There’s a little hippie in all of us

The commentator of a History Channel program on the hippie movement in America ended with the quote, which I used for the title.  Watching the program with my sister, best friend and fellow baby boomer Sabah was even more fun, as it brought back many memories for us.  We came to the US when our father was posted to the Pakistan Mission to the UN.  We didn’t realize until much later what a volatile era that was in American history.  Of course in high school and college, we ourselves joined the peace movement, the womens’ movement, even the hippie movement and despite much pleading with our father did not get to go to Woodstock! I remember how much music was part of the movement, and how songs like “I left my heart in San Francisco” stayed in my heart forever.  I remember Rolling Stones, Santana and Beatles posters that covered the walls of our shared room and the growing collection of LP’s that we still have to this day, and that my Gen X and millenial children treasure as an artifact of music history, perhaps!

Like any movement, the hippie movement had its dark ugly underbelly, that surfaced later, but what it did for American society was to open up the society for pluralism, versus conformity.  Baby boomers refused to be robot babies growing up to be robot men and women, climbing the corporate, materialist ladder and wanted to reconnect with nature, reconnect with each other and most of all focus on the “pursuit of happiness”.  They of course were the beneficiaries of the largest materialist and technical expansion of a society – at that time, America had 6% of the world’s population and produced half of the products for the whole globe!  They made possible the anti-war movement, which led to the end of the tragic Vietnam War, although that is one front that the hippies could not make a lasting dent on.  Just look at all the wars we continue to foment and start.  And despite Nixon’s CoIntelpro crackdown on the counter cultural movement, the spirit still survives.

For me, as an ex-hippie (sans drugs), today’s 99% movement is another legacy of the hippie and social justice movements in America.  While the media reports have died down, and the visible signs are gone from Zucotti Park in New York and other places, a virtual movement continues.  It is strong but silent, and it is constructively thinking very hard of how to solve the big problems of our society.  Like the hippies, the questions they are asking is: can a society where being successful materially and focusing on No.1 only lead to a successful human community and society?  Recent meltdowns and crash’s have proven otherwise, and so we ought to give them credit for keeping the dialogue going.  We should not shut our minds and hearts to them, for they are sounding the signals of danger, of self-righteous imperialism and capitalism.  A more global perspective can be found in Erwin Laszlo’s book “Macroshift”, where he argues for a re-examinaton of current trends which could lead to disaster on many fronts, unless we have a “mindshift” and see ourselves as global citizens.  I always quote his statement: “Live so that others can live”, which implies a global responsibility, not a narrow “us versus them” view of the world.  As long as we as a society can keep our ears open for different voices and movements and learn to listen beneath the noise surrounding these movements, we will continually rejuvenate ourselves and have the courage to reinvent the things we need to – to be a vibrant society and the world’s greatest global experiment!

Tragic footnote: After I wrote this, the next morning we heard about the hate attack by a neo-Nazi white supremacist terrorist at a Sikh temple, killing innocent worshippers as they peacefully prayed.  It reminds us that hate is on the rise everywhere and we have to stop and think to see what conditions we are creating or allowing for hate to thrive so much.  We need the hippie “Peace” sign more than ever!