Hippie Culture
Apr. 25th, 2022 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis year in Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I've decided to feature hippies. Today begins with an introduction to hippie culture.
Hippie Culture
Hippies are free spirits. The hippie movement spanned roughly the 1960s-1970s. Some modern practitioners call themselves neo-hippies or rainbows, while others keep to the original term. While some features of hippie culture have faded, others have stuck around, and a few have even joined the mainstream. They had a huge impact on culture. Explore hippie beliefs.
One major contribution that hippies have made to American culture came through hippie food. Many aspects of this have become mainstream, creating large and lasting changes in the foodstream. A lot of "health food" owes its popularity to hippies. We'll explore more about hippie food in Week 2.
Hippie crafts have had a somewhat lower impact, but a few of these have also become mainstream. Tie-dye used to be something you made yourself, but now it's easy to find on the rack. Many places also sell tie-dye kits that make it easier to create. Upcycling goes back about as far as humans, but hippies raised awareness of it. This has become a modern trend. We'll delve further into hippie crafts in Week 3.
Activism is a major part of hippie culture. Historically, they protested the Vietnam War and its modern slavery the draft, racism, sexism, restrictions on free speech, and a bunch of other stuff. Hence "Make love, not war!" Currently, they support a lot of the same themes.
The environmental movement has deep roots, but hippies get the credit for really turning it into a modern phenomenon. They invented Earth Day, now a popular holiday, and gave us lots of catchy songs. They didn't start the fire, but they were the first generation to recognize humanity as a serious threat to the biosphere, which inspired them to much activism. If more people had listened to the hippies, we would not be struggling for survival against climate change and othe problems making life increasingly difficult.
Hippies have always loved mysticism and altered states of consciousness. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not all about drugs, although some hippies explored entheogens. Others preferred music, meditation or other trancework, treehugging, and so on. Even though meditation has a deep history, people in America still associate it with hippies because they popularized it. Explore transendentalism on your own.
Free love is associated with hippies, but it actually goes back farther than that. Hippies are just the most famous group who demanded the right to own their own bodies and do as they pleased with them. Contraceptives like "the Pill" gave women much more control over their reproductive lives. The sexual revolution made some major social changes.
A key feature of hippie culture was "Turn on, tune in, drop out." They advocated the idea that if you didn't like what society was doing, you didn't have to support it, you could go do your own thing instead. Many hippies joined the "back to the land" movement, which has deep roots in history. This included hippie communes, some of which survive in today's intentional community culture. Some hippies rejected consumerism by practicing voluntary simplicity. They didn't care what people thought, and it drove society nuts. Later generations sometimes looked back with envy; listen to "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker" by Sandi Thom.
Remember the hippies. They caught a clue a long, long time before the rest of the world.
* * *
Week 1: Culture
Day 1: Hippie Culture
Day 2: Bohemian Culture
Day 3: Hippie History
Day 4: Hippie Books
Day 5: Bohemian History
Day 6: Bohemian Books
Day 7: How to Be a Hippie / Bohemian
Week 2: Food
Day 8: Introduction to Hippie Foods
Day 9: Fruits, Nuts, and Flakes
Day 10: Grain Bowls
Day 11: Hippie Quickbreads
Day 12: Cultured Foods
Day 13: Whole Fresh Foods
Day 14: Life Energy and Diet
Week 3: Crafts
Day 15: Hippie / Bohemian Crafts
Day 16: Peace Signs & Pot Leaves
Day 17: Tie-Dye
Day 18: Sewing, Embroidery, & Patchwork
Day 19: Spinning, Knitting, & Crochet
Day 20: Macramé
Day 21: Upcycling
Hippie Culture
Hippies are free spirits. The hippie movement spanned roughly the 1960s-1970s. Some modern practitioners call themselves neo-hippies or rainbows, while others keep to the original term. While some features of hippie culture have faded, others have stuck around, and a few have even joined the mainstream. They had a huge impact on culture. Explore hippie beliefs.
