Jimmy, I loved your idea of this dive into the subculture of the hippy movement, but I personally felt it was a little disjointed in comparison to many of your previous subculture videos. The arguments you make through the video seem a little unfocussed. For instance, your argument was that there was a contradiction within the hippy movement, with their ideas of individualism, which you later say they contradicted with their ideas of socialism, community, communes, etc. Individualism at this time wasn’t a hippy ideal. Free expression and free love yes, but individualism no. People wished to be part of a collective movement for change. The concept of individualism was being pushed by a group of neoliberals called the “Chicago Boys”, a group of economists that sprung up in the 50s, and rabidly pushed the concept of individualism, which was far more in step with ‘establishment’ ideals, and would eventually become the main political philosophy for the neoliberal push of the late 70s and 80s, of so-called Reganomics and Thatcherism. Most social anthropologists would point to 1969 as the death of the hippy movement. The trauma surrounding the Manson Family/Sharon Tate murder played a huge part. The New Haven Black Panther trials began. The final nail in the coffin for hippydom being the death of Meredith Hunter, a black teenager killed by the Hell’s Angels at the free Altamont Music Festival on the 6th of December 1969. As the next decade began, the hippy movement was all ready dead, with only the echoes of their previous protests reverberating into the mid-70s. Soon the horrors of the neoliberal agenda would poison Western politics, bringing about globalism, something effecting our society to this very day, something that far outlasted the hippy movement that originally looked to crush ‘The Man’. Please keep these video essays going. You have a natural charisma ideal for this form of video, and the editing is on point. I’m sure many people out there would agree with me that an even deeper dive on the content you make would be greatly appreciated. Fantastic stuff.
The wild thing is that any counter culture movement against consumerism tends to be swallowed by consumerism because if it can be commercialised it will be commercialised
@@mjh5437 That's not necessarily what the original commenter is trying to say, I think that they are relating counterculture to consumerism in the context of things like Hot Topic pumping out corporate brands for emos, punks having their aesthetic turned into a marketable brand, and pride movements turning into a multinational corporation circlejerk
The Peace Corps did a lot more than "hang out." Their slogan was "The toughest job you'll ever love." Volunteers did things like build schools, construct roads, develop water and sewage systems, teach basic literacy, improve farming methods.
I’d like to imagine all that effort compounded, and changed those societies for the better, but that alternate outcome only exits in the minds out of touch B**mers…
@@RaptorFromWeegeeI'm sure, but CIA operatives dont really need a front like that. Plus it'd be a nightmare to try and spy on govt officials when you're a thousand miles from a city digging ditches.
There is a great line from Danny the dealer at the end of the film Withnail and I where he says "They're selling hippy wigs in Woolworth's" which sums it all up so perfectly how the era ended.
Two recommended books for those interested in the subject: "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (1968) by Tom Wolfe documents the early beginnings of the hippies, from Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets, through Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and the formation of the Grateful Dead. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1971) by Hunter S. Thompson explores the decline and fall of the counterculture and the corruption of ideals that effectively killed the hippie movement.
I think reading the Beat writers, as well as their predecessors is good to get the history down as well. William Borroughs was a cranky junky that never described himself as a beatnik, but his work was still a part of the movement. Jack Kerouac is huge. Herman Hesse preceded them, and was part of the spirituality movement. Aldous Huxley is another good one. Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller also foretold the beat and free love ideologies, as well as writing some really raunchy literature. Then you can look at other works like Be Here Now by Ram Dass to get a feel for the full, deep end immersion into hippiedom. It's an amazing piece of art and literature, if you can find a copy.
I live in a house in the wild woods of Northern California that was built as the communal house for a commune called the Udder Truth. They had individual living spaces scattered throughout the property. Some were houses, some shacks, and one dude lived in the hollow of a dead old growth redwood tree. He ended offing himself in that tree and that tree finally fell this winter. End of an era. Anyway, like so many communes from that time it crashed and burned very, very quickly. After they disbanded my friend and his wife bought the property and made it an amazing place to live!
I think it's widely stereotypical to say that "because you're against consumption, rightwing politics, and government, you're a hippie." Tyler Durden of Fight Club is against consumption, rightwing politics, and government and I'd hardly call him a hippie. He was against all politics, even the politics that tells you not to be violent.
True but a lot of them are more extreme or left over branches from the hippie movement. Personally I think the worse gen is the second half of the hippies and their jackass kids, the yuppies. A generation that were still dealing with and their bull shit.
Also, there's a hippie commune here in Tennessee that's been going since 1972 I believe. They have harvest festivals and other gatherings and people come and go as they please as long as you contribute if you stay. I hope to visit this summer.
He found the chemical didn’t invent the delivery system though. Ironically it was the CIA that invented the delivery system in hopes of creating mind slaves to carry out assassination attempt and/or the perfect order following solider, only to accidentally create the hippy movement.
I think people forget that the hippie movement wasn't that large, a lot of their look and some of their philosophy was coopted by the mainstream but actual hippies were pretty rare
@@basilbaby7678 So did the east. Neither capitalism nor communism seemed to have worked out too well for anyone. Russia is a dictatorship. America.....feels like its cracking into pieces.
those were neoliberals, not hippies. the gop has always been evil. reaganites took over the dems under clinton and.. we had 2 parties of the upperclass
People hated hippies because the vast majority of them were just rich kids. Some actually embraced the hippie culture and lived a simpler life, but the vast majority are boomers who own massive houses and manage hedge funds.
Plenty of them are also not either, just as many current gen of inheritance kids and those who will become instant millionaires when their parents kick the bucket.
No. The vast majority were not "rich kids". Many were in college and just like today, they were demonized by the establishment. Vast millions believed in peace, love, 'flower power' and equal rights for all. We still do. Propaganda is powerful, don't spread it around so carelessly.
You can't afford pot, food, sitting around and doing nothing unless you were rich. Rich kids were hanging around having peace parties, while the poor were shipped off to die in Vietnam, and the survivors booed by the rich kids.
Some of them, maybe. And politician, lawyer, professor aren't necessarily bad professions. Also, I'm willing to bet that e.g. the vast majority of stock brokers weren't former hippies.
So your argument is "Not all of them"? I never said that every one of them was. I'm just saying that many of the political leaders, government officials, and educators were hippies. They had rich parents so some of them could avoid the draft and gain powerful positions in society even though they were drug crazed lunatics. And, if you ever watch the movie Wolf of Wallstreet you might understand that drug use among stock brokers is not unheard of. That movie was based on a true story but the reality was probably worse.
I dated a native/latin single mom, she was a hippie too. Believing in crystals, soulmate, energy, astrology and stuff. It lasted two years and she literally had the audacity to say that she now believes that there are multiple soulmates and she's in love with another man. I kicked her to the cirb and didn't look back at all. It hurt, but it must be done.
Yeah I would have a hard time being in a relationship with someone who believes in soulmates lol. To me it just displays a severely limited/narrow perspective of the sheer number of humans that exist in the world. There’s literally an unlimited number of people that could be compatible with you. I do like to think of the fact that my life would be very different if I hadn’t encountered certain people along the way, but I know that there’s really no meaning behind any of it. Nothing happens for a reason if you look outside your own ego.
