who call them selfs hippies

I sort of agree with floes to some extent. I think labels are just restrictions.

 

Part of me thinks labels are silly, but at the same time, to an extent labels are how we understand things. The human mind needs to be able to categorize things in order to understand them, and I have no problem with this. I understand that other people need to slap some labels on me in order to feel like they can understand and identify me. If they can't, I am a threat, and I don't want to be a threat to anyone. Yet I think the pitfall of labels is that they so easily allow a person to lie about who they really are--it's so easy to take the name and characteristics of whatever label is popular at the time. And it's so easy to define yourself by the label you or others give you, and try to be something you're really not.I classify labels as a necessary evil, so I see no problem with labeling myself or others as hippies. (Although, to be honest, I don't really ever call myself a hippie, because it makes me feel arrogant.)

I mean, really, hippie is just a word. What actually defines a person is how they feel and how they act, not what words people choose to describe them. If people want to describe me as a hippie, that's fine with me, because it makes them feel better. And if people want to describe me as a hippie, in some way it makes me feel nice, because it makes me feel like I'm a part of something bigger. But, y'know, hippie or not, it's not going to change what I do and how I see things.

 

I agree with you completely, but that's the thing. Many of the people that choose to call themselves hippies are far more arrogant than the label could ever make you feel.
And arrogance is a funny thing - because, really, a little bit can be absolutely great for the beholder - but too much is absolute shit for everyone dealing with them =P
The majority of those that identify themselves mostly and openly as hippie are absolutely in no way hippie deep down inside. Self-righteousness is in no way compatible with the general hippie ideals.

No matter how poorly I think of the movement's effectiveness or the majority of its participants; the heart and intent of the movement gets my infinite respect - and I think these people just shit all over it - that I don't like.


And I find some of the people arguing for the namesake do not fit these types, and I feel sorry for them - but it's still stupid to label yourself if you claim to fit hippie ideals so, I guess that just sucks for them.
Maybe I should be glad that refuse seems to be the only label that fits me right =P

 

One more thing- -if you are of the correct age, and really were a hippie back in the old days- - you probably never mention it anymore
Same as a vet- -I never tell anyone I was one, unless it comes up(a kinship,I guess) usually by another one-

They,re way to many people out there who try to convince themselves or others that they were somebody that they werent- -and these are the people for the most part who like to throw around those silly labels that the media still love today. We were what we were- hopefully some of us made a difference. In the end ,it shouldnt matter, > be true to yourself-let the history books, and old TV news -discovering sensationalism be the ones that pin labels on people - -not us.
Happy2010:coffee:
JJ

 

I sort of agree with this, although I don't really consider labels to be intrinsically evil. As you suggest, we need labels to facilitate communication, to some degree.
Back in the day, there was a time when we actually reviled the word hippie, because it became something.... commercial. It became a way to sell merchandise to kids who liked the (and this is really comical) bad-boy image of being a hippie. We preferred to label ourselves as "freaks."

I shunned the word hippie, right up until I came here to the forums. I use it now, because it seems to be generally accepted here as the word to describe ourselves (and by "ourselves", I'm referring to the people who actually were involved at that time). Sure it's a label; it's the one we use to unite ourselves. I don't really see it as arrogant, although I suppose it would be, if we were attempting to make it exclusive.

So, in a way I can see where Duck is coming from when he sees the "fake" hippies supposedly crapping all over the movement. We should keep in mind, though, that the so called "fake" hippies didn't have much impact back then and they probably won't have much impact today, either.

I would rather welcome all newcomers and let the posers fall by the wayside on their own, just as they did back then.

 

Yep, as mentioned before I never really referred to myself as Hippie even while living the counterculture lifestyle.

Then I grew older, the long hair became a hassle, bell bottoms went out of style (tho never cut-off shorts) and I ended up working respectable jobs. What didn't change was my beliefs in right-livlihood, the naturalness of sex in all its forms and telling it like it is. Oh, and whenever possible - challenge authority (left jobs on a couple of occasions for that one).

Then I found this Website while researching my biography and searching for info on the Atlanta Pop Festival. All of a sudden, I am actually of that period in question and yes I answer to Old Hippie now. Some young-uns here actually mine me for first-hand accounts of the era.

It is a part of my long life history now, and ppl who weren't around in the day know that I smoked/dropped dope, had free luv sex, hitch-hiked cross country, lived communally and did all the things that we Freeks did in the '60s & '70s. So, Hippie is one of my labels, along with cop, vet, nudist, homo & whatever else.

Hey Trig,

I didn't see your post before making mine. Seems we're on the same page here. Oh, and don't know about your group, but we spelled it "Freek" sort of a free spirit ref.

 

OMG - I'M JEALOUS!



