This post will be about hippie culture in general, in honor of Woodstock's 40th anniversary yesterday. And yes, you may be snorting and glancing at my title, for they are NOT the lyrics to Woodstock, by Joni Mitchell. You may be thinking that Lola is uneducated for all she seems to know her music... why wouldn't she use it? Well, for one, I already did, at the very beginning of the blog, using my probably all time favorite lyrics that I am busy at the moment embroidering on a shirt that I will post about later. And for two, everyone is quoting it, and unfortunately it is becoming cliche for this topic. Excuse me. Long ago has BECOME a cliche for this topic. And this lyrics omission for the title brings me to what I want to talk about in Hippie culture today. I would like to state one thing.
I am not a hippie.
This said, let me explain. Most people in America, especially people reading this sort of blog, know what a hippie is. The dictionary's definition is this- "(esp. in the '60's) a person of unconventional appearance, typically of long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs."
WRONG.
It says unconventional appearance. And yes, I concede that, for hippies, especially hippies in the '60's, to wear clothing and have an appearance that is, to say the least, "unconventional", was helpful in getting across a message, their ideology. But you don't HAVE to look different. All you have to do is believe in what you do, and do what you believe in, even though that belief is radical and is often "a rejection of conventional values". OK, beginning to ramble here. What I mean to say is, You don't need to look crazy or smoke weed or grow your hair out to be a hippie. And doing all of that does not make you a hippie, either. What makes a hippie, in my mind, is exactly what I said above about believing and doing. It's rebellion, it's life.
Hippyism is a way of life. A way of living, perhaps a way of dying, if you look at it from a cynical standpoint. But our current culture has transformed it from a way of living life to a way of wearing clothes. And it goes against all hippie ideologies. It's consumerism, it's overpriced merchandise that everyone wears that was made in a sweatshop in a third-world country. When people wear bags with rhinestoned peace signs, do they really mean they want peace for the world? Do these sort of people even understand such a concept? Or do they just want to look cool and "hip", coincidentally coming from the same root word that hippie came from, hipster. Do the teenagers who wear shirts that say "love" over tye-dye and sparkles actually practice such a thing? Do they love their parents, or do they scorn them? Do they embrace outcasts or bullies, or are they mean and exclusive be bullies back?
And they wear such things so that people can call them "hippies", for reasons that no actually hippie would be recognized for. Needless to say, I don't do this.
There are always labels put on people--my friends get the "wackos", the "freaks", some of us get the "hippies", including me. We wear these labels proudly, too. But like I said before, I'm not a hippie. I just sympathize with their culture, their values. I believe in Love, but I believe we need more than that to save people. I believe in peace, but I realize it is a flawed concept, at least for the nature of human beings. I believe in being calm and cool and relaxed, but I also believe in activism, in doing something about the problems hippies didn't like about society (which I might point out, so did some hippies). And I believe there are issues with the government, but instead of shunning them and scorning them, we should use them to show the flaws, have them help us save the world. Of course there is a different government today than in 1969, but still. And just by looking at the music I choose for my blog post titles, I think you understand I approve of that part of their culture scene.
And so I do my own thing, I don't conform to society, or at least try my hardest not to, and I wear what I want to wear and say what I say. But I do what I do because I want to do it, not because that's what hippies do. But that is what I am sometimes labeled anyway. Which brings me back to the beginning. I didn't use the woodstock lyrics as the title because, most importantly, they are exactly what a hippie (wannabee?) would use, and I am not one. So please, enjoy the Beatles in all their glory instead.
Whoever went to woodstock, I hope you had a good time, and I kinda wish I had been there yesterday. To everyone else, point made. I just hope that now you might see the world through my eyes, which I guess is the point of this blog. Well, revelation to me!
Have a good rest of the summer. Enjoy it while it lasts....
-Lola
Title Quote: She's Leaving Home, the Beatles
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