DUmmie FUnnies 12-15-05 ("Where have all the hippies gone?")

In light of the fact that I saw the "Die Hippie, Die!" episode on South Park last night, it is really karmatic that today I found this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Where have all the hippies gone: a poll for hippies past and present." I can answer that question. Most of the aging hippies are in a state of semi-hibernation deep in their parents' basements from where they make nostalgic posts in DUmmieland about how wonderful the '60s were. Yes, time has passed them by. Although the vast majority of Hippies have disappeared from public view, there are still a few of them wandering around in the wild like an endangered species. As a matter of fact, I pride myself on being a Big Game Hippie Hunter and was actually able once to bag a nearly extinct Hippie in the Santa Cruz mountains as you can read in my personal adventure story: HIPPIE HUNTING. So let us now enter the extinct Age of Aquarius and watch the DUmmie Hippies wax nostalgic in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, wearing an ancient set of love beads, is in the [brackets]:

Where have all the hippies gone: a poll for hippies past and present

[Where have all the hippies gone? If ever there was a DUmmie thread title crying out for song parody, this is it. (Hint: To the tune of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?")]

Growing up in the '60s and early '70s one could hardly avoid knowledge of the Hippie movement.

[Just follow the odor trail of the burning sweet green leaf.]

Profound and silly, angry and loving, passionate and thoughtful, for many the Hippie movement left deep impressions. For others, it was a fad.

[And the "others" went on to lead NORMAL lives.]

There can be no doubt that those who grew up then are of age to be in charge now. But looking around it isn't hard to see that this is -not- Hippie Heaven.

[Paradise Lost or should it be Aquarius Lost?]

There is lots of room for discussion about what the Hippie movement was, what happened to it, what long-term influences (if any) society in general has inherited? I hope we can do that here.

[The best thing about the Hippie movement is that it provide great satirical material such as last night's "Die Hippie, Die!" South Park episode.]

What I'd like to ask the -Hippies- (past and present) is: what happened?

[Answer: Most Hippies finally sobered up and the rest of them are still in a severe state of OD and posting nostalgically in DUmmieland about a Golden Age that never was.]

So why do you think the Hippies didn't make a bigger dent in the Establishment? With the RW controlling House, Senate and WH, what happened?

[When the drug haze finally lifted, sanity returned.]

I was amazed at Reagan’s ability to deceive with a smile and warm words. People I trusted and who I was certain knew better were buying into “Morning In America”. I was mystified. As the 80’s matured, I began to realize my first impressions were right. They did know better. They just wanted a piece of the action, and Reagan was a very comfy chair to settle into for that rightward, all expense paid cruise.

[Thanx for giving us yet another reason to admire Ronald Reagan. He was the one who finally got rid of the Hippie Movement.]

Progressives had a long dark night during Reagan. The party was essentially invisible. Alone and in the dark, it’s not hard to see why people were convinced to get in line. Well funded think tanks pumped out quality propaganda that yielded immediate results. “Do your own thing” became corrupted to “I got mine” and proved to be a toxic mix with RW radio. More poison for the body politic. Now the patient was going septic

[NEWSFLASH! Dawn never returned for "progressives" nor hippies.]

Before my eyes, students went from reading Ginsburg to Rand.
Why? It’s easy to understand now. Dead bodies stink, you see. And the Democratic Party was starting to get quite ripe. Easy pickings for the vultures on the DLC as the decade came to an end. For all his shortcomings, Clinton was quite a reprieve and given the circumstances was more than could have been hoped for. He and the barn-door eared Ross Perot threw the right wing into such a rage they never really recovered, and the newer more virulent form of republicanism stepped into the void. That pretty much brings us to where we are today; at the cliff's edge, looking into the abyss.

[Jump! JUMP!!!]

And didn't it hurt that so many hippies were leaving university/college for jobs? The solidarity with a cause that one could feel in student protests didn't exist when applying for a job. Long hair didn't feed a family. Flower power didn't get a job. One by one we got picked off as we entered the work-force.

