that’s their prerogative. However, today we find the “hippies” to be little more than angry, often violent, misguided people who have often fallen victim to socialist groups that manipulate them for their own causes. Go to any peace march and you will see the underlying agendas bleeding through. Anti-government. Anti-Capitalism. Anti-Israel.

And look at the peace marches of yesterday and the ones today. Back then everyone got together and carried a sign. Now it’s more of a competition on who can be the most offensive and gaudy. It’s not “Look at what we feel is important!”. It’s simply “LOOK AT ME! LOK AT ME!!”.

Hippies never wanted to be dirty. That was all media hype. Though if you lived in a Tipi in rural New Mexico, access to bathing facilities might have been a problem.

I think you're lumping a lot of disparate groups under the "hippie" label.
Freaks are not hippies. Stoners are not hippies. Bikers, Goths, Punks are not hippies.
Anti-government types are Republicans.

 

[Gentoo]

I didn't know I was hated so much for being a hippy...

 

[NoahideHiker]

Anti-government types are Republicans.

Groan!

 

[Radio Frequency X]

Also, nature seeks a balance.

Hippies were born out of a time where much like today, conservative values are being forced down our throats.

The hippy is nature's response.


x

That's not quite right. I speak from experience as an ex-hippie. Reactionary ideology is not the only treat of hippie-dom. And regardless of what any of these PC apologists say, hippies and drug-culture go hand in hand.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

..... hippies and drug-culture go hand in hand.

That is an overgeneralization. True that most people think hippy = pot smoker, but certainly not pot smoker = hippy. I know alot of people that come from a great variety of walks of life that use drugs, some hippies, but most of them are not. In my experience, a drug user is much more likly to branded in some derogatory/negative manner much sooner than a hippy. I use drugs liberally, and no one in thier right mind would call me a hippy and be serious about it.

 

[Radio Frequency X]

That is an overgeneralization. True that most people think hippy = pot smoker, but certainly not pot smoker = hippy. I know alot of people that come from a great variety of walks of life that use drugs, some hippies, but most of them are not. In my experience, a drug user is much more likly to branded in some derogatory/negative manner much sooner than a hippy. I use drugs liberally, and no one in thier right mind would call me a hippy and be serious about it.

And yet it is the hippy - pot smoker that is relevant to the statement, "hippies and drug-culture go hand in hand". I'm for the decriminalization of most drugs because I've seen a lot of good people who never did anything mean spirited to anyone end up in jail. However, hippie-dom is a culture tied to the 60s movement. It has not evolved. I'm sure there are a tiny minority of straight-edge hippies, ideological in nature, but seperate from the traditional cultural ties. But certainly we do not define a group based on its smallest minority. Otherwise, we could argue that Americans are racist because of the KKK.

 

[azumi]

there is absolutly nothing wrong with being a hippie.
I have great respect for hippies and the mesage they try to send.
PEACE.