Hippie

A term used for members of the counter-culture of the 1960's who opted to "drop out (of school and the career rat race), turn on (by taking psychedelic drugs) and tune in (to an alternative way of looking at the universe)", rejecting the materialistic values of the society around them. The non-violent movement was largely in response to the the Vietnam War, and used the slogan "peace and love." Hippie culture also became associated with rock and roll, recreational drug use, "free love, as reflected by the slogan "drugs, sex and rock'n'roll." Hippies wore their hair long. "Jesus freaks" were hippies who were born-again Christians and followed Christ's commandments regarding the importance of love, and eschewing the use of drugs. Many hippies experimented with alternative living arrangements such as communes, where all work and all possesions were shared. In the movie "Easy Rider" the protagonists visit a hippie commune in California. Tom Wolfe's account of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters in his book "The Electric Acid Test" documented one aspect of the hippie scene.

Hippies were preceded by the counter-culture beatnik movement in the 1950's.

It was the capitalistic society in which the hippie was born that gave them financial support, while it was the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement that influenced their opposition to a violent conservative materialistic society. The largesse of their parents and free public handouts helped buoy the idealistic and misguided cultural experiments they attempted. Hippies failed in the end to affect real change since their worldview was based on a flawed concept of human nature. They believed that people were willing to live in a lessened state of materialistic ease and were altruistic as opposed to self-interested. This same flaw led to the fall of communism and the failure of all the 1960s communes.