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[August 8, 1967] Who Are the Hippies?
National Review From the NR archives ^ | August 8, 1967 | WILL HERBERG

Posted on 09/26/2015 6:14:45 AM PDT by dontreadthis

he hippie movement, if indeed it can be called a movement, confronts the curious observer as a strange paradox. On the One hand, it is generally held to be part of the New Left, itself a vague conglomerate of youthful and not so youthful malcontents, pronouncing the most frightful imprecations upon our society and culture, and threatening the most ferocious assaults upon things as they are. On the other hand, these hippies appear to be so harmless, so peaceful, so utterly absorbed in love and bongo. Where do they fit into the picture of the New Left? Who are the hippies, what are they? Most emphatically, they are not to be identified with the old-line beatniks, with whom they may have some tenuous historical connection. They do not have the truculence, the menacing air, the ideological ferocity of the old-line beatnik; they do not congregate in foul dens in the slums. They are the “gentle people,” sun worshipers, love-mystics. No, they are not beatniks; but what are they?

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: hippies
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To: Steely Tom

I lived in the area back the. Was afraid to go out at night because of the Zodiac Killer.


41 posted on 09/26/2015 7:56:42 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: woofie
I haven't read them all, but enough to want to comment .... too lazy to ping all the ones that my comment would touch .. so ....

The word HIPPIE is a feminization of HIP which, whether intentional or not was the same as HEP of the Beat Generation .... and all it meant was .. "I know"

I'm hip .... I'm hip to that

So the Hippie is just someone that claimed "to know"

I got out of the Army in '67 and couldn't WAIT to grow my hair and get high and laid a lot ...

but I did ... and I did .... AND I did, too !

MY drugs of choice were reefer and acid, sprinkled with psylicybin (sp?) and any other psychotropic

I was (and still am) fascinated with the entire concept of "thought" and the fact that I HAD thoughts

So like, wow, man ... I was HIP !

Can you dig it ?

I was never dirty in the sense that I would be always dirty, but I'm sure three days at Watkins Glen produced an aroma I wasn't aware of ... because we ALL were there

When I got home, certainly I bathed ... and prepared my excuse for why I missed work yesterday ... (They pretty much knew I was a dreamer, but also a good worker and personable and likeable)

I always held a job WHEN I WANTED TO because I always wanted drugs, beer, courtship money and the freedom money offered without the hassle of a car or commitment ... life was a party


Gradual maturation moved me many different directions until in 1981 I met Jesus and became a human being devoid of hair and hip talk

I learned Victorian English via the KJV and developed new and way more exciting thought processes

I wouldn't change a thing ... I survived and at (almost) 68 ... I'm REALLY hip.

42 posted on 09/26/2015 8:15:50 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: dontreadthis

my favorite Roneald Reagan joke

What’s the definition of a hippy?

Someone who Looks like Tarzan, Smells like Cheetah... and Walks like Jane


43 posted on 09/26/2015 8:19:56 AM PDT by Rust Buster
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To: Steely Tom; dontreadthis
He said “in 67, the kids were told to bring flowers if they came to San Francisco. By 68, it would have been a good idea to bring a revolver.”

I don't know about that but I have heard that one thing that led to the decline of the hippie scene in SF was that the news about them drew in a rougher crowd more connected with biker gangs and amphetamines instead of pot and LSD.

In 1967 there was a "hippie funeral" parade in SF that was supposed to symbolically mark the end of the movement. There were Hells Angels in the parade. This was at a time when many people in the rest of the country were still first hearing about hippies.

44 posted on 09/26/2015 8:21:17 AM PDT by wideminded
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To: wideminded

The communist revolution in 1917 also “drew in a rougher crowd.”


45 posted on 09/26/2015 8:29:17 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: dontreadthis

46 posted on 09/26/2015 8:32:15 AM PDT by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
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To: Larry Lucido
It took me longer to break free. The Episcopal Church leadership was politically Progressive, and I was part of that culture. Carter was so obviously a failure, and it seemed to me that ideology was as much a part of that as it is with BHO.

A false understanding of human nature and of history leads to policies which are not only unjust but are also practical disasters.

Progressivism is vicious. I'm currently browsing through
Christian Smith, The Secular Revolution, University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles, 2003. It's a collection of essays by sociologists describing the rise of Progressivism. Archbishop Chaput mentioned it in an article in First Things. It's remarkable. It describes the way not just Christianity but theism as a determinative principle of philosophy and ethics was driven from among the leaders and shapers of culture.

I'm 8 years older than you (but fabulously immature.) My impression was that at home, at school, and at church (where Sunday school was taught by well-meaning but incompetent layfolk) Progressive secularism dominated. There was no depth to moral discourse. My mother, born in 1920 in London, studied economics with Keynes (! -- mom was hardcore), and was part of the Christian Socialist phenomenon, though the US in the 50's was not a safe place for the articulation of such thoughts. My father, born 1904, had no religion nor saw any need for it until something happened in his 50s. He was very private about it, and I have no idea of his thinking.

And THAT little fact is important. The idea of a father as a guide to "formation" in morals and religion just hadn't crossed his mind. To me that suggests a secular and utilitarian idea of parenthood.

