ARe thier REAL hippies here??

Almost as reliable as Aunt Flow - the bi-monthly 'real hippie' thread.

 

Here's a question: What does "real" mean?

Hippie (originally spelled "hippy") was at first a label applied from the outside of the group it referred to. The people referred to started using the label as a means of co-opting it.
Then it became a marketing ploy and a style. Still is.
There is an ideology (peace, love, harmony, etc...) associated with it, and the word "hippie" is a kind of shorthand for saying what you believe, much like religious people use.

("I'm a Christian", "I'm a Buddhist", "I'm a hippie"... Saves a lot of explaining what you believe....You still got to explain why, though.)

Still doesn't tell you what "real" means.....

I lived in H-A in 66-67 and I choose to promote peace, love, understanding, etc. But I don't call myself a hippie. I'm still not sure if I'm "real".:sad:

 

Maybe just like religions, Hippie has many factions, like Orthodox Hippie, Reformed Hippie, Latter Day Hippies.

I did my pilgrimage to San Francisco in the Summer of 1970, right after three days and nights at the Atlanta Pop Festival. Went there in a VW Beetle, growing long hair and a beard traveling with a chick who I once fucked on a mattress on the floor while crashing in her commune (did her sister too). Smoked weed with them and we dropped a hit of acid while sleeping on a mountain somewhere out west on our trip. I don't recall thinking myself a "hippie" back then, even tho I was living that common lifestyle.

So, maybe I really was a hippie since I wasn't too concerned with labels.

However, now I sometimes refer to myself as Hippie as convenience - a shorthand to all the history in the above paragraph. Like using BA or PhD, it shows the degrees I have acquired in part of my life.

 

Seems this is the essence to me. It's pretty common that when they say those things, people still haven't explained what they believe either. When people say I'm a vegetarian, republican, hippie, christian, atheist etc. etc. they're associating themselves with the believes/mindset of that group but in that group every individual has it's own views indeed.
You don't have the same views with every fellow vegetarian, hippie, christian and so forth so generally people really don't explain a lot by naming the group they associate yourself with. Lots of people seem to think if someone else call themself the same they have the same views, which unfortunately is rarely as simple as it is. What's even more unfortunately is that they call the other fake or not a real one if they don't have the same views...

 

As an ovo-lacto vegetarian I am prolly considered a fake by some vegans.

When I tell ppl that I am a vegetarian they often ask me if I eat fish and I've actually seen ppl claim to be vegetarians because they only eat fish. That to me is about as vegetarian as a vampire that only sucks deer blood.

Again, just one label that has several interpretations.

 

i've been thinking of it as an art movement mainly.it's like in the early 40's there was some of the best music ever made.most people were behind the war movement and athe music and art mainly reflect that....

 

Yeah, I really don't care if a vegetarian eats fish or if a hippie felt the need to kicks someone ass. It's already great that the so called vegetarian cuts down on meat in general and that the hippie knows the world isn't ruled by peace and love. In general: that they aren't living their life by the definitions of a label as a charicature. We're all human and if someone feel like proclaiming themself as part of a group I don't consider the person is or does every single thing that defines that group.

 

well you'd be 'assuming' incorectly if u think young hippies are not 'real' hippies..

 

be yourself

 

I guess I am what you would call a new hippie. I am 18 years old, but I groove to the music of The Beatles,The Grateful Dead, Hendrix, etc. I also am a vegetarian who recycles like it's a religion. I am a pacifist who does not believe in violence or killing. It is an awesome feeling...being connected with nature and love. I just wish everybody would be like us hippies...then the world may be a nice place to live.