Hippie

Hippie or Hippy refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that found its earliest beginnings in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s.^[1] The developing hippie ethos soon influenced the Beatles and others in the United Kingdom^[2] and Europe^[3], and they in turn influenced their American counterparts^[4]. Hippies, along with the New Left, and the American Civil Rights Movement, are considered the three dissenting groups of the American 1960s counterculture.^[5] Eventually, the hippie movement extended far beyond the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, affecting Australia ^[6], New Zealand ^[7], Japan ^[8], Mexico, Brazil and many other countries.^[9].

Hippies were originally part of a youth movement composed mostly of white teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 years old.^[10][11] Inheriting a tradition of cultural dissent from the bohemians and the beatniks, hippies rebelled against established institutions, criticized middle class values, in the United Kingdom opposed nuclear weapons and in America opposed the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of non-Judeo-Christian religions, promoted sexual liberation and the taking of psychedelic drugs, and created intentional communities, leading some to describe hippies as a new religious movement.^[12] By 1968, self-described hippies had become a significant minority, representing just under 0.2 percent of the U.S. population.^[13]

Hippies opposed "political and social orthodoxy", choosing a "gentle and nondoctrinaire" politics that favored "peace, love, and personal freedom",^[14][15] perhaps best epitomized by The Beatles' song,All You Need is Love. They perceived the dominant culture as a corrupt, monolithic entity that exercised undue power over their lives,^[16] calling this culture "The Establishment", "Big Brother", or "The Man".^[17] The hippie ethos spread worldwide through a fusion of early rock, folk, blues, and psychedelic rock. Hippie culture also found expression in literature, ^[18], the dramatic arts,^[19] and the visual arts, including film,^[20] posters advertising rock concerts, and album covers.^[21][22]

Etymology

According to lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower, the principal American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, the terms hipster and hippie derive from the word hip, whose origins are unknown. Hip first appeared during the early 20th century, when its meaning was "aware; in the know." During the jive era of the late 1930s and early 1940s, African-Americans began to use hip to mean "sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date".^[23][24]

The term hipster was coined by Harry Gibson in 1940, and used by the American Beat generation during the 1940s and 1950s to describe jazz and swing music performers. The word evolved to describe bohemian counterculture.

Like the word "hipster", the word "hippie" is jazz slang from the 1940s"^[25] One of the first recorded usages of the word "hippie" was in a radio show of November 13, 1945, in which Stan Kenton called Harry Gibson a hippie (NBC studios, live radio program, the "Jubilee" show at Billy Berg's jazz club in Hollywood, CA, and recorded through the transcription service of the Armed Forces Radio Corps, or AFRC, and available on the CD "Stan Kenton And Friends," 2006).

In 1963, the British band The Swinging Blue Jeans released the song "Hippy Hippy Shake" (Del-Fi 4119^[26]), which rose to #2 in the British charts and #24 in the US. This song was originally recorded in 1959 by Chan Romero, with less success. The lyrics, at least on the surface, refer to anatomical hips which shake while dancing, rather than to anyone's awareness or culture.

Also in 1963, the Orlons, an African-American singing group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, released the soul dance song "South Street" (Cameo 243) referring to the real South Street in their city. Composed by Dave Appell and Kal Mann, with part of the old Stephen Foster tune from "Camptown Races",^[27] it climbed to #3 in sales in the US. The "South Street" lyrics enthuse, "Where do all the hippies meet? South Street, South Street . . . The hippest street in town".^[28] Some transcriptions, however, read "Where do all the hippist (sic) meet?"^[29] Nevertheless, since many heard it as "hippies", that use was promoted.