@@pricklycatsss Yeah, it's all ego-centric BS. Funny thing that if he'd researched even further he'd realise there's nothing the hippies did that hadn't been done before throughout history. They were at least lucky in that their counter-culture wasn't erased by force.
My theory as a 90s born punk... The first wave punks were the result of disillusioned and pissed of hippies that didn't just shave, get a job and become the Boomer sell outs of today. Honestly, the ideology is near identical save a far more aggressive and in your face approach to it all from the punk side. Punks gave up asking and just started doing and or taking. And metal heads are much the same, ultimately just angrier hippies that understand respectability failed and we gotta get even more abrasive if we want results...
@@ChickadeeBoi interesting point. As all subcultures are a mixture of elements from other cultures, there's probably some truth to that, especially as there was some rivalry between the punks and hippies in the 70s
@@ChickadeeBoi Heavy metal is a sub-culture built around music mate. Thats our first love, that and hanging out with other people that are into the same music. Its music that turned into a social activity. Anything else like politics or religion can either be embraced or rejected depending on what the individual believes. But yes obviously the roots of heavy metal are based on popular culture of the1960s.
Today we embrace consumerism and we like to market ourselves, to get more likes, sometimes show ourselves to make more money. And if you are not sellable, you are not aprecciated. The thing is, what are you selling that is so unique that it could benefit my life? Money is just a tool, the problem is what you do with that tool.
god damn jimmy your videos are always bangers these days, you're killing it. watch every new upload right until the end of the video because they are just so bloody entertaining!
The best RUclipsr for documentaries. He engages and adds humor, making it easy to understand him. Seriously, he could make a 1-hour video about someone I never knew before, and I would watch it fully.
Heres a topic id love to see you try to cover. The modern culture of street takeovers.. It's pretty widespread across the world, but it's most prominent in USA among a certain group of people who shut down entire street intersections and whip their cars in close proximity to eachother and hundreds of bystanders. They're a plague who have given car enthusiasts a bad name and have injured and even killed many innocent people with their blatant disregard for human lives. I feel like it would be interesting to see you cover it and how the rise of it has correlated with the social media clout chasing culture.
So depressing, if a subculture really tries to go for somthing better, people just take advantage of it. Reality rudely interrupts and punishes us for our idealism😂
Being a peace loving hippie honestly is a joy in my life. I love just being peaceful to everyone and being a free loving hippie. Also LSD has changed my life and is one of the best things to probably ever happen to me
@@ghostshirt1984 You can merchandise anything. The point of the comment (quote as it is), is that the movement is dead. Film - Withnail and I. I'd also point out that the Rave movement actually comodified capitalism (and still does) to further it's own goals. You can't sell out what has already sold you out.
"If you see a guy with long hair, you don't automatically assume he's a woman...you assume hes...probably a vegan" ..that line killed me I laughed harder than I should have at that moment.
In the 60's my husband was waiting alone at an isolated bus station in the Central Valley ( CA) with his long hair and up came an off duty Highway Patrol Officer who started telling him about how they killed hippies and threw the bodies in canals where they would never be found. He was really scared, but being raised Southern Baptist he went into "preacher" mode and started quoting scriptures at him whenever the guy came close. It made the guy back off. Finally the bus came, to his relief.
Don’t forget the huge part played by the invention of The Pill and with it the sexual revolution… ‘free love’. The irony is that after the revolution, even as people continue to obsess over their identities, they are not even having more of better sex than before.
@@billwillson890 you must be a sodbuster, suburbanite, or soyboy - it’s definitely not the cowboys who are the problem when it comes to the interactions you’re having with them
Hi just found this channel. Great videos! Can I suggest one on Britain's most ridiculed (yet longest-lived) British subculture.......Trainspotting! Still going strong in 2024
This was another smash hit. Your compassion for humanity is apparent in your videos; while you may not agree with the subcultures you present, you try to put a human spin on it so that your viewers can more easily understand how things got that way. Bravo, m8.
This may have been a matter of regional dialect, but in the late 60s, in Tucson, AZ, anyone who used the word "hippie," wasn't one. The correct term was "freak."
That's right! I forgot about that -- we were the "freaks" and they were the "straights." Being a seeker and idealist, later I became a Jesus Freak...until I grew out of that movement. Now that --what? 40 years--have passed and we can admit to being there (in SF and in communes), I'll say that those were very good times (except for being attacked by the police in the city). I left the USA to live abroad and I'm glad to have stayed a hippy at heart. Arms Are For Hugging, Make Love Not War. Beat Corporate Greed.
Insightful, good job. How about a show about movie during the hippie era 1965-1975, like SILENT RUNNING 1972, Joan Baez, environmental film. That was probably the most hippie movie ever to come out of hollywood.
The hippies are far from America’s most hated subculture, also it wasn’t really a national movement but relegated mostly to the west coast and the northeast. The majority of America were probably only aware of the existence of hippies due to Hollywood, which portrayed it primarily as the butt of some joke. I grew up in the Bible Belt and I can’t recall ever seeing any hippies at all throughout the 70’s. The country really became wary of them after the whole Manson episode which got linked in with the movement.
That's why they overcorrected into the yuppie fucks who fucking screwed us. They just wanted a reason to let loose and run wild without taking responsibility for their actions and using flowery philosophy as a justification. As someone who has had their life changed by psychedelics these people were doing wayyy too much. I will never understand the "free love" movement, if LSD/mushrooms taught me anything it's that I want to be semi-monogamous with one special person I can depend on as a partner and teammate. I'm down for a third every once in a while but polyamory is wayy too messy.
LSD has definitely been one of the most important experiences of my life. It’s actually really helped me with weight loss/fitness. It’s the most inspiring drug I’ve ever used and I’ve used all of them.
This makes me long for an alternative to consumerism and conflict that's more sustainable. The problem is that the people radical enough to start a movement like this are also young and naïve, so they'll grow out of it before long. They also tend to be burnouts who don't want to work hard to build things that last.
I totally agree. I feel it should be a variant of 'opting out' of society where you are still able to interact with services you require and that are absolutely necessary but you dont get any of the 'freebies' that tax payers have access to.
Yes, and yet.... here in America, I can completely foresee a sort of "New Amish" becoming a thing, especially among folks my age in their 50s and 60s - where there is an intense fear and uneasyness about technology combined with diminishing employment opportunities. Racism and sexism may be gone, but ageism is very much alive and well! Getting a job in your 50s has become extremely difficult to the point where many don't even try. I can see communal living occurring out of pure necessity.
Beautiful. Gonna put some flowers in my hair. Btw those monks were Theravadin, but sure, few would know what that is so Tibetan is close enough. Fun history lesson, thanks!
The irony of the hippies is they thought enlightenment was achieved through more - more drugs, more sex etc. Buddhism, Taoism and pretty much any other religion/spirituality says to let go of desire and attachments.
saw the whole dang documentary, good stuff. You mentioned that the hippie movement weren't politically active enough. However, the yippies were significantly more politically active, there was less focus on the free love and psychedelia movement and more focus on political action towards their cause. I think it would be interesting if you covered the yippies too.
