Hippies in the 60's, going to happen again?

I hear too many of the older folks looking to the younger folks to get things going and too many younger folks not expecting any leadership from the older folks. The values of the hippies have just evolved to another level, as all life evolves to adapt to different conditions.

 

History repeats itself.
=D

 

Dirtydog; "As for the older generation (I was born in '47), we aren't as photogenic as seventeen year olds, and if we find ourselves on the street, we become quite invisible. People will step over us and around us if we get ill and fall down on the sidewalk. We have to look to our families for friendship and support, if we have families."


That paragraph upset me so... guys cmon, next time you see some homeless person, be nice and chat to them or something, even if you have nothing but company to give. You never know you may just learn something inspirational.
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Also, hippie can never come back in the true sense of the word, times are different now and different concepts apply, the hippie sprit does live on though, anti-consumerism is the new way forward I reckon, three cheers for new-age hippie!

 

For better or for worse the hippies revolutionized the West and global culture. Many of the things that we now usually take for granted, from anti-war protests, political, consumer activism, health, lifestyle, fashion, music, spirituality, modern environment and feminist movements, etc.

Being catalysts of change, appearing at a time of turmoil and rapid social change, the hippies were defined by virtually everything that "straight" society was not at that time.

Yes, we cannot replicate Woodstock 1969, exactly as how it was then. Times may have changed and a younger generation now is at the forefront.

But the spirit of the hippie generation lives on.

 

To quote someone on this forum:
What is a Hippie, you ask?
Long hair does not make a Hippie.
Clothes do not make a Hippie and the use of drugs definitely does not make you a Hippie. Being rebellious had nothing to do with being a Hippie.
Native Americans would say its ( Tafunka) A way of Life. Its a matter of respect, respect for others and their rights to be who they are. Respect for the Earth and all that dwell on it. Mostly its a respect for yourself, allowing yourself to be who you are. Search the inner you, deep inside your heart, the answers are there, if you just listen. You just might be surprised by what you may find.
Two paths converge in a woods, I take the path less traveled, and that made all the difference.
Peace... Farmout....

 

Well, the hippy movenemt isn't going to come back. I'm not saying that I don't want it to-I'm just saying that it's not going to happen.

Hppies were anti-establishment, idealist, and unmaterialistic. They were concerned about injustices, with what was going on in the world, and didn't see America as the God-ordained, superior force on the planet.

There isn't enough idealism in the US today to shake a stick at. The vast majority of people in this country care nothing about injustices here, or around the world. Most people are just clamoring for more material things, and have completely forgotten the meaning of being concerned for their fellow man, or the meaning of love.

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a guy I work with. He admitted to me (in this part of the country it's something most people wouldn't advertise) that he had been a Black Panther in the late 60's in San Francisco, right in the middle of the hippy movement. He said something that I've always realized, but that everyone else needs to also: the majority of the kids that were originally involved in the hippy movement came from pretty well-off families. They rejected the materialism and blind obedience to participate the government's latest war, and its other policies, when they would have been much better off materially if they had just gone along with the status quo.

Today, the vast majority of people simply don't have that kind of idealism. If their stocks go up because of the War in Iraq, they're happy. If the government puts a big chunk of its citizens in prison unjustly, they'll find a way to profit from it. Until that type of mentality changes, the hippy movement ain't coming back.

However, I'm glad that I found a forum like hipforums, where like minded people from around the world can interact with each other and try to keep some of this idealism alive. It gives me a little hope. We may not be able to muster large numbers of people to get out into the streets, but at least we can try to keep the spirit alive in cyberspace.

 

I agree with most of that.Yes the original hippies were disillusioned middle-class kids that rejected their peer's material aspirations;-for only as long as College was out or until the money ran out to pay the rent on their shared pads.
That's why the next generation of hippies will be more determined & more ruthless than their parents & grand-parents.To save 'Planet Earth' from the filthy Capitalists & Money-Lenders.


"They got the guns but we got the numbers;gonna make it if we try"
-Jim Morrison 1968.

 

Maybe not identical to the sixties... but fursure there is a new Revolution coming in the form of the younger generation and a yet another world war on the way aswell.... nothing comes without a price..

 

"Ruthless" hippies????
Are you implying that willingness to hurt people is a good thing?

 

You got it right. I have a couple of seventeen year olds on a work crew with me, one boy, one girl. (The terms 'man' and 'woman' don't apply to these two.) If you take their conversation (mostly to each other) at face value, they breed like jackrabbits at every chance they get, and swallow any drug within reach at the earliest opportunity. Their immediate hope is to turn eighteen so that they can get into bars legally. They have cell phones and internet but I doubt that they read anything heavier than Archie comics. If they have causes or political views their conversation doesn't show it.

Young and rebellious? Yes. Drug users? Yes. Promiscuous? Yes. Hip? No way.

 

Dont worry you well be long time dead by then.

 

i think i might. ive watched where i live grow so much with new hippies and people alike.
and slowly we all unite. its going to happen
i want it to, so therefor it will.

 

My friend monkeylove is obsessed by the fucking sixties. The fact is, however, that whilst the sixties was a time of change, it had many bad points (which is only to be expected.) I mean, nowadays no-one would turn a blind eye if someone did a song called 'Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)', but it was a huge thing bak then, and that is very sad indeed. Blacks faced a hell of a lot of racism, and whilst racism is still a problem, it isn't nearly as bad as it used to be.