"The Hippies" was also the name of a mixed African American and White soul singing group on the Orlons' record label, Cameo-Parkway. Under a previous name, the Tams, they recorded "Memory Lane" in 1959 (Parkway 863). Re-released in April 1963, "Memory Lane" had printed on the label "The Hippies (Formerly The Tams)". It reached #63 in sales.^[30]

On the east coast of the U.S. in Greenwich Village, New York City, young counterculture advocates were named hips. At that time, as now, to be hip meant to be "in the know" or "cool", as opposed to being called a stodgy "square". Disaffected youth from the suburbs of New York City flocked to Greenwich Village coffeehouses in their oldest clothes to fit into the counterculture.

Reminiscing about late 1940s Harlem in his 1964 autobiography, Malcolm X referred to the word hippy as a term African Americans used to describe a specific type of white man who "acted more Negro than Negroes."^[31]

The more contemporary sense of the word "hippie" first appeared in print on 5 September 1965. In an article entitled "A New Haven for Beatniks," San Francisco journalist Michael Fallon wrote about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse, using the term hippie to refer to the new generation of beatniks who had moved from North Beach into the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Fallon reportedly came up with the name by condensing Norman Mailer's use of the word "hipster" into "hippie".^[32]

Use of the term hippie did not catch on in the mass media until early 1967, after San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen began referring to hippies in his daily columns.^[33][34]

History of the movement in the US

See also: History of subcultures in the 20th century and History of the United States (1964–1980)

Antecedents

The foundation of the hippie movement finds historical precedent as far back as the counterculture of the Ancient Greeks, espoused by philosophers like Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics. Hippies were also influenced by the ideas of Jesus Christ, Hillel the Elder, Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, Krishna, Henry David Thoreau, Madame Blavatsky, Gandhi, and others.^[35]

In the 1890s, a European back-to-nature movement began, inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Goethe, Hermann Hesse, and Eduard Baltzer. Thousands of young Germans rejected the rapid trend toward urbanization and attempted to return to the natural, pagan, and spiritual life of their ancestors.^[36]

During the first several decades of the twentieth century, these beliefs were introduced to the United States as Germans settled around the country, some opening the first health food stores. Many moved to Southern California where they could practice an alternative lifestyle in a warm climate. In turn, young Americans adopted the beliefs and practices of the new immigrants. One group, called the "Nature Boys", took to the California desert, raised organic food, and espoused a back-to-nature lifestyle. Eden Ahbez, a member of this group, wrote a hit song called Nature Boy, which was recorded in 1947 by Nat King Cole, popularizing the homegrown back-to-nature movement to mainstream America. Eventually, a few of these Nature Boys, including the famous Gypsy Boots, made their way to Northern California in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love in San Francisco.^[37]

Another influence was the Jamaican Rastafari movement who, while openly espousing Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia as God, also wore long hair (called dreadlocks), smoked cannabis as a sacrament, rejected the establishment (which they called Babylon) and espoused a back-to-nature and back-to-their-African-roots philosophy. Due to large scale immigration from Jamaica to the UK during the 1950s, this movement influenced the developing UK hippie movement, with contacts often formed when young whites would buy cannabis from black communities.

Beat generation

Main article: Beat generation

See also: San Francisco Renaissance

In the US the Beat Generation gradually gave way to the Sixties counterculture, accompanied by a shift in terminology from "beatnik" to "hippie." Many of the original Beats remained active participants, notably Allen Ginsberg, who became a fixture of the anti-war movement. On the other hand, Jack Kerouac broke with Ginsberg and criticized the 60s protest movements as "new excuses for spitefulness". Through a variety of popular media, including television shows such as the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, the beat image became somewhat commercialized, and also a large influence on members of the new counterculture. Bob Dylan became close friends with Allen Ginsberg, and Ginsberg became close friends with Timothy Leary, helping him distribute LSD.

In 1963, Ginsberg was living in San Francisco with Neal Cassady and Charles Plymell at 1403 Gough St. (Charles Plymell later helped publish the first issue of R. Crumb's Zap Comix a few years later, then moved to Ginsberg's commune in Cherry Valley, NY in the early 1970s). Around that time, Ginsberg connected with Ken Kesey who was participating in CIA sponsored LSD trials while a student at Stanford. Neal Cassady was the bus driver for Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and he attempted to recruit Kerouac into their group, but Kerouac angrily rejected their invitation and accused them of attempting to destroy the American culture he celebrated.