I’d say the proto hippy movement was the Romantic period in England. Byron & Shelly and co. Shelly was a feminist, vegetarian, anarchist in early 19th century.
That's why Mad Men is one of the best tv drama's created. It shows how that social and political struggle ended up being swallowed by merchandise, as they swore off political and religious pillars of society, breaking every conventional boundary, advertising was leeching itself on early and paired the freedom label with air freshener and TV sets. I think that's so original to investigate in a TV drama, yet to most people the series only shows a very stylish era, but don't notice the social critique that Mad Men demonstrates. Seriously, it's almost at the same level as the Wire, just a bit more in the background, often to the point that characters use words that are now found in philosophy papers about that era (first reports of climate change, the Earthrise photo, civil rights, freedom, stuff like that).
17:21 hippie domes. The triangles for construction were often cut from the roofs of junked big cars. You can still see old Caddys with triangles cut from them in the West.
Makes you wonder how different the next major sub culture movement will be. Youths seem far more niahlistic/fed up rather than hopeful for change. It seems like in the past where hippies sought to inspire change, many people today recognize the system remains the same despite efforts of the past. They’re tired of slow change and they want to tear the system down.
Transcendentalism is a better example of the origins of Hippie philosophy. Henry David Thoreau was arrested for not paying taxes because he objected to the Mexican American war. Emerson was about the only philosopher Nietzsche respected.
I grew up about an hour north of sf and my brother graduated from high school in 67. He spent the summer of love in the Haight. He loved it. Like most people his age he left to get a job and was gone to the Midwest for a year and a half and when he came back he decided to go see if he could find any of his old buddies and would be back in a month. He was back in a week and when we asked him why he said where there used to be flower children and music now was dealers pimps and homeless beggars. People seemed to be pretending to be hippies and scammers. In less than two years the peaceful vibe was gone.
Good look at that time and like the fun style - only thing I feel is a big miss is the Charlie Manson episode which is generally looked at as the end of that era, the dark side of hippy life. Any reason you didn't include that? Will defo check out more of your stuff.
I see Manson not as the "dark side" of the 60s, but as the 60s' natural and inevitable conclusion. You take a bunch of naive kids - remove all values and morals - and how could it NOT end like that?
@@karnubawax You take any movement and put a manipulative psychopath as a leader of a group then things will get ugly no matter the "values" or lack of thereof. The naive kids as you call them did have values and morals, just dif. ones.
Well, yes, sort of. But the hippy thing came to the UK and we made something very different from it. We invented new age travellers, which led to a vital component of the rave scene - the free festival and then free or squat party. This ran at full steam from the late 70's / early 80's through to the 2000's. It engulfed punk and became the first genuine multi generational sub culture and and still exists today if you know where to look.
New quest unlocked… I must find an old German hippie from this time and or a direct descendent a 1960s era Cold War hippie just sounds incredible and this is coming from somebody with history degree so my mind is loving this
The Farm, in Summer town Tennessee, is a commune started back then by Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, and it's actually still around. There are still original people living there,their kids and grandkids, newer people. Ive been camping there, it's pretty cool
@@pricklycatsss I mean music wise to each of their own it was still great, they had some pretty banging hot music back then compared to now literally but other than that yeah the love & peace crap did fall off a ton big time.
Essay incoming: Personally, I think like most movements, particularly extreme liberal and extreme conservative movements, it starts out with logical reasoning and good hearted motives that I think most people subscribe to on some level, but then along the way it gets derailed by a load of sheep who only signed up to be part of a trend that looked fun to join. Most followers don't really understand what they're saying or doing, and this is where big problems in society start to arise as a consequence. The main issue with any movement is the followers in effect form a cult and they assume their truth is the only truth and push for radical unrealistic change even if their solution is an overall net detriment to the rest of the world. They become blind, delusional and stop seeing reality, all in the name of achieving their own objectives. It's a particularly selfish and irresponsible thing fuelled with a contradiction of good heartedness and ignorance. It becomes self sabotage from people who are deeply convinced they are doing the right thing. In effect, most movements end up becoming fascist in nature. Sounds a bit extreme, but it's true. Not all fascists are violent and what not. With the hippies specifically, it's one thing to dream of a utopia, it's another thing to actualise it. This is the ultimate problem with hippies. They didn't think it through. They didn't think about the consequences of chasing the utopia and abandoning the status quo would have on society. They never really asked why the status quo existed in the first place and what the consequences of changing it would be. They arrogantly declared they knew the way, discarding 100s of years of knowledge in the process. For example, they didn't understand the economics and how societies are kept afloat on a practical level. They legit thought if we all wen't back to living in nature that we'd live in a perfect tranquil safe society, when in reality, law and order would disappear as a result of a collapsed economy, and the consequently violence, rape, murder, etc, would all become rampant. People never think about this stuff when they dream of utopia. Ultimately, they were naive, ignorant, arrogant, selfish and self righteous people who took the luxury of living in a first world society for granted, not understanding that most people did actually understand "the American dream" and consumerism wasn't perfect, but accepted the trade off as it allowed millions of people to live in relative safety, harmony and an abundance of resource of unprecedented levels seen in practically the entire human history. In a nutshell, hippies wanted to fight against the status quo not really understanding that the utopia they were trying to achieve would be the very thing that would destroy the society they so massively benefited from, the very society that gave them such liberal freedom to become hippies in the first place. The irony. Imo, like all movements there are pros and cons. Personally, the main thing I took from the hippies is to not get too caught up with money and what not, just enjoy the basic things in life. Consumerism is a by product of capitalism, but it isn't be default bad, it's just how you utilise it to make the life that makes you happy. You can either be a captain of it, or you can be a slave to it. Also, as a musician, I adore the music that came out of the 60s with all my heart!! That said, what I also see as a negative consequence of such liberal movement is huge damage to how the plutonic family looks like in the west, and the average persons values on monogamy, marriage, gender roles, etc, and deeper, the declining birth rates we are seeing today. The hippies were a catalyst for allowing sexual freedom, homosexuality, casual drug use, etc etc. These things, whilst I think people have every right to do these things, on a mass scale however they are very damaging for society, and I think the effects we are seeing in full swing today. Do I need to go into all the craziness we've seen over the last 20 years or so? I think the craziness is partially, if not predominately, a side effect of the 60s liberal movements. Dare I say, even John Lennon was wrong to an extent.
Lennon was always wrong. He was full of shit and simply wanted to be seen as political, intellectual and far out as Bob Dylan ,so jumped onto any bandwagon that he could. Dylan’s had the good grace to fuck off and stay away for a few years during the mid to late 1960s . He got found out with the idiotic knee jerk reaction song to Bloody Sunday 1972 (British soldiers murdered 14 civilians in Derry Northern Ireland ) with that stupid song “Luck of the Irish” which was remarkably patronising to Irish people (who still went out and bought enough copies to send it to number 1 in the Irish charts ) Apparently the Irish should have wished that they were dead 🙄😂🤡🤦♀️ Irish Republicans like it or not, Northern Ireland was a tad bit complex and the British simply couldn’t hand back NI to the Irish (another idiotic song by Paul McCartney ) Contrast that song to something U2 did about the same topic in Sunday Bloody Sunday , years later, or the Cranberries with Zombie or even Phil Coulter and Paul Brady . The latter two are both Derry boys , with the songs Town that I love so well and The Island Then you have that other idiotic song, Imagine. Places like England were economically going through hell at the time of the release , especially in northern areas like Liverpool where he is from. Imagine no possessions ? Even parts of the US suffered due to the oil crisis . No John, most of them did not need to imagine it , it’s for real in their life .
