The World of Hippies

The hippie subculture was derived from the countervalues of the beatnik generation. "Hippies" as they call these people expressed themselves through music and art, they embraced sexual revolution, and used drugs to explore altered state of consciousness. Money is not as big of a deal as self-expression and idealism to certain beliefs. Often exploring various religion such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Wicca, and the Jesus Movement. They live very simple lives, and most often than that, they're vegetarians. In the 60's and early 70's, you can see them travelling in brightly hand-painted VW Kombi. They travel from one place to another to attend music festivals such as Woodstock and Summer of Love. They live a communal lifestyle. You can't miss their fashion of course, which up to now is still being widely referenced to. Hippies also pride themselves in giving stuff for free. Like setting up a free store, wherein anything is practically free. This is to show how anti-capitalism they are and pro-socialist.

The basic expression of the hippies is the Peace sign as they are practically big on love for the humankind. As the Golden Rule of Hillel the Elder goes: That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." With that, hippies oppose nuclear weapons, middle class values, and the Vietnam war. Apart from their less popular values, they fought to decline the illegalization of LSD in the late 60's. To them, the transcental effect of the LSD is a psychedelic high to free themselves from the societal restrictions. Unfortunately, the media and the law has caught up with them, making it difficult for hippies to do what they enjoyed the most: LSD. It ended the hippie culture in San Francisco.

Notable personalities that lived the hippie lifestyle was the band The Grateful Dead, Steve Jobs, George Harrison, among others. As long as there is youth, the youth culture will never be demolished, there will always be something new that will challenge the social dogma. After the hippie culture, new cultures emerge such as punk, the yipee culture, and most recently, the cyberhippies.

"Newcomers to the Internet are often startled to discover themselves not so much in some soulless colony of technocrats as in a kind of cultural Brigadoon - a flowering remnant of the '60s, when hippie communalism and libertarian politics formed the roots of the modern cyberrevolution..."

- Stewart Brand, "We Owe It All To The Hippies"