According to Ed Sanders the change in the public label from "beatnik" to "hippie" occurred after the 1967 Human Be-In in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, where Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Michael McClure led the crowd in chanting "Om". Ginsberg was also at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and was friends with Abbie Hoffman and other members of the Chicago Seven. Stylistic differences between beatniks, marked by somber colors, dark shades, and goatees, gave way to colorful psychedelic clothing and long hair worn by hippies. While the beats were known for "playing it cool" and keeping a low profile, the hippies became known for "being cool", and displaying their individuality. Although the beats tended to be essentially apolitical, the hippies became active in the civil rights and anti-war movements.

1960–1966

Berkeley, California and The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada

During the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, Greenwich Village in New York City and Berkeley, California anchored the American folk music circuit. Berkeley's two coffee houses, the Cabale Creamery and the Jabberwock, sponsored performances by folk music artists in a beat setting.^[38] Starting in 1960, Chandler A. Laughlin III helped manage these two beat coffee houses, and he recruited the original talent that led to a unique amalgam of traditional folk music and the developing psychedelic rock scene.^[39]

In April 1963, Laughlin established a kind of tribal, family identity among approximately fifty people who attended a traditional, all-night Native American peyote ceremony in a rural setting. This ceremony combined a psychedelic experience with traditional Native American spiritual values; these people went on to sponsor a unique genre of musical expression and performance at the Red Dog Saloon in the isolated old-time mining town of Virginia City, Nevada.^[39]

Starting in June 1965, Laughlin and his cohorts created what became known as "The Red Dog Experience," featuring previously unknown musical acts--Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Charlatans, The Grateful Dead and others--who played in the completely refurbished, intimate setting of Virginia City's Red Dog Saloon. There was no clear delineation between "performers" and "audience" in "The Red Dog Experience," during which music, psychedelic experimentation, a unique sense of personal style and the first primitive light shows combined to create a new sense of community.^[40] George Hunter of the Charlatans and Laughlin himself were true "proto-hippies," with their long hair, boots and outrageous clothing of distinctly American (and Native American) heritage.^[41]

LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley lived in Berkeley during 1965 and provided much of the LSD that became a seminal part of the "Red Dog Experience," the early evolution of psychedelic rock and budding hippie culture. At the Red Dog Saloon, The Charlatans were the first psychedelic rock band to play live (albeit unintentionally) loaded on LSD.

Psychedelic Rock in San Francisco, 1965–66

See also: San Francisco Sound

The Red Dog Experience

When the summer of 1965 ended, participants in "The Red Dog Experience" returned to San Francisco and spread their new sense of community with the creation of the Family Dog by Luria Castell, Ellen Harman and Alton Kelley.^[42] On October 16, 1965 the Family Dog hosted San Francisco's first psychedelic rock performance, dance and light show at Longshoreman's Hall, modeled on their experiences at the Red Dog Saloon. Two other events followed before year's end, one at California Hall and one at the Matrix.^[39]

Trips Festival

After the first three Family Dog events, a much larger psychedelic event occurred at San Francisco's Longshoreman's Hall. Called "The Trips Festival," it took place on January 21–23, 1966 and was organized by Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley and others. Ten thousand people attended this sold-out event, with a thousand more turned away each night.^[43] The big night, Saturday, January 22, saw the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company on stage, and 6,000 people arrived to imbibe punch spiked with LSD and witness one of the first fully-developed light shows of the era.^[44]

Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom

By February 1966, the San Francisco psychedelic music scene was poised to come into full flower. The Family Dog became Family Dog Productions under organizer Chet Helms, promoting happenings at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium in initial cooperation with Bill Graham. The Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium and other venues provided settings where participants could partake of the full psychedelic music experience. Bill Ham, who had pioneered the original Red Dog light shows, perfected his art of liquid light projection, which combined light shows and film projection and became synonymous with the San Francisco ballroom experience.^[45][39][46]

The sense of style and costume that began at the Red Dog Saloon flourished when San Francisco's Fox Theater went out of business and hippies bought up its costume stock, reveling in the freedom to dress up for weekly musical performances at their favorite ballrooms. As San Francisco Chronicle music columnist Ralph Gleason put it, "They danced all night long, orgiastic, spontaneous and completely free form."^[39]

Haight-Ashbury

Main article: Haight-Ashbury

The Charlatans, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Grateful Dead all moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during this period.

Some of the earliest San Francisco hippies were former students at San Francisco State College (later renamed San Francisco State University) who were intrigued by the developing psychedelic hippie music scene and "dropped out" after they started taking psychedelic drugs.^[39] These students joined the bands they loved and began living communally in the large, inexpensive Victorian apartments in the Haight.^[47]

Young Americans around the country began moving to San Francisco, and by June 1966, around 15,000 hippies had moved into the Haight.^[32]

Diggers

Main article: Diggers (theater)

Hippie action in the Haight centered around the Diggers, a guerrilla street theatre group that combined spontaneous street theatre, anarchistic action, and art happenings in their agenda to create a "free city." The Diggers grew from two radical traditions thriving in the area during the mid-1960s: the bohemian/underground art/theater scene, and the new left/civil rights/peace movement.^{[citation needed]}

By late 1966, the Diggers opened stores which simply gave away their stock; provided free food, medical care, transport and temporary housing; they also organized free music concerts and works of political art.

Love Pageant Rally

Main article: Love Pageant Rally

On October 6 1966, the San Francisco hippies staged a gathering in the Golden Gate Park panhandle, called "The Love Pageant Rally." As explained by Allan Cohen, co-founder of the San Francisco Oracle, the purpose of the rally was two-fold — to draw attention to the fact that LSD had just been made illegal, and to demonstrate that people who used LSD were not criminals, nor were they mentally ill. Rather, people who took LSD were mostly idealistic people who wanted to learn more about themselves and their place in the universe, and they used LSD as an aid to meditation and to creative, artistic expression. Thousands of hits of LSD were distributed free at the rally, and the Grateful Dead played; its huge success drew many more curious seekers to the Haight-Ashbury district.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles also had a vibrant hippie scene during the mid-1960s. The Venice coffeehouses and beat culture sustained the hippies, giving birth to bands like The Doors. Sunset Strip became the quintessential L.A. hippie gathering area, with its seminal rock clubs Whisky-a-Go-Go and the Troubadour. The Strip was the location of the protest described in Buffalo Springfield's early 1966 hippie anthem, "For What It's Worth."

Millbrook

Before the Summer of Love, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert formed the International Foundation for Internal Freedom in Newton, Massachusetts, inhabiting two houses but later moving to a 64-room mansion at Millbrook, New York, with a communal group of about 25–30 people in residence until they were shutdown in 1967.^[48]

Drop City

Main article: Drop City

In 1965, four art students and filmmakers, Gene Bernofsky, JoAnn Bernofsky, Richard Kallweit and Clark Richert, moved to a seven acre tract of land near Trinidad, Colorado. Their intention was to create a live-in work of Drop Art, continuing an art concept they had developed earlier, and informed by "happenings."

As Drop City gained notoriety in the 1960s underground, people from around the world came to stay and work on the construction projects. Inspired by the architectural ideas of Buckminister Fuller and Steve Baer, residents constructed domes and zonahedra to house themselves, using geometric panels made from the metal of automobile roofs and other inexpensive materials. In 1967 the group, consisting of 10 core people and many contributors, won Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion award for their constructions.

