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Sunday, October 5, 2008

Am I A Hippie?

I wouldn't normally just randomly ask a question like this but latly I've had a few people either infer or downright accuse me of being a hippie. Let's do a little examination:

Hippie definition (noun) from Wikipedia-

  1. (in the 1950s) A teenager who imitated the Beatniks
  2. (in the 1960s; still widely used in reference to that era) One who chooses not to conform to prevailing social norms: especially one who ascribes to values or actions such as acceptance or self-practice of recreational drug use, liberal or radical sexual mores, advocacy of communal living, strong pacifism or anti-war sentiment, etc.
  3. Someone with long hair: specifically, of a hair length that is considered unconventionally long in relation to one’s gender, age, ethnicity, or land of origin.
  4. Someone who dresses in a hippie style.
  5. One who is hip.

Now let's examine whether or not I fall into each class.

1. I am not from the 50's and I've never imitated the Beatniks.

2. I am not one who would typically conform to prevailing social norms [although I do now have a Blogger, MySpace and Facebook account]. I do not ascribe to values or actions that affirm the use of recreational drugs; but I don't deny them either. It is just a personal choice of mine not to get mixed up in chemicals that I don't know what they could do to me. I also don't personally seek to advance any liberal or radical sexual mores. Sex is fun, but for me just my wife is enough. Whether or not others want to pursue options outside of the "traditional" bounds of "normal" sexuality is up to them and I don't necessarily need to know about it. While I am also not a direct advocate of communal living...I cannot deny some of the benefits that it can have for a certain number of like-minded individuals who can make it work. Individualism is the key. They are all special individuals....just like everyone else. When it comes to pacifism, I do lean toward that side; though I am also not completely anti-war. In my personal life I try to be as passive as possible, but if push comes to shove for me personally....Well, let's just say that I haven't used my fists since Jr. High, but I've made sure to at least keep them polished. Politically, I don't think that we need to be the world peace force. We spend way too much money on war...and when we do go to war we often do not demonstrate the power that we should; i.e. why is there even still an Iraq on the globe? Get in, do it, do it right....make the other guy whose willing to die for his cause do exactly that.

3. While my hair is getting longer than it has ever been in my life, I would not say that it is unconventionally long yet. But then again, in today's culture anything goes with less friction then it did when I was a kid....so this is possibly a moot point now.

4. Someone who dresses in a hippie style- while I have always seemed to lack a certain sense of "style" I don't really wear bell bottoms or dashiki's I don't think that they are all that bad. I do actually own a dashiki but it is too big for me so I don't wear it. I also got rid of my bell bottoms after college. 

5. One who is hip- we'll leave that up to my kids to decide in a couple of years but my guess is that they would deny the suggestion because that's what kids do.

So I think that it is safe to conclude that I am mostly not a hippie. Sometimes people make accusations without really thinking about what they are saying.

So in another future post we'll have to explore the other accusation that I used to receive from an old co-worker of mine who insisted that I looked and acted like I was from Boulder, Colorado.

Until then, enjoy this clip-



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1 Comments:

Blogger glen said...

The bright line distinction for hippies lies in the use of patchouli, although one could make an argument for tie-dye shirts and Phish bootlegs.

Ugh, I hate patchouli.

October 7, 2008 at 5:14 PM  

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