Defining The Hippie Way Of Life
The hippie movement was started in the 1960’s timeframe. Hippie derived from the terms hipster and hip. Hipster first referred to some beatniks who moved into the Haight-Ashbury region of San Francisco. They set up their own communities, indulged in the sexual revolution, listened to primarily psychedelic rock, and used drugs to expand their mind and conscious.
Appearance
Hippies felt that by choosing their own ways and finding new meanings to life they were freeing themselves from the restrictions of society. One form of independent expression was dressing differently from the societal norms. Hippies saw the way they dressed as a symbol of respect for individual rights, and it made it easier for them to identify each other.
Hippies both of the male and female gender generally wore jeans and had long hair. Both genders also primarily wore sandals or no shoes at all. The men were often bearded, and the women wore little, if any, makeup and did not wear bras. Hippies made most of their clothes such as tie-dyed shirts. Clothing they did not make themselves they normally bought from flea markets and second-hand shops. Hippies were also known for wearing beaded necklaces, headbands, and Native American jewelry.
Transportation
Hippies were known to travel by school busses, VW busses, and hitchhiking. Most hippies would paint psychedelic artwork over the original paint of school busses. They enjoyed traveling in large school busses because it enabled them to travel with a large amount of their friends. Hippies who rode around in VW busses often changed the Volkswagen symbol into a peace sign. Hippies who were more concerned about the environment hitchhiked. They also saw hitchhiking as a way to meet new people through their travels.
Hippies indulged in drugs and hallucinogens. They felt that by doing drugs it allowed them to open their mind and spirit. Most hippies smoked cannabis, or marijuana. Before long hippies began taking hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. Some hippies even took amphetamines and opiates. Most hippies, including the ones that used them, saw amphetamines and opiates as harmful and addictive so they began to scorn them.
Hippies believed in peace and pacifistic ideals. Large groups of hippies participated in non-violent political demonstrations. Hippies went to civil rights marches, performed protests, held anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, and burned draft cards. There were peace demonstration hippies and there were also hippies that preferred anti-authority and street theater demonstrations. The back to land movement, alternative energy, cooperative business enterprises, free press movement, and organic farming were a few political movements that hippies participated in.
Even today there are still hippies. People, along with hippies, still hold protests, anti-war parades, and festivals. The Starwood Festival and the Burning Man festival are two major festivals that are still held to this day. Fashions that hippies innovated in the 1960’s can still be seen today in the modern world. Genres of music generally listened to and played by hippies are still appearing in today’s world also. The hippie lifestyle is still alive today, whether it lives in the life of an older hippie or a hippie from a new generation.
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