The community quickly grew in reputation and size, accelerated by media attention, including news reports on national television networks. Several other communities were formed in the region. With the Summer of Love and the explosion of the hippie movement, large numbers poured into Drop City. Overwhelmed, the original occupants left. Drop City continued for several more years, then was finally abandoned.

1967–1969

Summer of Love

Main article: Summer of Love

On January 14, 1967, the outdoor Human Be-In in San Francisco popularized hippie culture across the United States, with 20,000 hippies gathering in Golden Gate Park. The Monterey Pop Festival from June 16-18 introduced the rock music of the counterculture to a wide audience and marked the start of the "Summer of Love."^[49] Scott McKenzie's rendition of John Phillips' song, "San Francisco," became a hit in the United States and Europe. The lyrics, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair", inspired thousands of young people from all over the world to travel to San Francisco (75,000-100,000 by police estimates), sometimes wearing flowers in their hair and distributing flowers to passersby, earning them the name, "Flower Children."

Bands like the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), and Jefferson Airplane continued to live in the Haight, but by the end of the summer, the incessant media coverage led the Diggers to declare the "death" of the hippie with a parade. According to the late poet Stormi Chambless, the hippies buried an effigy of a hippie in the Panhandle to demonstrate the end of his/her reign.

Regarding this period of history, the July 7, 1967, TIME magazine featured a cover story entitled, "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture." The article described the guidelines of the hippie code: "Do your own thing, wherever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on, if not to drugs, then to beauty, love, honesty, fun."^[50]

While the Haight was the undisputed epicenter of a growing hippie culture, college campuses and cities throughout the United States and as far away as Sweden boasted a vibrant counterculture, including New York's East Village, Chicago's Old Town, Boston, Detroit, Lawrence, KS and Paris.^{[citation needed]}

New Communalism

See also: Back to the land

When the Summer of Love finally ended, thousands of hippies left San Francisco, a large minority of them heading back to the land, creating the largest number of intentional communities in the history of the United States. Those hippies formed alternative, egalitarian communes in northern California, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee, Canada, etc.^[51]

The Farm

Main article: The Farm (Tennessee)

In 1967, Stephen Gaskin began to develop a philosophy of hippie perspectives at San Francisco State College, where Gaskin taught English, creative writing, and General Semantics. Gaskin's "Monday Night Class" became a broad, open discussion group involving up to 1500 students and other participants from the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1970, Gaskin and his wife, Ina May Gaskin, invited by mid-western preachers to explain "what was happening" to their "Mr and Mrs Jones" congregations, led a caravan of 60 buses, vans and trucks on a cross country speaking tour. Along the way, they checked out various places that might be suitable for settlement. By the time they got back to San Francisco, they realized that they had become a "thing", and decided to return to Summertown, Tennessee, where they bought 1700 acres and created an intentional community called "The Farm.” The Farm became a widely respected, spiritually-based hippie community that is still in existence, although it is now more a hip village of 300 than a commune of 1200.^[52]

People's Park

Main article: People's Park (Berkeley)

In April 1969, the building of People's Park in Berkeley, California received international attention. The University of California, Berkeley had demolished all the buildings on a 2.8 acre parcel near campus, intending to use the land to build playing fields and a parking lot. After a long delay, during which the site became a dangerous eyesore, thousands of ordinary Berkeley citizens, merchants, students, and hippies took matters into their own hands, planting trees, shrubs, flowers and grass to convert the land into a park. A major confrontation ensued on May 15, 1969, and Governor Ronald Reagan ordered a two-week occupation of the city of Berkeley by the United States National Guard. Flower power came into its own during this occupation as hippies engaged in acts of civil disobedience to plant flowers in empty lots all over Berkeley under the slogan "Let A Thousand Parks Bloom."

Woodstock

Main article: Woodstock Festival

In August 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Festival took place in Bethel, New York, which, for many, exemplified the best of hippie counterculture. Over 500,000 people arrived to hear the most notable musicians and bands of the era, among them Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. Wavy Gravy's Hog Farm provided security and attended to practical needs, and the hippie ideals of love and human fellowship seemed to have gained real-world expression.

