"Hippie" no thank you.

Thats interesting, in the early to mid 70s in the US, if you were 'counter culture', you called yourself a "freak".
As in; "How was the party? ... It was great, they were all freaks", etc.
or
"I'm not going to that concert, there won't be any freaks there".

I didn't know that this term was used elsewhere.

Edited by js (Easy Money) - October 04 2016 at 08:41

The term "freak" was widely used in the UK as far as I know especially in the post-hippie/pre-punk era of the 70s. Those with long hair were either freaks, greasers (bikers), or hippies and while attire wasn't universal certainly a greatcoat or long denim coat (with or without sheepskin collar) would generally separate you from an Afghan wearing hippie who reeked of patchouli oil (or worse if his coat ever got wet) or a leather-clad biker drenched in Duckhams 20/50 and stale beer. While few would ever risk using the term hippie towards a biker, it was often used as a disparaging term for freaks by skins, suedes and smoothies.

Edited by Dean - October 04 2016 at 08:14

Sometimes better discriptive tems are not available. I fell into the hippie classification but still felt different from that crowd.

Hi Timothy Leary - that's the point, I think. Original hippies were of a different mindset than what followed later - as the counterculture became commercialised.

Interesting to think that there are - as Flight123 says - no tribes any more.

Davesax1965 wrote: [....] I don't know about a lot of people here, but in my hairier days here in the UK, I automatically got called a "hippie" / "hippy". I dislike the term intensely. To me, hippies were not about sixties counterculture but a manufactured phenomenon who were just as trapped by convention and expectation as the society they were railing against. Supposedly.  [....]Or you learn to come up with some idiotic guff to counter it, such as "Fracking causes cancer" or "eating meat makes you agressive". [....]

Dave, Dave, I think we can take these issues more calmly.  Mainly because:  probably neither of us is old enough to have ever identified as a hippie - I mean, genuinely anyway - or even incurred criticism with any sticking power, on the basis of being one. Hippies, in late 1960s counterculture, most likely identified as such for the very reason that the term had been applied to them and they lovingly embraced it in order to absorb the negative publicity the establishment lobbed at them and their rejection of the current norms. Norms such as not caring about environment, and sending your kids into needless wars to die.  The idea of reforming such practices, once and for all, is an idea that I hope (in the UK as well as US) is now - decades later - finally finding acceptance after progressives' umpteenth try at making it clear to the public that they indeed were important issues.

As for the acceptance that "nonconforming hippies" did or didn't find among their prospective brethren, I can't speak for that, but their reputation - at least in the U.S. -- was one of respecting all non-conformists.

If you still chafe against being called one, at least find solace in the fact that without the well known "hipness" whence the hippies got their appellation, Prog would never have become popular enough to make a blip on the music scene.

Finally, and for the record, fracking actually does introduce carcinogens into the environment. Whether that constitutes a direct cause of cancer, probably only disinterested government studies will ultimately reveal.



Edited by CapnBearbossa - October 04 2016 at 13:30

Perhaps a "hipster" then? 

My son (24 yr old) thins my wife and I are hippies. Even though she was born in 1964 and I was born in '58. So perhaps it's not a era thing so much as a lifestyle thing. Although neither of us dresses the part or lives in a commune or are vegetarians or march in protests or listen to Bob Dylan. At best we are supporters of freedom of choice when it comes to deciding what's best for ourselves with regards to trendy chemical amusement aides. Maybe our relaxed attitude towards most things 'uptight' makes us hippies.

Do I mind being called a hippy??

Hell no !

As my father used to say...
"You can call me anything you want, just don't call me late for dinner."

SteveG wrote: Sometimes better discriptive tems are not available. I fell into the hippie classification but still felt different from that crowd.

I like pancakes

According to the Breakfast Club standard, I and my friends were closest to 'freaks' as we were not brains, jocks, beauties, or hoods.