One major contribution that hippies have made to American culture came through hippie food. Many aspects of this have become mainstream, creating large and lasting changes in the foodstream. A lot of "health food" owes its popularity to hippies. We'll explore more about hippie food in Week 2.
Hippie crafts have had a somewhat lower impact, but a few of these have also become mainstream. Tie-dye used to be something you made yourself, but now it's easy to find on the rack. Many places also sell tie-dye kits that make it easier to create. Upcycling goes back about as far as humans, but hippies raised awareness of it. This has become a modern trend. We'll delve further into hippie crafts in Week 3.
Activism is a major part of hippie culture. Historically, they protested the Vietnam War and its modern slavery the draft, racism, sexism, restrictions on free speech, and a bunch of other stuff. Hence "Make love, not war!" Currently, they support a lot of the same themes.
The environmental movement has deep roots, but hippies get the credit for really turning it into a modern phenomenon. They invented Earth Day, now a popular holiday, and gave us lots of catchy songs. They didn't start the fire, but they were the first generation to recognize humanity as a serious threat to the biosphere, which inspired them to much activism. If more people had listened to the hippies, we would not be struggling for survival against climate change and othe problems making life increasingly difficult.
Hippies have always loved mysticism and altered states of consciousness. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not all about drugs, although some hippies explored entheogens. Others preferred music, meditation or other trancework, treehugging, and so on. Even though meditation has a deep history, people in America still associate it with hippies because they popularized it. Explore transendentalism on your own.
Free love is associated with hippies, but it actually goes back farther than that. Hippies are just the most famous group who demanded the right to own their own bodies and do as they pleased with them. Contraceptives like "the Pill" gave women much more control over their reproductive lives. The sexual revolution made some major social changes.
A key feature of hippie culture was "Turn on, tune in, drop out." They advocated the idea that if you didn't like what society was doing, you didn't have to support it, you could go do your own thing instead. Many hippies joined the "back to the land" movement, which has deep roots in history. This included hippie communes, some of which survive in today's intentional community culture. Some hippies rejected consumerism by practicing voluntary simplicity. They didn't care what people thought, and it drove society nuts. Later generations sometimes looked back with envy; listen to "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker" by Sandi Thom.
Remember the hippies. They caught a clue a long, long time before the rest of the world.
* * *
Week 1: Culture
Day 1: Hippie Culture
Day 2: Bohemian Culture
Day 3: Hippie History
Day 4: Hippie Books
Day 5: Bohemian History
Day 6: Bohemian Books
Day 7: How to Be a Hippie / Bohemian
Week 2: Food
Day 8: Introduction to Hippie Foods
Day 9: Fruits, Nuts, and Flakes
Day 10: Grain Bowls
Day 11: Hippie Quickbreads
Day 12: Cultured Foods
Day 13: Whole Fresh Foods
Day 14: Life Energy and Diet
Week 3: Crafts
Day 15: Hippie / Bohemian Crafts
Day 16: Peace Signs & Pot Leaves
Day 17: Tie-Dye
Day 18: Sewing, Embroidery, & Patchwork
Day 19: Spinning, Knitting, & Crochet
Day 20: Macramé
Day 21: Upcycling
(no subject)
Date: 2022-04-25 09:13 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2022-04-25 09:19 am (UTC)It's interesting to look back and see how much really started, or at least jelled, with that generation.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-04-25 11:32 pm (UTC)Maybe he was on to something. *laugh*
Yes ...
Date: 2022-04-26 01:06 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2022-04-26 02:17 pm (UTC)"freak" is me in a number of ways. No harm adding another. :)
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2022-04-26 05:22 pm (UTC)And don't worry about rules. They're more like ... guidelines. ;)
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2022-04-27 03:37 am (UTC)Thanks. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-04-26 04:46 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2022-04-26 05:00 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2022-04-27 08:53 pm (UTC)