The Hippie Legacy

The Hippie Legacy. – Counterculture movement; began in US, spread to UK; big from 1965, declined in 1970s; white, 15-25 of age, mostly students; seen as wasters, druggies, idiots, green-freaks; heavily influenced by music (Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles); easily identified by their style – tried to distance themselves from conventional, structured styles. Britain: in Britain, there had always been an artsy, bohemian underground; widely known as ‘the underground’, even though media tried to dub them Flower Children in London; What did they do? eld sit-ins in universities, protested for rights; promoted ‘free love’ and ‘love and peace’; went to festivals such as the Knebworth Festival; experimented with drugs – cannabis, hallucinogens (LSD); often denounced alcohol; -> overall, dejected anything mainstream and conventional, thus many were seen as wasters, bums and as being useless. Legacy: movement declined in 1970s, after the infamous ‘summer of love’, 1967. Social legacy: a couple can live together out of marriage and not be judged. wider rights for gay, lesbian, transsexual people. sexual topics are less of a taboo. eminist movement – women played a large role in hippie movement; many, both men and women, chose to go naked, creating an equality and freedom throughout. some argue that hippie movement led to wider integration of black people – many see this as being untrue as very view black people were involved in this movement; the black rights movement happened at the same time, so the results of the two could be blurred. Style legacy: long hair and facial hair were unacceptable before the 1960s; long, flowy dresses and skirts; colourful flower patterns, light materials, dip-dye; flowers worn in hair, peace sign accessories.

Cultural legacy: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience; folk, psychedelic rock -> many current bands would use these as their musical influences. the Glastonbury Festival in England is to this day considered to be the largest gathering of hippies throughout the world. in Britain, the summer of 1988 became known as ‘The Second Summer of Love’ as a hippie revival descended; it held much of the same ideologies as the original movement and was heavily driven by electronic and ‘acid’ music. eligion: religious and cultural diversity became more widely acceptable – in 2005, Oliver Benjamin, a former hippie, founded The Church of Latter-Day Dude, based on a character called The Dude in a 1998 movie ‘The Big Lebowski’. This became known as ‘Dudeism’. The epigraph on their website states: ‘Come join the slowest-growing religion in the world – Dudeism. An ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness, practices as little as possible, and above all, uh…lost my train of thought there. Anyway, if you’d like to find peace on earth and goodwill, man, we’ll help you get started.

Right after a little nap’. environmental: started the concept of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. Greenpeace, founded in 1971 by a dozen men – half environmentalists, half hippies. promoted organic living, which is currently very popular, especially amongst celebrities. Article in The Telegraph, 2007: ‘The hippy ideals that outlasted the 1960s’ “The 1960s were not, it appears, just a passing phase. A survey to mark the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love shows the hippy ethos has moulded our views on everything from war, government, sex, fashion, food and the environment.

Almost half of Britons (46 per cent) agree with the slogan Make Love Not War and 49 per cent are opposed to nuclear weapons, a YouGov poll for Reader’s Digest found. One in 10 have taken part in an anti-war protest while just over a third think there is never any excuse for war. Just under a third disagree with party politics – much like hippies, who were largely against the party system and preferred to focus on single issues like the environment.

The idea of “free love” has also become mainstream, with 75 per cent agreeing with sex before marriage and one in 10 saying they would have multiple sexual partners. More than a third said they had taken marijuana, while 43 per cent said they were open to meditation and 25 per cent believe in astrology. The sounds of the 60s have also endured, according to the poll. Some 84 per cent of Britons are able to hum or recite at least part of Yellow Submarine and 79 per cent know Puff the Magic Dragon’.