So I think the hippies should be viewed not only in the context of other US naively utopian movements but as an inchoate response to the empty religiosity and shallow ethics of a culture which thought the Lord of all to be a private and emotional matter.

47 posted on 09/26/2015 8:36:47 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico.)
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To: dontreadthis

Yes.


48 posted on 09/26/2015 8:39:51 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico.)
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To: wideminded

Thanx for the memory .... right on.


49 posted on 09/26/2015 8:39:52 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: knarf
I am obviously less hip because I'm getting to the point where I might need a hip replacement.
50 posted on 09/26/2015 8:42:09 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico.)
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To: knarf

I would have said diminutive rather than feminization. At least at the beginning it was about laughing at oneself.


51 posted on 09/26/2015 8:43:53 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
I don't know that the personal filth part is true. I was always on the lookout for some place to shower or bathe. Not a lot of showers if you live on the streets.

But for me, a chance to get cleaned up was more pressing than a chance to get a meal.

52 posted on 09/26/2015 8:47:32 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico.)
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To: Mad Dawg
either/or ... it doesn't matter

They were times never to be repeated and I feel blessed to have been born in 1948 and having enough of an education that allowed my mind's eye to see.

Not saying I understood or agreed with what I saw ... but I saw it.

53 posted on 09/26/2015 8:47:51 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: dontreadthis

“the yippies looked like hippies...”

Reminds me of Wacky Packages’ “Commie Cleanser” from 1969. Appeared in some newspaper ads.

“Gets rid of Reds, Pinkos, Hippies, Yippies, & Flippies!”

This sparked angry letters to the editor from outraged lefties, one demanding to know “Just what is a `Flippie’, anyway!!?”


54 posted on 09/26/2015 8:51:58 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("I don't like Islam and I don't trust Muslims.")
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To: laker_dad
Best part of the hippie movement was the lack of bras.

I guess...


55 posted on 09/26/2015 8:57:23 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'll vote for Jeb when Terri Schiavo endorses him.)
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To: dontreadthis
The actual percentage of people who were hippies was probably less than one percent of the population. Only a very tiny percent ever lived on a commune or sat around smoking dope the whole day.

The hippie movement and the so-called "counter culture" was naturally built up by the lib media who wanted the general public to believe all youth were dope-smoking degenerates who wanted some sort of "fundamental transformation" of society.

Read Johnathan Leaf's "Politically Incorrect Guide to The Sixties" to get the straight uh dope about those times.

56 posted on 09/26/2015 9:35:13 AM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: dontreadthis

These are the remains of a young woman named Holly Maddux being removed from the apartment of one Ira Einhorn,the MC of the very first "Earth Day".She had the audacity to leave him so he murdered her and kept her in his apartment,in this trunk,for several years.It was discovered because neighbors below him complained of foul odors and a strange ooze leaking into their apartments.He's doing life for murder now so we know where at least one well known hippie is.

And then there's Bill Ayers....

57 posted on 09/26/2015 9:41:29 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Obamanomics:Trickle Up Poverty)
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To: dontreadthis
The music; it was always about the music, Searching for the Sound, the sound,
And The Music Never Stopped

There's mosquitoes on the river.
Fish are rising up like birds.
It's been hot for seven weeks now,
Too hot to even speak now.
Did you hear what I just heard?

Say, it might have been a fiddle,
Or it could have been the wind.
But there seems to be a beat, now.
I can feel it in my feet, now.
Listen, here it comes again!

There's a band out on the highway.
They're high-steppin' into town.
They're a rainbow full of sound.
It's fireworks, calliopes and clowns --

Everybody's dancing.
Come on, children. Come on, children, 
Come on clap your hands.

Sun went down in honey.
Moon came up in wine.
Stars were spinnin' dizzy,
Lord, the band kept us so busy
We forgot about the time.

They're a band beyond description
Like Jehovah's favorite choir.
People joinin' hand in hand	
While the music plays the band.
Lord, they're setting us on fire.

Crazy rooster crowin' midnight.
Balls of lightning roll along.
Old men sing about their dreams.
Women laugh and children scream,
And the band keeps playin' on.

Keep on dancin' through to daylight.
Greet the morning air with song.
No one's noticed, but the band's all packed and gone.
Was it ever here at all?

But they keep on dancing.
C'mon, children. C'mon, children,
Come on clap your hands.

Well, the cool breeze came on Tuesday,
And the corn's a bumper crop.
The fields are full of dancing,
Full of singing and romancing,
'Cause the music never stopped.

Words by John Perry Barton, Music by Bob Weir
58 posted on 09/26/2015 9:45:21 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: dontreadthis

Hippies are anarchists and communists. Imho.


59 posted on 09/26/2015 9:48:00 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: laker_dad

“Best part of the hippie movement was the lack of bras.”

That’s just because I couldn’t find a size 34 in a B cup.


60 posted on 09/26/2015 10:14:34 AM PDT by sparklite2 (Eagles fan after loss to Dallas -- This is the first time I ever saw the "prevent offense".)
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