Altamont

Main article: Altamont Music Festival

In December 1969, a similar event took place in Altamont, California, about 30 miles (45 km) east of San Francisco. Initially billed as "Woodstock West," its official name was The Altamont Free Concert. About 300,000 people gathered to hear The Rolling Stones; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Jefferson Airplane and other bands. The Hells Angels provided security that proved far less beneficent than the security provided at the Woodstock event: 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed and killed while drawing a gun in front of the stage during The Rolling Stones performance, and four accidental deaths occurred. There were also four births at the concert.

1970–1973

"Whoever marries the zeitgeist will be a widower soon." – August Everding

By 1970, the 1960s zeitgeist that had spawned hippie culture seemed to be on the wane.^[53] The events at Altamont shocked many Americans, including those who had strongly identified with hippie culture. Another shock came in the form of the Tate and LaBianca murders committed in August 1969 by Charles Manson and his "family" of followers.

Charles Manson

Main article: Charles Manson

Charles Manson was a hard-core, institutionalized criminal who had been released from prison just in time for San Francisco's Summer of Love. With his long hair and the ability to charm a crowd with his guitar playing, his singing, and his rhetoric, Manson exhibited many of the outward manifestations of hippie identity. Yet Manson hardly exemplified the hippie ideals of peace, love, compassion and human fellowship; through twisted logic and psychological manipulation, he inspired his followers to commit murder.

Manson's highly publicized 1970 trial and subsequent conviction in January 1971 irrevocably tarnished the hippie image in the eyes of the American public.^[53] Other factors--for instance, the proliferation of hard drugs and their associated dependency--also contributed to the decline.

Mainstream

By the early 1970s much of hippie style had been integrated into mainstream American society; hippie music and fashion had become mainstream —large rock concerts that originated with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival became the norm; mustaches, beards and longer hair abounded; colorful, multi-ethnic clothing dominated the fashion world.

In the mid-seventies, the media lost interest in the hippie counterculture as it went out of fashion. The Vietnam War came to an end, and hippies became targets for ridicule with the advent of punk rock and disco.

Outside the United States, hippie culture has remained visible as a counter cultural movement, especially in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.^{[citation needed]}

History of the movement worldwide

1976–1981

Nambassa

Main article: Nambassa

Between 1976 and 1981, hippie music festivals were held on large farms around Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand- Aotearoa. Named "Nambassa", the festivals focused on peace, love, and a balanced lifestyle, featuring workshops and displays advocating alternative lifestyles, clean and sustainable energy, and unadulterated foods.

Nambassa is also the tribal name of a trust that has championed sustainable ideas and demonstrated practical counterculture and alternative lifestyle methods since the early 1970s.

Worldview

Ethos and characteristics

Hippies sought to free themselves from societal restrictions, choose their own way and find new meaning in life.

One expression of hippie independence from societal norms was their unusual standard of dress and grooming. This made hippies instantly recognizable to one another and served as a visual symbol of their respect for individual rights and their willingness to question authority.

Hippie women tended to wear little or no conventional makeup, preferring a more natural look; when makeup was worn it was generally for dramatic effect. Hippies favored long hair for both genders and more facial hair for men than was common at the time. Many white people associated with the American Civil Rights Movement and the 1960s counterculture, especially those with curly or "nappy" hair, wore their hair in afros in earnest imitation of African-Americans. "Long-hair" became a pejorative term among those who disliked hippies.

Hippies often wore brightly colored clothing; unusual styles, such as bell-bottom pants, vests, tie-dyed garments, dashikis, peasant blouses, long, full skirts; and non-Western inspired clothing with Native American, African and Latin American motifs. Much of hippie clothing was self-made in protest of Western consumer culture and because of their lack of purchasing power given the ideal of a cashless society. Hippies often purchased their clothes from flea markets and second-hand shops, as recycling was an integral part of the culture. Native American jewelry, head scarves, headbands, long beaded necklaces (for both men and women), and sandals were also fashionable.