Paragraphs 2,3,4 and 5 are spot on. Proof of that was the reasons why major music festivals failed in the US in the late 1960s . Woodstock , horrendous commercial failure but for money for the film rights . We all know what happened in 1994 and 1999 Way too many self entitled fuckers demanding that music written by people should be free and demanding that they get to enter the venue without making any financial contribution . Other festivals got dangerously overcrowded it was fortunate what there were not many causalities through violence without proper professional security (ie police)
Absolutely. The reason we allow tens of thousands of people to die on our streets every year of drugs like fentanyl is leftover hippie thinking. Lennon ultimately - like most hippies - was an asshole.
I prefer some of punk's values like non-conformity, anti-consumerist & the DIY ethos but them hippies had some great values too like rejecting materialism, inequality & war. They've also contributed to the developement of psychedelic music : )
📢 Join the discord! discord.gg/TEE3wpUm
Jimmy u never mentioned the CIA's involvement in the hippy (and punk) movements
Jimmy, I loved your idea of this dive into the subculture of the hippy movement, but I personally felt it was a little disjointed in comparison to many of your previous subculture videos.
The arguments you make through the video seem a little unfocussed. For instance, your argument was that there was a contradiction within the hippy movement, with their ideas of individualism, which you later say they contradicted with their ideas of socialism, community, communes, etc. Individualism at this time wasn’t a hippy ideal. Free expression and free love yes, but individualism no. People wished to be part of a collective movement for change. The concept of individualism was being pushed by a group of neoliberals called the “Chicago Boys”, a group of economists that sprung up in the 50s, and rabidly pushed the concept of individualism, which was far more in step with ‘establishment’ ideals, and would eventually become the main political philosophy for the neoliberal push of the late 70s and 80s, of so-called Reganomics and Thatcherism.
Most social anthropologists would point to 1969 as the death of the hippy movement. The trauma surrounding the Manson Family/Sharon Tate murder played a huge part. The New Haven Black Panther trials began. The final nail in the coffin for hippydom being the death of Meredith Hunter, a black teenager killed by the Hell’s Angels at the free Altamont Music Festival on the 6th of December 1969.
As the next decade began, the hippy movement was all ready dead, with only the echoes of their previous protests reverberating into the mid-70s. Soon the horrors of the neoliberal agenda would poison Western politics, bringing about globalism, something effecting our society to this very day, something that far outlasted the hippy movement that originally looked to crush ‘The Man’.
Please keep these video essays going. You have a natural charisma ideal for this form of video, and the editing is on point. I’m sure many people out there would agree with me that an even deeper dive on the content you make would be greatly appreciated. Fantastic stuff.
@@fmpentertainmentmedley3338 another video i think
@@JimmyTheGiant big ups bro i look forward to that 😊 keep these mini docos coming they rock!
Word up. Just accepted. Drivin home. I got a little homework to do over there. Been a bit for me. “Bit of a Geezah itnt it”
The wild thing is that any counter culture movement against consumerism tends to be swallowed by consumerism because if it can be commercialised it will be commercialised
No,people grow up eventually and realise they`re behaving like a spoilt child.
@@mjh5437 Why so?
@@ChaseDaOrk3767 although there are some who disagree, i believe it is generally known that the passage of time is non-reversible
@@mjh5437 That's not necessarily what the original commenter is trying to say, I think that they are relating counterculture to consumerism in the context of things like Hot Topic pumping out corporate brands for emos, punks having their aesthetic turned into a marketable brand, and pride movements turning into a multinational corporation circlejerk
@@boldCactusladbold of you to assume you know what goes on in the mind of every person
The Peace Corps did a lot more than "hang out." Their slogan was "The toughest job you'll ever love." Volunteers did things like build schools, construct roads, develop water and sewage systems, teach basic literacy, improve farming methods.
I’d like to imagine all that effort compounded, and changed those societies for the better, but that alternate outcome only exits in the minds out of touch B**mers…
excellent front for CIA field officers looking to gather information on their target country.
Well and good, but the CIA infiltrated the PC and often times disrupted their sincerity.
@@RaptorFromWeegeeI'm sure, but CIA operatives dont really need a front like that. Plus it'd be a nightmare to try and spy on govt officials when you're a thousand miles from a city digging ditches.
CIAcorps
There is a great line from Danny the dealer at the end of the film Withnail and I where he says "They're selling hippy wigs in Woolworth's" which sums it all up so perfectly how the era ended.
Two recommended books for those interested in the subject:
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (1968) by Tom Wolfe documents the early beginnings of the hippies, from Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets, through Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and the formation of the Grateful Dead.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1971) by Hunter S. Thompson explores the decline and fall of the counterculture and the corruption of ideals that effectively killed the hippie movement.
Is an entire book required to describe “Postmodern M*rxist Bohemians”?
I'd add to this "The Eden Express" by Mark Vonnegut. A great novel about being a hippy in the 60's.
"Hippie" by Barry Miles (ex-foudner of the London-based hippy free press International Times) is a great read too, lots of rare photos too.
The Beats were admired by the hippies but were NOT hippies.
I think reading the Beat writers, as well as their predecessors is good to get the history down as well. William Borroughs was a cranky junky that never described himself as a beatnik, but his work was still a part of the movement. Jack Kerouac is huge. Herman Hesse preceded them, and was part of the spirituality movement. Aldous Huxley is another good one. Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller also foretold the beat and free love ideologies, as well as writing some really raunchy literature. Then you can look at other works like Be Here Now by Ram Dass to get a feel for the full, deep end immersion into hippiedom. It's an amazing piece of art and literature, if you can find a copy.
I live in a house in the wild woods of Northern California that was built as the communal house for a commune called the Udder Truth. They had individual living spaces scattered throughout the property. Some were houses, some shacks, and one dude lived in the hollow of a dead old growth redwood tree. He ended offing himself in that tree and that tree finally fell this winter. End of an era. Anyway, like so many communes from that time it crashed and burned very, very quickly. After they disbanded my friend and his wife bought the property and made it an amazing place to live!
Offed himself in the tree! Geez!
Was the flag a picture of a cows udder? Were y'all sponsored by Bag Balm? Well!???! WERE YOU OR NOT?!?!?!
that sounds amazing! lucky.
Sounds cool. The tree would creepy me out, though
Bohemians for ya…
you either die a hippie, or live long enough to see yourself in a Pepsi commercial...
Hahahahahah. Good shit man, lol.
It’s almost like a virtuous grift…
I think it's widely stereotypical to say that "because you're against consumption, rightwing politics, and government, you're a hippie." Tyler Durden of Fight Club is against consumption, rightwing politics, and government and I'd hardly call him a hippie. He was against all politics, even the politics that tells you not to be violent.
@@fishintheocean-i4g youre reading too much into it...
you either die a hippie or live long enough to become a boomer
There are more hated subcultures in America today than hippies.
