Photo by ryantxr
The year 1960 saw the growth of Hippie culture or a youth movement that started from the United States of America. This culture soon spread its wings to the other parts of the world. These young people wanted to break the regular norms and the straight faced boring lifestyle of the people around them. They wanted to break out from the mapped out life style and puritanical sexual norms. These young people were known as Hippies and they were closer to rock music and hallucinogenic drugs. They dressed in long flowing garments and kept flowing hairs. They did not like violence and had liberal views in life.
High class background but living in poverty
The hippies were the young people of 1960’s and they were also called baby boom generation. The middle class people who were in the age group of 15 – 25, were trying to break open the numerous restrictions placed by the society. They were also against the rules made by the parents and they wanted to live a different life. They were from high class background and from the modern cities of USA. They wanted to see the world but did not give much importance to the radical ways of society. They also did not like to work for living.
Ideals and ways of thinking
In many cities hippies were found to be living in communities and others lived in conditions that were not comfortable. They were against war and had liberal views regarding politics. They loved the person in front of them for who they actually are and not for their financial condition or social class. They loved to stay away from society and its norms. They also thought that materialism is not important and that there is little need for technology or for a structure in the society. They loved to please themselves and not anyone else.
Interest in loving people
They also used hallucinogenic materials in different mode and had deep interest in religion of the eastern world. They loved peace and never supported need for fighting between community and society. The name hippie was taken from Hipster that described beatniks of Haight Ashbury area of San Francisco. The Hipsters were children who believed in loving others instead of opting for war. These people hated the authorities who supported Vietnam War in which America was involved and dreamed of sharing civil rights among the citizen of the country.
Evolving of new fashion and literature
There came new era of fashion that supported the hippies and a lot of movies showed their ideals and way of life. New age of literature and fashion evolved with these cultural changes. They loved rock and folk music and singers like Bob Dylan came up during this period. The Beatles and Rolling stones were some groups that gave lyrics supporting this movement.
Ken Kesey was one such person who spoke about these hippie cultures. They protested with music festivals and public support in gatherings. There were hippies who went to colleges and explained issues like Vietnam War and anti-war ideals. The movement waned during the end of 70’s and by 1980’s they were new generation of hippies who wanted to go for career and make money. They still have a lot of influence in culture, environment and in maintaining peace above war.