Travel was a prominent feature of hippie culture, both travel within one's country of origin and international travel. Hippie culture was communal, and travel became an extension of friendship. Schoolbuses similar to Ken Kesey's Furthur, or the iconic VW bus, were popular because groups of friends could travel on the cheap.

The VW Bus became known as a counterculture/hippie symbol, and many buses were repainted with graphics and/or custom paint jobs—these were predecessors to the modern-day art car. A peace symbol often replaced the Volkswagen logo.

Many hippies favored hitchhiking as a primary mode of transport because it was both economical and environmentally friendly.

Politics

In the United States

Hippies were often pacifists and participated in non-violent political demonstrations, such as civil rights marches, the marches on Washington D.C., and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, including draft card burnings and the 1968 Democratic Convention protests. The degree of political involvement varied widely among hippies, from those who were completely apolitical to Yippies, the most politically active hippie sub-group. ^[54]

In addition to non-violent political demonstrations, hippie opposition to the Vietnam War included organizing political action groups to oppose the war, refusal to serve in the military and conducting "teach-ins" on college campuses that covered Vietnamese history and the larger political context of the war.

Some Americans, especially conservatives, military personnel, and veterans, saw hippie opposition to the war as a lack of commitment to the principles of American freedom in the Cold War battle against communism.^{[citation needed]} They also felt that even non-violent public demonstrations against the Vietnam War were unpatriotic because they compromised the ability of the United States to prosecute the war.^{[citation needed]}

Scott McKenzie's 1967 rendition of John Phillips' song "San Francisco," which helped inspire the hippie Summer of Love, became a homecoming song for all Vietnam veterans arriving in San Francisco from 1967 on. McKenzie has dedicated every American performance of "San Francisco" to Vietnam veterans, and he sang at the 2002 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. "San Francisco" became a freedom song worldwide, especially in Eastern European nations that suffered under Soviet-imposed communism. ^[55][56]

Other songs, such as Lloyd Marcus' "Welcome Home Brother," have given voice to Vietnam veterans who felt disrespected by hippies and who lamented that fellow Americans never properly honored them for their sacrifices in serving the nation.^{[citation needed]}

Although hippies were sometimes accused of verbally attacking soldiers returning home from duty in Vietnam, or participating in the torching of ROTC buildings on college campuses, with the exception of a small radical fringe element, hippies did not verbally assault military personnel and did not condone acts of political violence. ^{[57][this source's reliability may need verification]} With the release of FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act, it has become clear that many such attacks were actually perpetrated by FBI COINTELPRO agents provocateurs operating on J. Edgar Hoover's instructions to discredit those who opposed the Vietnam War.^[58]

Hippie political expression often took the form of "dropping out" of society to implement the changes they sought. At their inception, the back to the land movement, cooperative business enterprises, alternative energy, the free press movement, and organic farming were all politically motivated movements aided by hippies.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual attitudes

Hippies regularly flouted societal prohibitions against interracial dating and marriage. They were early advocates for the repeal of anti-miscegenation laws that the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional in 1967 (Loving v. Virginia), but which remained on the books in some U.S. states until 2000, albeit unenforced.

With their emphasis on Free Love, hippies promoted many of the same counterculture beliefs that found early expression in the Beat Generation. Co-habitation among unmarried couples was the norm, open relationships were common, and both Beats and Hippies advocated for legal and societal acceptance of most forms of consensual sexual expression among adults.^{[citation needed]}

With regard to homosexuality and bisexuality, the Beats had demonstrated early tolerance during an era when homosexual expression of any sort was still punishable by stiff prison sentences. Hippies generally espoused the same tolerant attitude.

Hippies, as in the movie Woodstock and the photo (left), were casual about open nudity.