No joke.
I think a lot of the hated subcultures of America all stem from the hippie movement.
True but a lot of them are more extreme or left over branches from the hippie movement.
Personally I think the worse gen is the second half of the hippies and their jackass kids, the yuppies. A generation that were still dealing with and their bull shit.
In the 60s it was
It's a banter youtube title, don't think too hard on it
Also, there's a hippie commune here in Tennessee that's been going since 1972 I believe. They have harvest festivals and other gatherings and people come and go as they please as long as you contribute if you stay. I hope to visit this summer.
This guy has a very scattered view of the entire era. He gets basic chronology and causality wrong.
"They wanna save the Earth but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad" 😂😂
why not both?
Because they was too stoned to save a dying bee never mind save the earth, soapy dregs
They’re hippies, they don’t have any money!
That sounds like something cartman would say! Lol
@@TheWedabest He did indeed 😂
Swiss dude actually invented LSD, so technically it was the Swiss who figured out how to sell enlightenment in convenient packaging.
No bro, Americans created blotted paper squares
not really invented but ok
Hallucinogens go back a thousand years or longer.
He found the chemical didn’t invent the delivery system though. Ironically it was the CIA that invented the delivery system in hopes of creating mind slaves to carry out assassination attempt and/or the perfect order following solider, only to accidentally create the hippy movement.
@@radasfcksynthesised g
I think people forget that the hippie movement wasn't that large, a lot of their look and some of their philosophy was coopted by the mainstream but actual hippies were pretty rare
The hippies were mainstream…
Middle class kids, and Red academics…
The west fell decades previously, without a single shot.
@@basilbaby7678 So did the east. Neither capitalism nor communism seemed to have worked out too well for anyone. Russia is a dictatorship. America.....feels like its cracking into pieces.
Most of the hippies wrre.part of a fashion trend. Some had the heart for it but not many .,,,
This leads to the question ,who was doing the hatred .
Yes! Someone got to run the country!
No, Diogenes was the first hippie
So true!
At least Diogenes was cool and actually practiced what he preached...
Hermeticism, or bust!
@@mindob766 He also shat on the street like a stray dog
clearly, Diogenes was the first crust punk
The hippies grew up but kept the spirit alive!
That's why they made sure none of us could afford new houses, so we'll have to live in communes.
those were neoliberals, not hippies. the gop has always been evil. reaganites took over the dems under clinton and.. we had 2 parties of the upperclass
People hated hippies because the vast majority of them were just rich kids. Some actually embraced the hippie culture and lived a simpler life, but the vast majority are boomers who own massive houses and manage hedge funds.
Plenty of them are also not either, just as many current gen of inheritance kids and those who will become instant millionaires when their parents kick the bucket.
No.
The vast majority were not "rich kids". Many were in college and just like today, they were demonized by the establishment.
Vast millions believed in peace, love, 'flower power' and equal rights for all. We still do.
Propaganda is powerful, don't spread it around so carelessly.
What a lazy take.
You can't afford pot, food, sitting around and doing nothing unless you were rich. Rich kids were hanging around having peace parties, while the poor were shipped off to die in Vietnam, and the survivors booed by the rich kids.
"vast majority" Thats just ridiculous
I've old enough to have known both hippies and beatniks, and I think the beatniks influenced the hippies a lot.
The hippies were rich kids who went to college and universities.
Those are the people who became politicians, lawyers, professors and stock brokers.
In other words... they became exactly what they fought against. Only with more fiber in their diets.
Many trust fund babies, too.
Some of them, maybe. And politician, lawyer, professor aren't necessarily bad professions.
Also, I'm willing to bet that e.g. the vast majority of stock brokers weren't former hippies.
So your argument is "Not all of them"?
I never said that every one of them was.
I'm just saying that many of the political leaders, government officials, and educators were hippies. They had rich parents so some of them could avoid the draft and gain powerful positions in society even though they were drug crazed lunatics.
And, if you ever watch the movie Wolf of Wallstreet you might understand that drug use among stock brokers is not unheard of.
That movie was based on a true story but the reality was probably worse.
Exactly. I remember asking my friends mom if they were hippies and she said, "no, we had to work so we can live." Lmao
I dated a native/latin single mom, she was a hippie too. Believing in crystals, soulmate, energy, astrology and stuff.
It lasted two years and she literally had the audacity to say that she now believes that there are multiple soulmates and she's in love with another man.
I kicked her to the cirb and didn't look back at all. It hurt, but it must be done.
Yeah, that's quite common these days, my Aunt and Uncle got into all that and faith healing in the 80s.........didn't end well.
Yeah I would have a hard time being in a relationship with someone who believes in soulmates lol. To me it just displays a severely limited/narrow perspective of the sheer number of humans that exist in the world. There’s literally an unlimited number of people that could be compatible with you. I do like to think of the fact that my life would be very different if I hadn’t encountered certain people along the way, but I know that there’s really no meaning behind any of it. Nothing happens for a reason if you look outside your own ego.
That’s so convenient that they had another soulmate isn’t it
@@pricklycatsss Yeah, it's all ego-centric BS. Funny thing that if he'd researched even further he'd realise there's nothing the hippies did that hadn't been done before throughout history. They were at least lucky in that their counter-culture wasn't erased by force.
I do wonder if they just use their "beliefs" to mask their narcisissm and selfishness.
This is so good, I’m late for my lunch break. You a great Jimmie. Worth it. Hippy Spirit back into work now.
We're getting closer lads, to punks and/or metalheads 😉, great video as always 👍
My theory as a 90s born punk... The first wave punks were the result of disillusioned and pissed of hippies that didn't just shave, get a job and become the Boomer sell outs of today. Honestly, the ideology is near identical save a far more aggressive and in your face approach to it all from the punk side. Punks gave up asking and just started doing and or taking. And metal heads are much the same, ultimately just angrier hippies that understand respectability failed and we gotta get even more abrasive if we want results...
@@ChickadeeBoi interesting point. As all subcultures are a mixture of elements from other cultures, there's probably some truth to that, especially as there was some rivalry between the punks and hippies in the 70s
As a 90s punk myself, this is so refreshing@@ChickadeeBoi
@@ChickadeeBoi there is no "movement" in the metal scene. we just like to get fucked up and headbang.
@@ChickadeeBoi Heavy metal is a sub-culture built around music mate. Thats our first love, that and hanging out with other people that are into the same music. Its music that turned into a social activity. Anything else like politics or religion can either be embraced or rejected depending on what the individual believes.
But yes obviously the roots of heavy metal are based on popular culture of the1960s.
"no scoped in the back of a car".. yet again a line that tells you great things are ahead
that line was beautiful
lee harvey oswald did in fact use a scope (allegedly). jfk was hard scoped
it caught my attention too.... niiiiice
I don't care who you are, that was funny right there.
Today we embrace consumerism and we like to market ourselves, to get more likes, sometimes show ourselves to make more money. And if you are not sellable, you are not aprecciated. The thing is, what are you selling that is so unique that it could benefit my life? Money is just a tool, the problem is what you do with that tool.
