Why The Hippie Movement Died

There were too many people coming to join the movement just wanting the love and not enough people were bringing love to the movement. All that did was just stretch it to the point where it shattered. Things have not changed. There are still more people just wanting the love and not enough people picking up the broken pieces and putting things back together again.

PAX

 

It started as a subculture with nice ideals like most, got popular, then reached it's top and got commercialized. The ideals became less important and the scene faded away again like with most other subcultures.
I agree that there most likely will always be more wanting as giving people, as it has always been. But somehow it still feels pretty balanced out to me.

 

Who died???

 

Right. There were larger numbers and concentrations of people in the the 1960s and into the 70s who would be identified by self and/or others as hippies. And that was a good thing. But not everyone is gone.

I can't tell you how happy I was last year at my first fest in many years to be surrounded by so many hippies of so many different ages.

We always did look at success and happiness differently than the usual bigger and more is better perspective. I guess I seldom if ever thought about it as a movement - that was more like what leftists and anti-war activists were thinking. But I hear what you're saying PAX-MAN - especially what I think you're saying about the need for more people to bring love to the scene then and now.

 

So do you think there is any hope of revitalizing the movement or maybe the creation of a new movement with similar values?

 

The movement never died. It evolved. After Woodstock and the realization of our being "Commercialized" many went quiet and set out to live the life instead of talking about it.
Hippies are everywhere and our influence these past 5 decades has been astounding.

We're still here...we just don't advertise it.

Zen

 

I guess that is very true. I was thinking more along the lines of a sustainable "hippie" population because I'm kind of fearful that, if the modern youth doesn't feel the need to carry the torch, the social advances made due to the influence of hippies will be lost within the next few generations.

 

I don't think most social advances in the past decades were solely made by hippies. Also the "looking at success and happiness differently than the usual bigger and more is better perspective" isn't limited to hippies of course. And a movement is something else as encountering people with the hippie ideals. I don't know who some of you try to kidding but the hippie movement as a scene/subculture is gone for at least 30 years.

 

hard drugs happened, and san fran turned into just another junkie city, as an ex junkie whos been there..dopes cheap, and everywhere..and its not to hard to get a hold of needles

everyone started heading out there and it was crammed with people in the streets, and then crime started happening, people were turning into junkies, and stealing to get their fix, robbing shit..it turned into crazyness

 

I dont think it worked because although they were rejecting the traditional way,
they were only creating their own pattern in which they were trapped, instead of seeking perfect freedom

 

I know that I am going to be bursting alot of bubbles- but the Summer of Love was really just like a spring break is today but instead of alcohol it was LSD and pot. The majority of people who showed up in San Francisco at the time were party goers, predators, goody twoshoes and a lot of lost souls. If you don't believe me, ask George Harrison. It really was the beginning of the commercialization of the hippy movement. I could go into great detail and tell you about all the shit that happened there at that time but it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. A lot of the hippies that lived there moved out before the influx of people arrived. Almost all of them left after the summer. To give you an idea of what the Haight became after the summer: there were more people carrying guns per capita in that neighbourhood then anywhere else in the US.

PAX

 

the hippy movement died because of the manson family and altamont. before these happened, the biggest propaganda against the hippys was that they had to much sex and did drugs. then after manson and altamont, the right wing could say that they were violent evil people, and it worked.

 

the hippie thing worked as a drug to society. it shocked its body, was metabolized, did the job and the leftovers ended up being excreted. a few traces remain. it caused some healing but the effect is now nearly gone so i guess the world is ready for another dose. oh, since tolerance does build up this time a larger one is needed to achieve the same effect.

 

The hippie is not a city, a label, or a society. It just is. Many people, while searching, came upon a certain set of universal truths, or ideals. These same ideals are reflected today, yet instead of a war on men to exasterbate them, it has become a war upon our planet.

 

Actually, it is a label.

 

Pax-Man remembers the old ways, and Zencoyote is right, it hasn't died at all. It just kept getting pushed around, until it went undercover.

In the Haight, where hippies first came to the national focus, the influx of lost souls (as Pax-Man so aptly calls them), looking for nothing more than a place to do wicked things, forced the hippies out of paradise, so to speak. Those lost souls brought a sickness into the fold, in the form of self-destruction. The hippies had to move or die. The original "Death of Hippie" march only signalled the death of the Haight.

Until about 1972 or '73, you would still find original hippies congregating in pockets, all over the country. They mobilized and took the message on the road, sometimes with a purpose and sometimes simply by accidentally being where they could do some good, but they continued to spread the word. You could find them hitchhiking in Tucson, Boulder, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, and just about any place where progressive thinking was tolerated. But, times change and the sickness followed Old Hippie out onto the open road, until even that refuge became unsafe.

Now, some of them may have isolated themselves into remote communities, but you will find most of them living among you, in every walk of life, in every ethnic group, in every community across the country, and maybe even across the world. They're still out there chipping away at the work they started, by influencing the people around them in little ways. the proof is right here in these forums. Those of you who are under the age of 50 are likely here because of the influence of Old Hippie, or the influence of someone who was influenced by Old Hippie.

It's a true Butterfly Effect. Once set in motion, the effects may continue on for ages.

 

Man, who are you kidding? A couple of remote communities isn't an underground hippie movement, neither is this forum proof of such a thing. Individuals with the same ideals that are making a change around them are very great and of course they are around, but: it's not an element of some underground hippie movement

 

Trigcove-
The hippie movement died almost as soon as the hippie movement started. It was the media that started it. You're right about there still being alot of hippies around- but it's no longer a movement. I believe that most of the hippies that you saw in the late sixties and seventies were just weekenders, or at least that's what we called them. During the rest of the week they were living their straight lives in a straight environment. The lost souls that I was referring to were exactly that- rudderless ships in the sea looking for a place to dock and call home. They were the ones that were swept up by people like Charles Manson . The predators were the ones that brought all the violence and theivery to the Haight. There were alot of them. As Asmodean said- there may be alot of hippies left throughout the world but there isn't a movement anymore.

PAX

 

Wow...

What is it, exactly, that you guys are looking for in a movement? Be-ins? Love-ins? Sit-ins? Demonstrations? Mass gatherings? To my way of thinking, a movement is anything that moves someone. If you take note of the younger people here, they're still being moved by something... even if you may not.

How long does a person have to live the life, to not be considered a "weekend hippie"? I spent over a year traveling with some very beautiful people who were also very committed to the cause. I still know a lot of them and they all (sometimes unintentionally) teach by example. That may not be a movement by your standards, but it meets mine pretty well.

No offense, but some of what you're saying is coming off a little "holier than thou". Your definition of both "a hippie" and "a movement" seem to be heavily conditional.

 

Back in '66 and the spring of '67, the Haight was an incredible place of free thinking and open minded people who all felt that the world could be a better place without greed and violence being an acceptable way of getting what you want. I really believe that the majority of people who showed up in the summer of '67 were really there just to get something for themselves. Everyone just wanted to get stoned and fucked and listen to rock and roll.
They really didn't give a shit on how they got it. Gang bangs were becoming commonplace all in the name of free love. It seemed like people were more interested in what they could get from you than what they could give to you. I'm not saying that there weren't any hippies that showed up- but they were few and far between. Most of the people that I met after I left the Haight who called themselves hippies were there only because it was a cool thing to do.
It seems to me that alot of the people who are coming here are not looking to the future. All they are doing is just dreaming about the past. It wasn't really all that great. There was an awful lot of bad shit that happened. I still can't think about it without tears coming to my eyes. I really think that the younger generation of hippies should start evolving. As far as a movement goes, being moved is good but it's time to start moving.

PAX