Drugs

As did the Beats before them, most hippies used cannabis, which they considered pleasureful and benign. They enlarged their repertoire of recreational drugs to include hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline.

On the East Coast of the United States, Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert advocated the use of psychotropic drugs for religious purposes. Regarding LSD, Leary said, "Expand your consciousness and find ecstasy and revelation within."^[59]

On the West Coast of the United States, Ken Kesey was an important figure in promoting the recreational use of psychotropic drugs, especially LSD, also known as "acid." By holding what he called "Acid Tests," and touring the country with his band of Merry Pranksters, Kesey became a magnet for media attention that drew many young people to the fledgling movement. The Grateful Dead played some of their first shows at the Acid Tests, often as high on LSD as their audiences. Kesey and the Pranksters had a "vision of turning on the world."^[59]

Harder drugs, such as amphetamines and the opiates, were also used in hippie settings; however, these drugs were disdained, even among those who used them, because they were recognized as harmful and addictive,^[60]notoriously heroin was banned from Stonehenge Free Festival.

Lifestyle

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• The twin ideals of peace and love were and are considered paramount. The other points below were and are optional--and might be ignored or disputed by some hippies.
• Performing music casually, often with guitars, in private homes and outdoors in parks and music festivals
• Preference for psychedelic rock such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, early Pink Floyd, and Jefferson Airplane; blues such as Janis Joplin, traditional Eastern music, particularly from India, (Ravi Shankar), rock music with eastern influences (The Beatles), soulful funk like Sly & The Family Stone, jam bands like the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band, and folk music like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and more recently reggae. Neo-Hippies often participate in the bluegrass and/or folk music scene.
• Interracial dating and marriage, rejection of anti-miscegenation laws (eg in apartheid South Africa).
• Free love, including open relationships and most consensual forms of sexual expression, except sex with children. Traditional legal constructs and religious teachings that prohibited non-procreative sex outside the bounds of marriage were widely flouted--premarital sex, extramarital sex, bisexuality and tolerance towards homosexuals. (See also: Sexual revolution).
• Communal living.
• Recreational drug use (as opposed to drug dependency), usually limited to psychedelic drugs such as cannabis, mescaline, salvia,psilocybin and LSD. Tendency to reject the Establishment's psychoactive drugs, which were and are legal, including alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and psychiatric drugs.
• A fondness for nudity--especially being nude, that is naturism, as opposed to objectifying nude images.
• Use of incense.
• Belief in Eastern spiritual concepts, such as karma and reincarnation; interest in Hindu and Buddhist religious philosophies is common.
• Belief that spiritual advancement leads to increased psychic ability, e.g., the ability to see the human aura.^[61] A vegetarian lifestyle was often considered important in this regard because it was thought to cleanse the body of impurities and "negative vibrations".^{[citation needed]}
• Belief that a corrupt Establishment was abusing Mother Earth led hippies to participate in recycling and support environmentalism.^{[citation needed]}
• Belief in astrology, tarot and I Ching divination.
• A mellow outlook on life, and a belief that the temporal world is a manifestation of human thought and consciousness.^[61]
• Elements of Romanticism and Transcendentalist philosophy are evident in hippie music, prose and other artistic expressions.^{[citation needed]}
• Rejection of the typical American diet and, instead, exploration of vegetarianism, fasting, natural food (including whole foods and organic food), more foods from the Third World, and many other alternatives.
• Less competitive forms of exercise, such as foot bag (Hacky Sack), frisbees, handstands, dancing, snake-dancing (martial art), surfing, devil sticks (though referred to as "spin sticks" so as to not make a reference to the devil), and cycling.
• Alternative ways of making a living, especially not supporting the military-industrial complex, capitalism, wage-slavery, "keeping up with the Joneses", etc. For most hippies, reduced incomes or poverty.
• Female equality. The second wave of feminism was simultaneous with the hippie moveme