Interesting content! I've watched a few of your uploads... consistently good...I've Subscribed. Greetings from the French Alps.
Cool breakdown, Jimmy. Even-handed and fun. Respect for the work on the vid.
I was born in 1969 and my Parents were Hippies and My Grandfathers were both WW2 Vets. Interesting dynamic we rocked back in those days.
A lot of people fail this format. You sir. Have absolutely fucking nailed it.
I'd be willing to bet that the draft had more to do with the growth of the hippie counterculture than any other one thing. Amazing video!
Hippies were not political
@@SandfordSmythe you don't think so? What do you mean?
@@SandfordSmythe lmfao im guessing youre a trumpie. they were HYPER political
not an amazing video. the take of some kid who watched american mainstream media and assumes it's accurate
@@charlesreid9337 I'm avoiding this sh__ show. I lived through those times and know the terrain.
Like Gerry Garcia said, when the tour buses were cruising past their house, it was time to get out of Haight
Jerry Bro
god damn jimmy your videos are always bangers these days, you're killing it. watch every new upload right until the end of the video because they are just so bloody entertaining!
"Hippies in Germany?!"
Meanwhile germans:
*Built the two most iconic cars of the hippie era*
The best RUclipsr for documentaries. He engages and adds humor, making it easy to understand him. Seriously, he could make a 1-hour video about someone I never knew before, and I would watch it fully.
Heres a topic id love to see you try to cover. The modern culture of street takeovers.. It's pretty widespread across the world, but it's most prominent in USA among a certain group of people who shut down entire street intersections and whip their cars in close proximity to eachother and hundreds of bystanders. They're a plague who have given car enthusiasts a bad name and have injured and even killed many innocent people with their blatant disregard for human lives. I feel like it would be interesting to see you cover it and how the rise of it has correlated with the social media clout chasing culture.
That would be an interesting watch.
We call 'em "Side Shows."
Stolen cars, often, not their own.
meth is bad for you
It is grammatically impossible to say "Hippie" without saying "f***ing" before
Hippie
Or “god damn “
Well, maybe, but the dirty f**king hippies were right!
The Brits sometimes find the English lexicon difficult, which I find hilariously ironic.🤣
@@BlueTeam-John-Fred-Linda-Kelly That's not ironic, which I find hilarious.
So depressing, if a subculture really tries to go for somthing better, people just take advantage of it. Reality rudely interrupts and punishes us for our idealism😂
It's what reality does...
Idealism will always,...cause people are the problem.
goths next please. keep up the good work!
Lovin these recent vids! Also Cab Calloway has a song about being "Hip to the Jive" way back in 1930s, cool to see how culture evolves
A lot of these communes turned into weird cults. The whole commune was taken over by a charismatic mad man.
tell us you get your brainfood from bullshit media
binged this channel all night so much i overslept this morning and woke up to a new one 😂
Being a peace loving hippie honestly is a joy in my life. I love just being peaceful to everyone and being a free loving hippie. Also LSD has changed my life and is one of the best things to probably ever happen to me
They're selling hippy wigs in woolworths man.
great movie
End of an era. Old order fadeth, yielding place to new.
@@rasklaat2 Rave still exists, but then so do hippies. Sometimes both. After all, trance had to come from somewhere.
All scenes in popular culture become money makers at the end hippie, punk, grunge and in Seattle we don't sell hippy wigs but grunge wigs. 🎸 💰 🎶
@@ghostshirt1984 You can merchandise anything. The point of the comment (quote as it is), is that the movement is dead.
Film - Withnail and I.
I'd also point out that the Rave movement actually comodified capitalism (and still does) to further it's own goals. You can't sell out what has already sold you out.
"If you see a guy with long hair, you don't automatically assume he's a woman...you assume hes...probably a vegan" ..that line killed me I laughed harder than I should have at that moment.
In the 60's my husband was waiting alone at an isolated bus station in the Central Valley ( CA) with his long hair and up came an off duty Highway Patrol Officer who started telling him about how they killed hippies and threw the bodies in canals where they would never be found. He was really scared, but being raised Southern Baptist he went into "preacher" mode and started quoting scriptures at him whenever the guy came close. It made the guy back off. Finally the bus came, to his relief.
'Ringolevio' is a great book, Emett grogen of the 'diggers' was one of those to supposedly to start of the San Francisco scene, great book!
Don’t forget the huge part played by the invention of The Pill and with it the sexual revolution… ‘free love’. The irony is that after the revolution, even as people continue to obsess over their identities, they are not even having more of better sex than before.
The propaganda around the Pill was so that the other half of the population could start paying income tax.
Gloria Steinem admitted it on camera.
Jimmy, you don't miss mate! Brilliant videos, every single one!
Cool video. The Manson family had a big role in ending the whole summer of love thing.
It’s only takes a few crazy people to co-opt a movement and ruin it for everyone. Just look at Muslims vs islamists
Technical Note: Back During the Beat Generation Black and White TV. I know it’s unbelievable, but I remember it. You had to imagine the colors.
‘Americas most beloved subculture: Cowboys’
Yeee haw. Possibly the most famous sub culture in global terms. A lot of romantism about it all and the films
Really, I thought it might be Suburban Mom Multi-level Marketing…
@@billwillson890 you must be a sodbuster, suburbanite, or soyboy - it’s definitely not the cowboys who are the problem when it comes to the interactions you’re having with them
ya.... except we made them all white, gunfighters etc. They werent either
Hi just found this channel. Great videos! Can I suggest one on Britain's most ridiculed (yet longest-lived) British subculture.......Trainspotting! Still going strong in 2024
Not a culture. Depending on your definition, it's either a hobby or a chemical dependency.
@@yungjiggamayne2262 Beat me to it by 11 mins.
junkies?
nope. Trainspotters@@goldensloth7
Yes same thing with FUCKING SLAYER!!!!!!!!!!! scientifically I've yet to see or hear someone pull off this impossible feat
Absolutely brilliant content recently.
This was another smash hit. Your compassion for humanity is apparent in your videos; while you may not agree with the subcultures you present, you try to put a human spin on it so that your viewers can more easily understand how things got that way. Bravo, m8.
This is really good. I'm sincerely impressed. Thanks for doing this for this American who was born at the end of the hippie era. Good job mate!
This may have been a matter of regional dialect, but in the late 60s, in Tucson, AZ, anyone who used the word "hippie," wasn't one. The correct term was "freak."
That's right! I forgot about that -- we were the "freaks" and they were the "straights." Being a seeker and idealist, later I became a Jesus Freak...until I grew out of that movement. Now that --what? 40 years--have passed and we can admit to being there (in SF and in communes), I'll say that those were very good times (except for being attacked by the police in the city). I left the USA to live abroad and I'm glad to have stayed a hippy at heart. Arms Are For Hugging, Make Love Not War. Beat Corporate Greed.
Insightful, good job. How about a show about movie during the hippie era 1965-1975, like SILENT RUNNING 1972, Joan Baez, environmental film. That was probably the most hippie movie ever to come out of hollywood.
