{"id":64,"date":"2017-02-03T00:02:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T00:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/uncategorized\/the-way-of-the-hippy\/"},"modified":"2017-02-03T00:02:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T00:02:35","slug":"the-way-of-the-hippy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/hippie-havens\/the-way-of-the-hippy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way of the Hippy"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Way of the Hippy<\/strong>
\n
\nfrom Hippies
\nFrom A to Z<\/a> by Skip Stone<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n

…maybe it’s the time of year.
\nYes, and maybe it’s the time of man. <\/strong>
\n
\nAnd I don’t know who I am. But
\nlife is for learning.<\/strong>
\n
\nJoni Mitchell\/CS&N (Woodstock)
\n1970<\/p>\n

What’s a hippie? What’s the difference between an old
\nhippie and a new hippie? Once a hippie, always a hippie? These and similar
\nquestions are the source of much debate today. New subcategories like web-hippies,
\ncyber-hippies, even zippies have become fashionable. But what is a hippie
\nand are you one? <\/p>\n

To answer this question, let’s see what defines a hippie.
\nSome say it’s the way people dress, and behave, a lifestyle. Others classify
\ndrug users and rock ‘n’ roll fans or those with certain radical political
\nviews as hippies. The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn’t conform
\nto society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle.
\nCan all these definitions be right?\n<\/p>\n

It seems to me that these definitions miss the point.
\nBy focusing on the most visible behavioral traits these limited descriptions
\nfail to reveal what lies in the hippie heart that motivates such behavior.
\nTo understand The Way of the Hippy, we must look at those circumstances
\nthat preceded the birth of the hippy movement, the important events that
\nchanged our lives, our resulting frustration with society, and the philosophy
\nthat developed from our spiritual maturation.\n<\/p>\n

Hippy is an establishment label
\nfor a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every
\nvisible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible
\nmembers of the turned-on underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in
\nto their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American
\nLife.<\/strong>
\n
\nTimothy Leary (The Politics of
\nEcstasy) 1967<\/p>\n

My view is that being a hippie is a matter of accepting
\na universal belief system that transcends the social, political, and moral
\nnorms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government.
\nEach of these powerful institutions has it’s own agenda for controlling,
\neven enslaving people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real
\nor imagined enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts
\nwith country vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After
\nmillennia of war and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered,
\nwe have yet to rise above our petty differences.\n<\/p>\n

The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive
\nhierarchical power structures since these are adverse to the hippie goals
\nof peace, love and freedom. This is why the “Establishment” feared and
\nsuppressed the hippie movement of the ’60s, as it was a revolution against
\nthe established order. It is also the reason why the hippies were unable
\nto unite and overthrow the system since they refused to build their own
\npower base. Hippies don’t impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies
\nseek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.\n<\/p>\n

Imagine no possesions, I wonder
\nif you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine
\nall the people sharing all the world.<\/strong>
\n
\nJohn Lennon (Imagine)<\/p>\n

To be a hippie you must believe in peace as the way to
\nresolve differences among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to
\npeace is through love and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they
\nare, giving them freedom to express themselves and not judging them based
\non appearances. This is the core of the hippie philosophy.\n<\/p>\n

…see the whole thing is a world
\nfull of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general
\ndemand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the
\nprivilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such
\nas refrigerators, TV sets, cars, …all of them imprisoned in a system of
\nwork, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great
\nrucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering
\naround with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh
\nand old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of
\n‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their
\nheads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected
\nacts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living
\ncreatures.<\/strong>
\n
\nJack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
\n1958<\/p>\n

The hippy movement erected signposts for all to see. Some
\nwarn us of impending danger, others direct us towards richer, more fulfilling
\nlives, but most show us the road to freedom. Freedom is the paramount virtue
\nin this system. Freedom to do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you,
\nand to be open to new experiences. This engenders an attitude that allows
\nfor maximum personal growth.\n<\/p>\n

If you want to be free, be free,
\nbecause there’s a million things to be. <\/strong>
\n
\nCat Stevens (If You Want to Sing
\nOut)<\/p>\n

Our society only permits you one or two weeks a year of
\nfreedom to pursue your own agenda. The rest of the time we are slaves to
\nthe system. Hippies reject the 9 to 5 lifestyle and therefore are objects
\nof ridicule by those whose lives run by the clock. Programmed people are
\njealous and resent the freedom we possess. The unmitigated freedom that
\nhippies represent is the greatest threat to any system in which control
\nequals power.\n<\/p>\n

I like ideas about the breaking
\naway or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything
\nabout revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no
\nmeaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom – external freedom
\nis a way to bring about internal freedom.<\/strong>
\n
\nJim Morrison<\/p>\n

With all this freedom comes a lot of responsibility. The
\nsystem does not make it easy for us to survive without sacrificing our
\nvalues. Therefore we must discover alternative ways to make a living without
\nbeing a drag on our planet’s resources and our fellow humans. Hippies have
\npioneered numerous lifestyles and alternative businesses including communes,
\ncooperatives, holistic medicine and health food. We focused everyone’s
\nconcern on the environment to highlight our responsibilities to our planet
\nand to future generations.\n<\/p>\n

I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming
\nabout the world as one.<\/strong>
\n
\nAnd I believe it could be, someday
\nit’s going to come.<\/strong>
\n
\nCat Stevens (Peace Train)<\/p>\n

Other beliefs that spring from our core philosophy are:
\nan earthy spirituality such as a belief in Gaia (the earth as an organism),
\nthe Greens movement (political activism), even shamanism and vegetarianism.
\nThese philosophical and political views reflect a respect for nature and
\nthe planet as a whole, something lacking in our capitalistic and materialistic
\nsocieties. The world needs hippies to point out alternatives to the entrenched
\nsystem and warn of the impending disasters that await us if we don’t change
\nour lifestyles. The goal is not to make everyone a hippie (what would we
\nhave to protest?). Rather we can try to influence others by example, through
\ntolerance and love and teaching the virtues of the hippie way.\n<\/p>\n

You create your own reality. <\/strong>
\n
\nSeth (Seth Speaks)<\/p>\n

So being a hippie is not a matter of dress, behavior,
\neconomic status, or social milieu. It is a philosophical approach to life
\nthat emphasizes freedom, peace, love and a respect for others and the earth.
\nThe way of the hippie never died. There have always been hippies from the
\nfirst time society laid down rules, to Jesus, to Henry David Thoreau, to
\nJohn Lennon, to you and me. I believe there’s a little hippy in all of
\nus. It’s just been repressed by our socialization process. We need to find
\nit and cultivate our hippie within. Only then can we reach our true potential.\n<\/p>\n

I took the road less traveled
\nby, and that has made all the difference.<\/strong>
\n
\nRobert Frost (The Road Not Taken)<\/p>\n

As hippies age they come to terms with the same situations
\nall humans must face. Wiser than before, let’s help the younger hippies
\nfind a way to save the earth and achieve more freedom than exists in our
\nwildest dreams. Let’s find our common ground, build a worldwide community,
\nand once again let our freak flags fly and become all we are destined to
\nbe.\n<\/p>\n

Peace and Love, Skip\n<\/p>\n

Return
\nto Hippyland homepage<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Posted by: skip
\nViews: 319545
\nTopic:3\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Way of the Hippy from Hippies From A to Z by Skip Stone …maybe it’s the time of year. Yes, and maybe it’s the time of man. And I don’t know who I am. But life is for learning. Joni Mitchell\/CS&N (Woodstock) 1970 What’s a hippie? What’s the difference between an old hippie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hippie-havens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}