Also, I think that it has been romanticised to the point that the facts have become very distorted. I imagine that there would have been a vibe in the air that the first hippies experienced, and my generation may well miss out on that whole feeling, but the sixties was a time of change, a time to make the world a better place, and whilst I am thankful for that (and the music it produced) I think that I'd be happier now than back then.

There is a possibility of a resurgence in the counterculture, especially whilst the Republicans are in power, but if America sorts it politics out (and by that I mean elect the Democrats) then we may as well give up on the very notion of a return to that era.

And what would we have to rival Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Beatles, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Santana and about a million others? Coldplay? Give me a break.

We seriously need a new guitar hero...

 

Not at all.Have you ever seen the 1973 film: 'Electra Glide In Blue' when the Police Detective goes to the Hippie Commune Farm & kicks several Hippies in the nuts & they all stand around being non-partiscipant & passive.That was the 'old style' Hippie counter-culture or it's public perception;"Share my food & share my wife".
You can't expenct the more hardened & cynical younger generation to afford that amount of goodwill.The original Hippies used Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest & the 'Pigs' used them as truncheon/baton meat.

 

True.A new guitar hero could inspire the younger generation through a new interpretation of rhythm & blues with subtle lyrics.
Much of what you say seems true but I would emphasise the fact that the 1960s were the antethisis of the 1950s.
In the 1950s everyone had to conform with societies' standards & mores or be silently shipped off to the funny farm.Look at the films of the 1950s-everyone wore the same clothes & had the same hairstyles.Only 'Beatniks' & Jazz musicians grew beards.Any form of sexual deviation was frowned upon & imprisonable.
In the 1960s the 'baby boomers' came of age & 'rebelled' against the very same authoritarian peers who had been running the 1950s.

 

I think humanity will evolve into a more loving and betterl developed species, but i don't think there will be another woodstock, acid-revolution, jimi hendrix, drop-outs and all that jazz again

 

On the one hand, you could argue that history repeats itself, so a resurgence in the hippy counteculture should happen one day.

On the other hand, you could argue that the sixties were a one-off. There have been major upheavels throughout history, but the sixties were unique. The whole vibe that everyone goes on about just isn't here anymore, and what icons would we have? In the sixties, the vast majority of musicians at least tried to portray themselves as hippies - The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Byrds, The Kinks, The Doors, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Love, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Santana, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin - the list just goes on and on. There is still good music nowadays, but not a great deal, and certainly not on that level.

Of course, that's not to say that only the music was important, but the sixties was all about freedom of expression, and the expression that people like Jimi Hendrix and Syd Barrett put into their music just isn't in the mainstream anymore. The sixties will ultimately be remembered for the music, and what we have today doesn't hold a candle to the 'Golden Era of Music'.

Also, what would bring about that change? A war? Well, there was Vietnam back in the sixties and seventies, and hippies rebelled against that. College students went on mass protests, and some were shot by the police. But they never gave up. Loads of people dropped out of college/university and went to live on communes. There was a big change.

Today we have Iraq. We have governemnts in the U.K and U.S.A blatantly feeding us lies. The scandals in the Vietnam war were horrific, and we have had our fair share, too (those pictures of torture.) I think that most people just don't care, because they reason that it doesn't effect them. Also, the media (and the muslims) do a very good job of portraying muslims as terrorists, so many people in my generation are growing up with a deep-rooted mistrust of muslims. As a result, how many people are going to join a counterculture and rebel against the government when the people they perceive to be the enemy are being fought by that very same government?

I think that anyone who expects a 'return to the sixties' is merely thinking wishfully, and needs to wake up and look at the facts. I am not dismissing it entirely, but I wouldn't hesitate to bet against it.

 

You sum up your supposition well in these three paragraphs & the word you coin 'unique' is key to all this.
I don't wish to state the obvious but it is teriffically important to recognise that a 'feel-good factor/optimism' pervaded throughout in the immediate post-war years,leading up to the 1960s.Many could still remember the horror & tragedy of World War II so there was a deliberate intention to make life as flamboyant & exuberant ,if somewhat superficially, as possible.
The essential problem with the 21st century is that the 'feel good factor' no longer exists.
Another important factor in the 1960s was 'The Cold War' & 'Communism'.Both threatened to destroy the free/western world at any time with the 'H-Bomb' 'Cuban Missile Crisis' 'Red China expansion-Domino Theory' etc. even though these threats were exaggerated by the anti-communism hysteria people felt 'well,let's enjoy it while it lasts'.
So many complex, inter-connected factors that contributed to the unique character of the 1960s.
I can't remember who said it,perhaps a famous record producer but the fact was that around 1966:absolutely any musician who picked up a guitar & went into a recording studio was making memorable music. It was something about that year,or years.
Of course a lot of the 1960s was violent & horrific but find me a single decade in human history that isn't?.
I think that hearts were fully realised in the 1960s:'good hearts' & 'greasy hearts'.
It was a playground for good & evil but today,there is no longer a playground.Just a dull & ugly reality.

 

The music in the 60's was good but I think it's even better now-a-days. Aside from the music there were people like Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Abbey Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin who were expressing ideas that are more meaningful to me now than they were then.

As far as seeing Muslims as the enemy, I don't, nor did I ever see the North Viet Namese as the enemy either.

 

I remember Abby Hoffman saying not long before he died that:

"In the 1960s;the music will never be as good as that again & the dope will never be as good as that again". Or words to that effect.

I don't agree with you that music is better nowdays.So many of us agree that the 1960s produced the finest pop music of all time.