Hippie 3.0 is now!

Hippie 3.0 is now!

Over the past month, we have noticed a growing movement of hippie identification, from the local Eastbay hippie hangout to hearing the self identification of friends calling themselves hippies. And we think this is a good thing.

The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn't conform to society's standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle.

Being a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief system that transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government. Each of these powerful institutions has its own agenda for controlling, even enslaving people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real or imagined enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts with country vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise above our petty differences.

The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures since these are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom. This is why the "Establishment" feared and suppressed the hippie movement of the '60s, as it was a revolution against the established order. It is also the reason why the hippies were unable to unite and overthrow the system since they refused to build their own power base. Hippies don't impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.

The Hippie transcends petty differences, by promoting love and tolerance. In Hippie language, this means accepting others as they are, giving them the freedom to express themselves and not judging people based solely on appearances. The Hippie movement is symbolic of a signpost on the road to freedom. Freedom to do what you want and follow the flow of life allows for utmost personal growth and mind expansion.

If this is the wave of the future, well we embrace our inner Hippie and those who identify as such.

"Hippy is an establishment label for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible members of the turned-on underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American Life"

Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstasy) 1967