UnTouchable
Words are ideas with names
If a Hippie is “cool” they might also be very “Hot” and we still know zero about their thermal temperature.
When a Hippie trips you might be worried they will hit their head. Fair Enough, however to Hippies and others “In the Know”, it’s a bit more complex.
Before we can truly understand each other we need to understand how we use words. The page is about what words mean and how they are used. Remember if a Hippie doesn’t understand you then you probably won’t understand them. Deeper understanding requires two-way understanding. We Hippies want to understand you. So please offer your understanding of the words below. You can even offer better words from today, the past, or beyond.
I remember very clearly visiting my mom one day. We were standing in the kitchen I grew up in, I had helped her paint the cabinets Bright Orange, Lemon Yellow, and Lime Green. Let’s just say it was vibrant. She was telling me about what she had done last weekend and she said it was “A Trip” The word was never the same for me. It seemed like she was saying her “Trip” was good. I was happy for her. Let’s just say that my mom having a “good trip” was a trip for me.
Individuals speak “for” whole groups sometimes. Groups will speak “for” individuals, even dead individuals. The larger and the more diverse the group is the less accurate the statements are. Hippies are a very diverse and widely diffused group, so most statements here will likely be somewhat inaccurate. Hopefully, they will still be entertaining and add positive vibes to Peace and harmony in the world, imagine all hippies and even all humans attempted the same.
What is Freedom? It seems so obvious that a definition should be unnecessary. “To be able to do what we want, think what we want, say what we want.” Which is really to LIVE how we want. What does it give us? What is required?
What if one person loves big wild forests and another loves making big bonfires? (Personally, I love both) Maybe the bonfire one likes doing it with others. As their numbers grow, their need for trees and space grows. At some point, they will bump up to a person or group of folks who hug trees, but burn grass. Freedom starts to become a bit more difficult.
Respect and Tolerance of others is a huge part of Freedom and the Hippies. Even Celebrating differences as much as possible
Like Freedom, God is a word after that it becomes more complicated
Some people would probably say Hippies can’t be Christian, others might say the first Christians were the first Hippies.
Not having met any of the first Christians it’s difficult for me to say if they were Hippies. But it does seem like I have heard that they lived rather communally, sharing what they had, taking care of each other.
The first Christians were Peace-loving and worshiped a God of love and forgiveness. They didn’t really respect the governmental authorities or the Church leadership, but they paid their taxes. Most Hippies are like that, although a few might be a little sloppy with their taxes. The first Christians traveled around spreading the love rather than pilling up riches and building stuff. As time has gone on many Christians have become rather obsessed collecting wealth and building stuff. Again same for many hippies.
The first Christians didn’t have an army and they gladly paid the price. Maybe they weren’t all glad to be fed to the lions, but I think there is at least one place in the Bible that talks about being joyful in suffering is a result of being in close a relationship with God. Hippies are Peace-nicks, fortunately we are fed to the lions in the same way, but more than a few peace protesters around the world have been beaten-up and jailed
You might say Hippies are pagans who worship tree fairies and dance naked in the forest. I have seen some tree hugging on many occasions and dancing naked in the forest much less frequently, unfortunately I guess.
I was taught that in the earliest democracies, it was the citizens who voted. Self government! That is great….for the citizen. Not so great maybe for the noncitizens and the citizen’s slaves. When citizenship leads people to actively care for their environment and its inhabitants then citizenship is a great thing. When citizenship is used to exclude others from the richness of life it’s a scam.
When democracy is used to exclude others from the richness of life it’s a scam.
When government is used to exclude others from the richness of life it’s a scam.
Citizenship in Hippiedom is honorary and mutual. If you ain’t honorable and respectful to others, you can still call yourself a hippie, but hippies would call you something else.
It is true that groups of people have different ways of living and moral codes. They don’t always fit togethers smoothly. It is very difficult treating someone with respect and dignity when their concept of treating people with respect and dignity does not include you or all people in the group of deserving respect and dignity!
Racism is a pretty powerful word for most people. Hopefully, we can all agree there has been a deep historical connection between racism and much of the pain and abuse humans have put on each other. This continues today at different levels depending on who, what, and where.
I was taught in capitalism the owner of our society’s wealth would use their power to give the people what they wanted if they were allowed to express their desire in a free market. I was taught in socialism the people used the government to direct where society’s wealth would be used to give the people what they wanted. What I have noticed is that it is not that simple. In general, hippies are generous, but there are a lot of fairly rich hippies too, so let’s not be stupid. There are a lot of poor hungey hippies too, some by choice It can be a very spiritual experience when done by choice. That said most poor hippies are poor due to the same reasons that there are poor members in any other group.
As mentioned above God is a word. Money is God to some folks. It has been said, “Money is the root of all evil”. This was probably said by someone without money, or at least less money than their enemy.
Money can be used for both good and bad. This Hippie would say God is always good, that’s part of the definition of God, so money is definitely not God.
It does appear that some folks are so focused on money that they are worshiping money. Please don’t do that.
It has been said, “Money is Time.” It is true if you want to cut down a tree for a bonfire or put one out, the ability to buy a saw or a bucket then money will save you time, but if there is no saw to buy or water for your bucket money will not buy much time. It’s more complicated than that.