The hippies are far from America’s most hated subculture, also it wasn’t really a national movement but relegated mostly to the west coast and the northeast. The majority of America were probably only aware of the existence of hippies due to Hollywood, which portrayed it primarily as the butt of some joke. I grew up in the Bible Belt and I can’t recall ever seeing any hippies at all throughout the 70’s. The country really became wary of them after the whole Manson episode which got linked in with the movement.
I grew up in the BB too, and we had profiteering “Weed Hippies”.
That would be the "majority"" by area, I assume.
I grew up in WV and my uncle was a freak and played bass guitar in a Grand Funk Railroad cover band. Flyover country had hippies too
i grew up in the bible belt and .. i saw a fuckton of hippies. Noone "became wary of them".. i think likely you grew up in a fundie household..
Empathic, balanced, and also a rigorous critique love it
Destroying the norm without a good replacement in place is childish.
That's why they overcorrected into the yuppie fucks who fucking screwed us. They just wanted a reason to let loose and run wild without taking responsibility for their actions and using flowery philosophy as a justification. As someone who has had their life changed by psychedelics these people were doing wayyy too much. I will never understand the "free love" movement, if LSD/mushrooms taught me anything it's that I want to be semi-monogamous with one special person I can depend on as a partner and teammate. I'm down for a third every once in a while but polyamory is wayy too messy.
Right, but we WERE children, and most revolutions go off without a plan for the future. Take France in 1789, for example. 🙂
is that what you tell yourself while you grovel?
@@charlesreid9337 What?
Smashing them out the park Jimmy!! 2024 you've given us so Manny bangers already!
LSD has definitely been one of the most important experiences of my life. It’s actually really helped me with weight loss/fitness. It’s the most inspiring drug I’ve ever used and I’ve used all of them.
Not a fan myself. I prefer entactogens.
Agreed. Changed me for the better in numerous ways. I'm very thankful for the experiences I've had.
Don't knock ego-death until you've tried it.
3rded
@@Pooknottin please use a test kit
9:39 Oh, snap! It’s Mr. Weasley’s flying automobile! 😂
This makes me long for an alternative to consumerism and conflict that's more sustainable. The problem is that the people radical enough to start a movement like this are also young and naïve, so they'll grow out of it before long. They also tend to be burnouts who don't want to work hard to build things that last.
I totally agree. I feel it should be a variant of 'opting out' of society where you are still able to interact with services you require and that are absolutely necessary but you dont get any of the 'freebies' that tax payers have access to.
Your pre-war ancestors weren’t consumerist.
Yes, and yet.... here in America, I can completely foresee a sort of "New Amish" becoming a thing, especially among folks my age in their 50s and 60s - where there is an intense fear and uneasyness about technology combined with diminishing employment opportunities. Racism and sexism may be gone, but ageism is very much alive and well! Getting a job in your 50s has become extremely difficult to the point where many don't even try. I can see communal living occurring out of pure necessity.
Beautiful. Gonna put some flowers in my hair. Btw those monks were Theravadin, but sure, few would know what that is so Tibetan is close enough. Fun history lesson, thanks!
The irony of the hippies is they thought enlightenment was achieved through more - more drugs, more sex etc. Buddhism, Taoism and pretty much any other religion/spirituality says to let go of desire and attachments.
Their virtues were a skin suit, and the cycle continues.
Exactly. Just "conspicuous consumption" of a different stripe.
they are WHY youve heard of buddhism and taoism. the ignorance..
"Psychedelic aesthetic is just Art Nouveau on ac*d"
I love phrases people that study history and society come up with, they can be so wild ^_^
The hippies were right about one thing: the environment.
you are really smashing it lately!! top documentary!! 10/10 💫
Hippie: *strives for peace, love, equality and open minds*
Rest of the world: *wait, you can’t do that.*
saw the whole dang documentary, good stuff. You mentioned that the hippie movement weren't politically active enough. However, the yippies were significantly more politically active, there was less focus on the free love and psychedelia movement and more focus on political action towards their cause. I think it would be interesting if you covered the yippies too.
I’d say the proto hippy movement was the Romantic period in England.
Byron & Shelly and co. Shelly was a feminist, vegetarian, anarchist in early 19th century.
Rousseau is continental values.
Mrs. Shelly didn't do too badly either.
I'm so glad I found your channel. Your videos are great
In the thumbnail one of the policeman’s guns just turns into his leg
That's why Mad Men is one of the best tv drama's created. It shows how that social and political struggle ended up being swallowed by merchandise, as they swore off political and religious pillars of society, breaking every conventional boundary, advertising was leeching itself on early and paired the freedom label with air freshener and TV sets. I think that's so original to investigate in a TV drama, yet to most people the series only shows a very stylish era, but don't notice the social critique that Mad Men demonstrates. Seriously, it's almost at the same level as the Wire, just a bit more in the background, often to the point that characters use words that are now found in philosophy papers about that era (first reports of climate change, the Earthrise photo, civil rights, freedom, stuff like that).
Seems like a lot of these counter culture things die ironically by becoming a part of the culture
17:21 hippie domes. The triangles for construction were often cut from the roofs of junked big cars. You can still see old Caddys with triangles cut from them in the West.
Another banger Video
Makes you wonder how different the next major sub culture movement will be. Youths seem far more niahlistic/fed up rather than hopeful for change. It seems like in the past where hippies sought to inspire change, many people today recognize the system remains the same despite efforts of the past. They’re tired of slow change and they want to tear the system down.
nope. it's the juggalos.
WORD
whoop whoop :(
Juggalos and Metalheads are the new hippies
Ford "Anglia"? Was that vehicle ever sold in the U.S.? I never saw one. The "official" autos of the Counterculture were the VW Beetle & Van.
Mfer outthumbnailed me. Fantastic video man. The 60s have become an unhealthy obsession of mine as of late.
What from the 60’s did you focus on?
Transcendentalism is a better example of the origins of Hippie philosophy. Henry David Thoreau was arrested for not paying taxes because he objected to the Mexican American war. Emerson was about the only philosopher Nietzsche respected.
Bomb content
Atomic*
@1:43 saying Americans should chill and just "have tea" is the MOST European thing you could say
art nuevo came from artists drinking abstenth, the original acid
At least they bathed.
I grew up about an hour north of sf and my brother graduated from high school in 67. He spent the summer of love in the Haight. He loved it. Like most people his age he left to get a job and was gone to the Midwest for a year and a half and when he came back he decided to go see if he could find any of his old buddies and would be back in a month. He was back in a week and when we asked him why he said where there used to be flower children and music now was dealers pimps and homeless beggars. People seemed to be pretending to be hippies and scammers. In less than two years the peaceful vibe was gone.
I thought this was gonna be about Social Justice Warriors haha.
They were.
same - lol. i like hippies but i'm not a fan of them. but how similar are they?
Good look at that time and like the fun style - only thing I feel is a big miss is the Charlie Manson episode which is generally looked at as the end of that era, the dark side of hippy life. Any reason you didn't include that? Will defo check out more of your stuff.
I see Manson not as the "dark side" of the 60s, but as the 60s' natural and inevitable conclusion.
You take a bunch of naive kids - remove all values and morals - and how could it NOT end like that?
@@karnubawax You take any movement and put a manipulative psychopath as a leader of a group then things will get ugly no matter the "values" or lack of thereof. The naive kids as you call them did have values and morals, just dif. ones.