[Damn REALITY for destoying our beautiful Hippie Dream!]

The counterculture saved this country, and it has never stopped paying the price for that. The left forgot about the culture war, but the right made it a crusade. What we are experiencing today is a direct result of forgetting who our friends are so we could sit in the bosses Mercedes whenever we wanted.

[Thanx for that laugh line: "The counterculture saved this country."]

Not much has changed since the '60s. Yes, we've obtained more civil rights for some groups of peoples, but the basic need to persecute continues with new targets: the GLBT community, Arabs, the French... that persecution continues along ideological grounds as well as morphological indicates a worsening of the damage done to our society.

[Poor persecuted French. Let us chant a mantra for them.]

Different drugs came into fashion....
Marijuana & the occasional psychedelic were replaced by cocaine. Not for everyone--but there was a significant change. Marijuana was cheap & so were most psychedelics. (Mushrooms are free.) And they fostered a laid-back, peaceful lifestyle. Again, not for everyone. Too many psychedelics can turn the brains to mush--temporarily for some, permanently for a few.

[The big sea change happened when the drug of choice for future DUmmies went from pot to crack.]

There was a very laid back feeling about the drug culture. So why would people get themselves hooked onto something like Coke?

[Because it was there.]

Was Disco a cause or symptom?
Old style hippies didn't spend a lot of money in the dominant economy. We got a lot of our threads at used shops, didn't buy new cars, threw a lot of our cash into the underground economy which was very small time. Head shops and hip clothing stores got by at best but were cool places to hang out. I watched this change as glitter rock/disco hit the scene, people who were just hippie stylin' jumped to the next thing and next thing you know everything just seemed to get cheezy. I know it's irrational but I've always blamed the decline of the hip culture of the 60's(which ended in 72) on disco, which put more money in the pockets of the dominant culture, not to mention coke dealers.

[Time now to wax nostalgic over Disco Era 100% polyester body suits.]

Let's not forget how key the CIA was to the cocaine traffic of that time, and perhaps even today. It was the gift that kept on giving to the RW.
They love snorting it, they love selling it, they love what it does to people, they love what it does to Central and South American governments, they love what it did to the counterculture and they love the laws they were able to pass because of it. It's GOP white gold, and they have a poster boy for the snort set sitting on the golden throne now. It's like manna from their twisted version of heaven.

[The latest DUmmie Tinfoil Hat Theory: Coke was introduced into this country as a way to destroy the counterculture.]

Many Americans wouldn't recognize the US of the 1950's. Far from finding it a golden age, they would be half choked by the repression and cultural vapidity surrounding them. The images of that time we see today are almost all derived from television.

[Let's see. Rock 'n' Roll came into being in the 1950s and it is still considered the Golden Age of Television. Plus Broadway musicals were being produced on a huge basis. Is this is the "cultural vapidity" you are talking about?]

No Hippies no clean food -- only corporate chemical mutant food product. Hippies made it plain: give us clean food, and take your corporate GE, Chem0-Soaked Food Product and stick it down your own gullet.

[Thanx for reminding us about how clean the lice-infested Hippies were.]

Alot of people who looked and acted like freaks....
Weren't really freaks, but going along with a popular movement. I think alot of people are doing that today with the rightwing movement. In other words, they're "moderates" who want to be on the winning side. When being a Liberal becomes "cool" again, alot of these people will swing our way.

[Trust me. The liberal fad has faded long ago.]

You can still find Hippies . . .
here in New England. Vermont has its share, as does MA, and even back-water towns along the NY border can usually rustle up a few tie-dyed potters and woodworkers.

[Hippies in Vermont? Why does this NOT surprise me?]

Hippies were the Fools of our time...walking off cliffs, oblivious to danger, seeking their dreams.



[Not after walking off cliffs.]