Real Life Hippies

My step dad was/is a hippie and I was exposed to his ideas for most of my life. Here is something he wrote on the subject;

I started out being a hippie and I guess I still am one cuz there's no way that I know of to stop being one. You can become other things but if you really lived the hippie life deep down you'll always be a hippie. I'm not saying this is good or bad I'm just saying you walk through life with a certain mind set that you can't hide or shake off. When I was young it was cool to be a hippie, now it's hard to live the hippie life. But it's still better than being straight.
Being straight is not a good trip. You start off going to school to learn how to turn your mind over to the control and power freaks. Smoking dope helps to stop this from happening but you still have to figure out how to keep yourself alive without turning your soul over to these assholes. Smoking dope will show you that you have to be free but it will never bring you freedom. Without freedom, before you know it, they'll dress you up in a suit and you'll be knocking at my door trying to sell me life insurance.

 

I still think that it's a matter of seriousness of discussion. If we were posting in the Philosophy forums and discussing, I don't know, Socrates vs. Plato or something... and then I claimed that Plato said that all men must have giant hairy balls to be philosophers. I would then probably source that to give it some validity.

Expecting to source something in casual discussion, like the one we have here (even if it may be on a serious topic) is completely illogical. Casual discussion is casual for a reason. There is simply no need for credibility, and honestly, posting sources here would distract from the discussion itself... pretty much ruining it.

 

Believe me, that's a lot harder to do if you don't have a good education.

 

well you know, its one of those terms we all define a bit differently.

i've been homeless, i've pretty much refused to lie to myself, either popularly or unpopularly, and considered the kind of world we create more important then what people think of each other individually as a person.

i've always managed to do this while keeping myself reasonably presentable, inconspicuous, and not becomming addicted to anything.

to me the important thing is to care more about how everybody has to live then about yourself.

when media coined the turm, they created this myth about appearances, and substance abuse, and then a lot of people, instead of being repelled like media intended, thought gee, that sound really cool, let's party, and did.

but i've never been that much of a party person. my interests have always been imaginative and diverse, so its just another thing, like furry is just another thing, that, you know, eye of the beholder, i both am and am not.

i also like trains and computers and nature and anything i can be creative with.

some people say the term belongs exclusively to an era. one they didn't themselves live, as i, and a very few of us gray hairs, did.

it was media trying to discredit the morality of civil rights, equality and pacifism, that came up with the term, and the image that was mostly false to begin with.

so its just like all of those political labels, any more its kind of ambiguous.

 

Hi Karen, Believe me it's hard for everyone whether they have an education or not. But at least you understand what's being said here.

 

You sound like a cool guy, lol:daisy:

 

a lot of the young traveling hippies here are heroine addicts

 

I know, but you said...

...and I wanted to point that education can have a very different result. It didn't indoctrinate me to love, trust, and obey big corporations. The effect on me was nearly the opposite. I understand their flaws very well. But there are different kinds of businesses, run by all kinds of people. There are all kinds of ways to make money, without totally selling out and becoming a conformist.

It takes some effort to sort all that out, and figure out what is best for you.

 

I personally know several "hippy" type folks, most of them were with the original wave of back to the landers that landed here in the WV mountains, mostly because of the cheap land, some are still here although the majority left after learning how hard life can be on a farm or off the land.....

 

I've been interested in the different ways to make money and find that most times people make money out of fear of not having enough. Now I believe the best way to make money is through doing something that you love doing and that eliminates a lot of job choices.

 

I have to agree with that. We milk 40 cows on our dairy farm of 112 acres and work the fields with horses. It is a lot of work but it's also a pure way of making money which is something high on my priority list.

 

> Herion addicts rarely ,if ever, travel to far. Have to be near the connection and such......
Very few would call themselves "Hippies"- -They not looking to help or better the world. Not looking to be kind to thier fellow human. Most ,not all, are just looking to get by day to day without getting sick or arrested.
They might be good people with a bad problem but I dont think many would have the ideals and values of a "Hippie"- Don't want to change this thread but most addicts just don't have "hippie values"- different priorities and shit..
---justSaying----(I was there,long,long ago)

 

Great discussions. Karen_J...you were lucky. I have learned that lots and lots of people (especially men for some reason) can't distinguish personal beliefs from what they're taught in their education.

Frankly I've found that some of the most well-adjusted people I've met haven't even graduated from high school. It takes a certain type of mind, upbringing and circumstances of course, but I'm slightly jealous of people who've been able to learn on their own, educate themselves...of course I've worked on farms and lived on the land many a time, and it is my ultimate goal to do that as well...I like the work, but the human dynamics of it are what haven't quite worked out for me yet...I am hopeful.

I am probably quite a hippie in lots of ways, but it all depends on who you talk to. A lot of the teachers and friends I've had in life are the same...but again, what does this "hippie" term really mean?

 

great answer junglejack. I think you are absolutely right.

 

Hi Honey, I think what you are talking about is people who have awareness rather than a lot of cultural education. I too am attracted by awareness

 

A really good professor can teach you a lot about critical reasoning skills; teach you how to think for yourself and analyze things rationally from a variety of different perspectives. That's the opposite of being indoctrinated with a specific set of beliefs. Of course, it takes more than a good professor. The student has to be open to it, and make a serious effort to learn as much as possible, not just the minimum to make a passing grade.

 

I wandered around thumbing and walking until I got to up
state New York from Massachusetts. It was September and I was living
out of a tent most of the time. Then I found a place where I could
pick apples and still live in the tent in the woods just outside the
orchard. I would get up in the morning and make breakfast from a cook
stove I carried with me and go to the orchard and start picking
apples. At the end of the day the owner of the trees would count the
bins of apples I picked and I would get paid by the bin. Now this is
really hard work lugging a ladder around and climbing the apple trees
with a bucket around your shoulders. But I seemed to need to hurt as
much on the outside as I did on the inside to be able to stand the
pain. My body got really tough by the time November came around(I
rented a room by then and was out of the tent) and decided to follow
the Jamaicans(the migrant workers who were picking with me) south to
Florida to pick oranges.

 

I agree with you, maybe not actual hippies, if I told you where I live you might understand. Kind of a hub for travelers who are going thru So Cal.

 

I disagree wholeheartedly. Critical reasoning comes only from one's willingness to think critically.

 

Nevertheless a good professor can teach you how to and/or inspire. Yes, 'average' people can do this too...