First, let me say that people now thought of as “hippies” never used that word to describe themselves. People who looked like, say, the Allman Brothers, called themselves “freaks.” It was an entirely different usage of the word from the unfortunates who worked in carnival freak shows.
It signified a break from the “establishment” and its values, but even so, they weren’t as bad as the scumbags we have today.
Where I lived in the 50s and 60s, growing your hair out and trying to look like a freak would get the stuffing stomped out of you quite promptly.
Schools had dress codes, and they enforced them.
The freaks would say they grew their hair out and wore those clothes to express their freedom. In fact, freaks had uniform regulations that were as strict as the Marines.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash (don’t remember whether Young was with them or not) had a song called “Almost Cut My Hair” with a line that went, “I feel like letting my freak flag fly.” His hair was his “freak flag.” And it was a hard-core “us against them” mentality.
I went to concerts and freak hangouts, but I was not accepted by those people. It was kind of like a dog being able to sense bad intent—somehow they just knew I wasn’t one of them.
In general, they were much better educated than young people today. There were philosophical underpinnings to what they were doing. All BS, of course, but at least they had something. And for the most part they were not sympathetic to the hard left, although there were a few around.
As Frank Zappa sang sarcastically, it was all “peace, free love, flowers and beads.” Except not really. It was no utopia. There was hypocrisy, dishonesty, cruelty, selfishness, guys pimping out young runaways to middle-aged “straights” (which meant people who were not freaks)—I’m not sure there wasn’t more of it than among the “establishment” of which they were so critical.
The main thing to remember, perhaps, is that everything they thought and believed was wrong, but I don’t think it was as malevolent, as downright Satanic evil as what we face today.
How many of those “hippies” exchanged their flowers and beads for disco suits in the 70s?