Lately I have been hearing a lot of people saying things like “oh they are hippies” or “I am a hippy”. I will be the first to admit that I have said these statements out of context also. But more recently I feel I have been hearing it a lot more. It seems to be bothering me. Like no those twenty something’s on the side of the road begging for money are not hippies, nor is the woman who doesn’t shave, nor are you a hippie just because you grow your own garden or only buy local organic food. Being a hippie is deeper. It’s a much more simple but meaningful statement than all of these things.
If we look at the beginnings of the hippie movement we see
men and women who were unhappy and in disagreement with their government. They had
parents who lived through a horrible war. From living through this war they
learned that in order to get by in life you were to wholeheartedly trust in
your government. This generation believed that the government had their best interest
in mind and that you could rely on the government for protection and loving
support. They tried to raise their kids with these same values. Now I did not
live through any of these years, but most of my family have and some well
educated people that I am friends with have weighed in on the subject. In
gathering information I have come to a few conclusions. First is that perhaps
the government changed. Perhaps they started to care more about other thing
than caring for their citizens. Perhaps they really were doing what they believed
was best for our country. Either way we ended up in another war. Only this time
there were people who were not OK with the decisions they were making on the
behalf of the citizens.
Looking at the tactics they were using in my humble opinion
there was a lot of misuse of power and “fear mongering” as there is within any
war time. Or any power structure really. The older generation still felt the
trust in the government. They saw a lot of the same patterns they had gone
through and fallowed suite. But what no one counted on was they people who saw
what was happening for what it was and said “NO, we are not OK with your
choices, especially if you are making them on behalf of me and the entire
country.” And thus the “Hippie” was born.
From the view point of someone who does believe in our
government and our country, at least what it could be and the intention of our
for fathers, and the valued opinions of the people I have consulted being a
hippie is about rebelling against the moments of what they considered tyranny
and complete abuse of power. They
believed that the people who had power were using it to gain for themselves not
the people they represented. So what did they do, they protested, they wore
clothes that were the opposite of that people who fallowed the government wore,
they lived in communes, grew their own
food, raised children in and lived their lives in over all ways that almost
went against the people who fallowed the government or how they government said they should be
living. They stood up for what they believed in and did everything they could
to show where they stood and why they stood for it. They did they best they
could to promote love and kindness and stop what they felt to be hatred.
I can relate to this feeling. This is the reason why I have been
known for calling myself a hippie. I believe in love, forgiveness, kindness, and
gentleness towards mankind and other spirits in general. I believe that we do
not need to be ruled with fear, hatred and war. We need to learn to understand
and have compassion for one another. There needs to come a time for support of
our fellow man and get back to putting the organic flowers we grown in our
gardens back in to the barrels of unnecessary guns. Now do not get me wrong I love,
support, appreciate our armed forces. I am so thankful for the protection of o
our freedom to stand up and say I disagree with what you are using these fine young men and women
for and I disagree with what you’re gaining from this misuse. I am thankful for
all my freedoms and the daily life I live… as a hippie. I will continue to do my best to spread peace
and love. To try to use my actions to show and teach my fellow man that we can
be human beings before anything else.