Well, yes, sort of. But the hippy thing came to the UK and we made something very different from it. We invented new age travellers, which led to a vital component of the rave scene - the free festival and then free or squat party. This ran at full steam from the late 70's / early 80's through to the 2000's. It engulfed punk and became the first genuine multi generational sub culture and and still exists today if you know where to look.
New quest unlocked… I must find an old German hippie from this time and or a direct descendent a 1960s era Cold War hippie just sounds incredible and this is coming from somebody with history degree so my mind is loving this
pls pls pls do a video on the aussie eshay subculture pls pls pls
3 Jimmy videos this week how are you pumping these out
As a great American once said , “goddamn hippies “
Classic Eric cartman from south park always says that too but in the new seasons he kinda stopped doing that
Scatman Caruthers in "Silver Streak" - "Dayumn Hip-pies!"
Sounds like Richard Nixon.
The Farm, in Summer town Tennessee, is a commune started back then by Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, and it's actually still around. There are still original people living there,their kids and grandkids, newer people. Ive been camping there, it's pretty cool
Thanks for talking about a culture I thought was lowkey cool but actually sucked all as hell later on.
After psychedelics became illegal it kind of ruined everything. You can tell because music in the 80s immediately became ass.
@@pricklycatsss I mean music wise to each of their own it was still great, they had some pretty banging hot music back then compared to now literally but other than that yeah the love & peace crap did fall off a ton big time.
Only just discovered your videos today. Quality content and appreciate the casual vibes.
Essay incoming:
Personally, I think like most movements, particularly extreme liberal and extreme conservative movements, it starts out with logical reasoning and good hearted motives that I think most people subscribe to on some level, but then along the way it gets derailed by a load of sheep who only signed up to be part of a trend that looked fun to join. Most followers don't really understand what they're saying or doing, and this is where big problems in society start to arise as a consequence.
The main issue with any movement is the followers in effect form a cult and they assume their truth is the only truth and push for radical unrealistic change even if their solution is an overall net detriment to the rest of the world. They become blind, delusional and stop seeing reality, all in the name of achieving their own objectives. It's a particularly selfish and irresponsible thing fuelled with a contradiction of good heartedness and ignorance. It becomes self sabotage from people who are deeply convinced they are doing the right thing. In effect, most movements end up becoming fascist in nature. Sounds a bit extreme, but it's true. Not all fascists are violent and what not.
With the hippies specifically, it's one thing to dream of a utopia, it's another thing to actualise it. This is the ultimate problem with hippies. They didn't think it through. They didn't think about the consequences of chasing the utopia and abandoning the status quo would have on society. They never really asked why the status quo existed in the first place and what the consequences of changing it would be. They arrogantly declared they knew the way, discarding 100s of years of knowledge in the process.
For example, they didn't understand the economics and how societies are kept afloat on a practical level. They legit thought if we all wen't back to living in nature that we'd live in a perfect tranquil safe society, when in reality, law and order would disappear as a result of a collapsed economy, and the consequently violence, rape, murder, etc, would all become rampant. People never think about this stuff when they dream of utopia.
Ultimately, they were naive, ignorant, arrogant, selfish and self righteous people who took the luxury of living in a first world society for granted, not understanding that most people did actually understand "the American dream" and consumerism wasn't perfect, but accepted the trade off as it allowed millions of people to live in relative safety, harmony and an abundance of resource of unprecedented levels seen in practically the entire human history.
In a nutshell, hippies wanted to fight against the status quo not really understanding that the utopia they were trying to achieve would be the very thing that would destroy the society they so massively benefited from, the very society that gave them such liberal freedom to become hippies in the first place. The irony.
Imo, like all movements there are pros and cons. Personally, the main thing I took from the hippies is to not get too caught up with money and what not, just enjoy the basic things in life. Consumerism is a by product of capitalism, but it isn't be default bad, it's just how you utilise it to make the life that makes you happy. You can either be a captain of it, or you can be a slave to it. Also, as a musician, I adore the music that came out of the 60s with all my heart!!
That said, what I also see as a negative consequence of such liberal movement is huge damage to how the plutonic family looks like in the west, and the average persons values on monogamy, marriage, gender roles, etc, and deeper, the declining birth rates we are seeing today. The hippies were a catalyst for allowing sexual freedom, homosexuality, casual drug use, etc etc. These things, whilst I think people have every right to do these things, on a mass scale however they are very damaging for society, and I think the effects we are seeing in full swing today. Do I need to go into all the craziness we've seen over the last 20 years or so? I think the craziness is partially, if not predominately, a side effect of the 60s liberal movements. Dare I say, even John Lennon was wrong to an extent.
Lennon was always wrong. He was full of shit and simply wanted to be seen as political, intellectual and far out as Bob Dylan ,so jumped onto any bandwagon that he could. Dylan’s had the good grace to fuck off and stay away for a few years during the mid to late 1960s .
He got found out with the idiotic knee jerk reaction song to Bloody Sunday 1972 (British soldiers murdered 14 civilians in Derry Northern Ireland ) with that stupid song “Luck of the Irish” which was remarkably patronising to Irish people (who still went out and bought enough copies to send it to number 1 in the Irish charts ) Apparently the Irish should have wished that they were dead 🙄😂🤡🤦♀️ Irish Republicans like it or not, Northern Ireland was a tad bit complex and the British simply couldn’t hand back NI to the Irish (another idiotic song by Paul McCartney )
Contrast that song to something U2 did about the same topic in Sunday Bloody Sunday , years later, or the Cranberries with Zombie or even Phil Coulter and Paul Brady . The latter two are both Derry boys , with the songs Town that I love so well and The Island
Then you have that other idiotic song, Imagine.
Places like England were economically going through hell at the time of the release , especially in northern areas like Liverpool where he is from. Imagine no possessions ? Even parts of the US suffered due to the oil crisis . No John, most of them did not need to imagine it , it’s for real in their life .
Paragraphs 2,3,4 and 5 are spot on. Proof of that was the reasons why major music festivals failed in the US in the late 1960s .
Woodstock , horrendous commercial failure but for money for the film rights . We all know what happened in 1994 and 1999
Way too many self entitled fuckers demanding that music written by people should be free and demanding that they get to enter the venue without making any financial contribution .
Other festivals got dangerously overcrowded it was fortunate what there were not many causalities through violence without proper professional security (ie police)
They did not consider the consequences of no consequences.
Absolutely. The reason we allow tens of thousands of people to die on our streets every year of drugs like fentanyl is leftover hippie thinking.
Lennon ultimately - like most hippies - was an asshole.
If you haven’t yet, you really need to make a video on the mods & rockers in Britain, especially the Second Battle of Hastings conflict
I prefer some of punk's values like non-conformity, anti-consumerist & the DIY ethos but them hippies had some great values too like rejecting materialism, inequality & war. They've also contributed to the developement of psychedelic music : )
Love your work, think I'd watch you do a video on anything at this point.
Here come the born in the wrong generation kids
me, in 1995
The point is if you aren't a Boomer - then you WERE born in the wrong generation.
Thank you for showing us. You really know how to make videos interesting. Much respect to you sir. Great weekend to you as well.