Smoke Drugs, Man
Dec 06
Hippies. What are they? Did they ever exist and can they still exist today in the lungs, minds and fingers of anyone who wasn’t a teenager in 1967?
It slightly saddens me that anytime I find an article online about a “hippie community” or people talk about these folks in general they lead straight into “Man, Whereversville is such a cool hippie spot. There are just mad drugs everywhere.” I don’t have anything particularly against drugs, though I think the term is an obscurely broad one–how can you place heroin and marijuana and alcohol all under the same label as aspirin?–which can’t easily be turned into a list with “good” and “bad” marked by each item, either. I would hope, given the absolute necessity of making a choice, my children decided to smoke pot long before they decided it was okay to pop prescription pills every day of their life for the next 80 years just because some doctor told them it was essential to normal living. In fact, I would prefer my offspring smoke pot to eat at McDonalds. But I digress.
While I was not there and am no expert, I suspect the whole hippie movement thing was only partially about acid trips and unlikely much at all about being strung out on meth. I believe it was more about rejecting commercialism, about making your own clothes and food, about sharing, about looking out for your fellow man. I believe it was more about sitting in drum circles than passing around joints and I believe that it was something that changed this country for the better, even if it wasn’t the only thing that changed this country during that time and even if it wasn’t the only direction this country changed toward. I believe it influenced punk rockers in 1979 and my own generation of “alternative music” type kids (do we even have a name?) in the 90’s, because both of those movements were about coming together and rejecting the facade that is overindulgence in consumer goods.
I feel that this constant stereotyping of hippies as tripped out Cheech & Chong types is dangerous because, as the Beats before them, these are a meaningful group of people who affected our country for the better and if we diminish them to red-eyed pot smoking voices then we risk forgetting the lesson that it all taught us. If they weren’t the only reason for it, they were definitely a giant contribution to the tearing down of much prejudice, opening the world of freedom of music and expression up to a country that was largely afraid of anything of the sort at the time, and paving the way for mine and my children’s generations to not have to work so hard at being themselves.
Shea Bella
6 Dec 2009 8:35 pm
Right on, brother man!
I feel like labeling people altogether undermines individuality. It is strange how most people need to fit everything into a box and label it. It keeps us close-minded and you know what happens when you’re close-minded. Neverending non-fun.
You never really can judge a book by its cover.
(Did I do that “it” right?)
billybob
7 Dec 2009 8:10 pm
Who are you??..Where did you come from?..Where do you work..Is that you r car? etc.. Now i can put you in my box with a label and then wonder why i should talk to you!!..O p.s..I’m too busy… (Lmao) Great society today isn’t it!!?…
Larry Perwinkle
8 Dec 2009 10:25 am
If hippies want to be treated as individuals why do the majority of them listen to the same style of horrible music, dress the same, act the same and smell the same. Hippies are just herds of people who can’t think for themselves and are terrified of being real individuals.
admin
8 Dec 2009 11:15 am
True, LP. Anyone who looks like anyone else deserves to be treated like another slice of beef. I’m with you 100%, and the more you look like someone else, the worse you should be treated.
My plan is simple: first we’ll need to round up all the white folks, particularly those who wear sporting apparel, polo shirts or business suits. We can stick them all in a camp somewhere until we determine a proper punishment. I’m thinking life imprisonment but genocide would also do, right? Next we should probably kill all of our soldiers, those same clothes wearing bastards!
All women who choose to have long hair. Murdered. Those with short? You guessed it, maiming then murder.
And I completely agree, Janice Joplin, Hendrix, Simon & Garfunkel, those pathetic bands have no staying power.
Here’s to ignorance! Here’s to not being different! Here’s to popcorn on my pizza!
Larry Perwinkle
8 Dec 2009 2:57 pm
I don’t recall stating conformists should be abused or mistreated. I just feel that real individuals are more interesting. A good musical comparison would be comparing the grateful dead to the cramps. This comparison illustrates my point in a nutshell. I admire your vast open mind and condescending sarcasm though. I’m curious how you develop taste, without at some point judging? Not that one necessarily needs to have good taste. If my lifespan were infinite I would certainly be way more open as I would have endless time to mull over whether I liked something/someone or not. Unfortunately, my time here is finite so snap judgments are sometimes critical regarding herd mentality and bad music.
Shea Bella
9 Dec 2009 10:28 pm
I agree with both of you, which are strangely making the same point even though you don’t know it.
LP, every human being is an individual. We are all so completely different and it takes a keen eye to see these differences sometimes masked in conformity and cow-like behavior. But we are all equal. We all offer something so beautiful, so unique, so spectacular. That is what makes this life so bizarre, so special. Is that we get to sit here and discuss it.
Sometimes we have to pull ourselves away from the people that are like-minded…step outside of that shell that encourages self-righteousness…and maybe, just maybe appreciate the beauty that lies beyond the cover.
The universal language is love, so let’s spread it.
admin
10 Dec 2009 11:44 am
Touché, Larry. As long as we can all love the sarcasm, I think we’ll do just fine in this world.
And personally, I think all people all across the world could use a little more Guns n Roses.