Fuckin San Francisco pigs threw out my mug shot from July '70.

(BTW - You were cute. But, so was I)

 

Heh.. The fun part of that pic is that I got it from the chief of police, who became my father-in-law when I married his daughter. :smilielol5:

As I posted in another place, I'm jealous of your photographic history. This mug shot is the ONLY picture I have of me from that time.

 

My problem with labels is that we are making things easier to understand by oversimplifying them.

 

I suppose evil is a bit stronger of a word than I was looking for--it's more so that I think labels are necessary and can be evil. In some instances I think they're downright necessary.

And that's why the idea of labeling myself as a hippie makes me feel arrogant--I'm only 17. I was absolutely not around at the time. I think I carry in me the ideas and motivation that would make me a hippie, but I hesitate to openly define myself as such in part simply because I wasn't there, and whatever ideals I hold and whatever I do, I can't fully relate to the experience that hippies had then.

This is often also true. I think this is the fault of the user, though, not the label. It is unfortunate, and it is a large part of the reason I have distanced myself from labels for years.

 

It may be true that you weren't born soon enough to participate in the heyday of the hippie movement; however, you are what you are, no matter when you were born or what you may choose to call yourself. We took on labels before we had experienced very much, ourselves. A label is just a way of clarifying your alignment; it doesn't mean you have to be exactly like every other person who has the same alignment.

I'm hoping that the word "hippie" hasn't gained some kind of mythical status, to the point where people who feel a kinship are afraid they're putting on airs by using it, or people are assumed to be arrogant because they feel a kinship.

Maybe it is time for a new label for the new age - one that won't make people feel arrogant when using it, or see arrogance when it's used by others.
Of course, having a new label means having to give it a definition that doesn't mean exactly the same thing as "hippie"; otherwise, there's still no distinction. Maybe something easy, like "nippie" for neo-hippie? I dunno.

The one thing that I do know is that if you don't have a banner to unite under, there is no hope for any kind of new movement, and a banner is just another label. Don't be afraid of labels.

 

I really like your thoughts Trigcove. I don't understand why it's become so bad to identify with a group. To me, belonging to a social group can be a great thing even if it means having a "label" put on you. Labels are really not the worst thing in the world.

 

I dislike labeling but somehow i find the word "hippy" not as a label... but probably more as a definition
I think they're two differant things. Labels categorize people whereas definitions only describe them.

 

Any label people put on anything will make me feel arrogant to use. It's a personal thing I need to conquer, and I know that.

 

I agree with you. Though I do like when people call me a hippie I think of it as a compliment (sometimes). I don't actually go around telling people "I'm a hippie, man" though.

 

This One's for the Hippies (to Misty)
--------------------------------
This is one for the hippies,
Derided for their passion,
Who warned about climate change
Forty years before the fashion.

Who couldn't get into clubs
Even when they rarely had a dollar –
Blokes ejected at the door
If their hair even touched their collar.

Men and women bashed on city streets
Because of their flamboyance
And love of life and Nature,
For their precognition and clairvoyance.

Let's hear it for the hippies
For decades taken for granted
And mocked because they called this globe
Not 'the world', but 'your precious Planet'.

This one's for the hippies
Society's whipping boy.
This one's for the hippies
Who bosses wouldn’t employ.

It's for those who talked of cycle power,
Alternative fuels, and co-ops for food.
Who sweated to make workers' co-ops,
And land co-ops … not that it did much good.

Who could see that every suburban block
Didn't need fifty washing machines.
Who believed in evolution
While Neanderthals vented their spleen.

Those who accepted being the laughingstock
Because they knew we must save the trees,
And, decades before governments announced it,
Exclaimed, "You’ve nearly killed the seas!".

So this one's for the hippies,
Who were 99 per cent right –
And it's to the five per cent of them
Who stayed true and didn’t shirk the fight.

To those who conspire and dream and scheme
And for humanity spend their lives,
And who generally die well burnt-out,
From unpaid activism, around about sixty-five.

So this one's for the hippies
Who, the older that they get
See daily vindication in every nation,
With immense pride, far too busy for regret.


author unknown *

 

I see hippie more as a label than a definition, since when it is tried to define properly (on these forums) there's never one definition. Yet there is discussion over what and who is really hippie or not. I don't see any problem with people who call themselves hippie, it's better then portraying yourself as a neo-nazi or something. Most people who do have problems with it seem to have them because the person who does so is not conforming to their view of what a hippie should be. Who cares, label, group or definition, it's just a word and you're never just that. Unless you're a walking cliché.

 

i am an individual i don't have a tag on my name

 

Wow cool, an individual.

 

I im a farcron dimin for fenshen inish buznet pinears eva'an