Hippie Inc: how the counterculture went corporate
1843magazine.com
1843magazine.com
The young guys are more conservative, and more dangerous to the artform, than the old guys with the cigars ever were!
Union-busting has come so far since the goon squad era.
Reminds me of a PBS series called "Making Sense of the Sixties". It failed miserably at that.
People grow up, they have to make money one way or another.
Very few people feel at ease working on a commune. Even then they have to dip their toes into regular society.
Probably the Amish and others like them actualize the purported lifestyle better than the supposed hippies.
Because the term is considered extremely offensive, it is often referred to by the euphemism "the N-word". But it remains in use...by African Americans among themselves.
Indirect link to avoid using the actual word here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-word
Obviously the degree of offensiveness is vastly different, but there have often been words that would be offensive when used by an outsider but accepted within a group.
If a straight called me a hippie or a freak, it might be an insult. But if another freak - or even even one of my straight friends who was cool - called me a freak, I would take it as a compliment.
(See my other comment for an explanation of the terminology.)
Another example from my childhood: I grew up in an Italian family, and back then you would never want to call an Italian a "wop" or "dago" to their face. In fact you would still be wise to avoid those words.
But my cousins from the Italian side of the family? They called each other "wop" and "dago" all the time! Just normal sibling kidding around.
And we called people who were not hippies or freaks "straight". This did not refer to sexual preference, but meant someone you should not share your dope with.
"Dope" meant grass or ganja, which we might refer to as pot or cannabis today, or as young people call it, "weed".
Some straights used "hippie" or "freak" as derogatory terms, but we took them as a badge of pride.
Let your freak flag fly!
Time to fill the Pax 3 vaporizer with some fresh Jack Herer flower. A lot better than the awful joints we used to roll. Remember roach clips?
The roach was the strongest part of the joint, so it was highly prized and we smoked it right down to the end. No matter that it tasted awful and burned your lips and fingers even with a clip.
I did see a few people roll little filters into their joints, but it was rare. You were wise to do that.
As for myself, I never smoked again after trying a flower vaporizer for the first time a dozen years ago. So much better than burning it!
But someone could look straight and still be cool. Once you knew they were cool, pass them a joint!
I can trust someone who admits that self-interest motivates their actions more than one who claims altruism does.
Not a "broad" movement, maybe, but an existence proof of a sustained "hippie" way of life.
Is this motivated by mere self-interest or something greater than that?
Is it possible to construct or discover a way of life wherein the interests of the individual and the group are in harmony?
It's not a movement in the organized political sense, but it could be considered a kind of cultural movement. Many of the people who gather live alternative lifestyles all year 'round, and many of them do eschew the profit-motive as a way of life and ideology, AFAIK. Certainly the gatherings themselves are sans currency. People do some light bartering but it's mostly what you might call (if you had to) a "gifting economy".
The gatherings are not festivals although they are festive. They're more like religious gatherings but without the religion. Although you will religious people there, of all kinds of religions, all getting along.
Referencing your original comment, one thing they're not is disingenuous but they're also not promoting themselves. (No one pays to go to a gathering, all prep and cleanup is done by volunteers.)