My Gripe With Hippies

Typically when the summer rolls around, I begin attending quite a few concerts. Each year seems to bring some Dave Matthews Band, along with various other artists that change from year to year. I try to make it my unofficial policy to see at least one new act each summer, and this year I've certainly done so. Earlier this month I was treated to not one but two concerts put on by artists who I had never seen before: Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls. Yes, it seems that I've had a bit of a lesbian concert summer, but these artists, who I like and respect very much, have got me thinking.

The audiences at both shows were very similar. While the DiFranco show in Central Park had a smaller crowd than the Indigo Girls show at Wolf Trap in Northern Virginia, essentially the same fans attended both shows. The audiences at both concerts were at least 85 percent female, which didn't bother me one bit. A good portion of these women were also decked out in hippie garb, and as I watched the interactions of these "hippies," I realized how much they bother me.

You see, when most people think of the term "hippie," an image comes to mind of a person or a group of people, each with long hair, peace pendants and tye-dye shirts protesting the continuance of the Vietnam War. A noble cause indeed, as that war was certainly unnecessary, and that is what we picture. But nowadays, with these pseudo, fake hippies, we see nothing of the like. We see people, like those at these concerts, who dress the way the 1960s hippies dressed, but that is the extent to which they are similar to their predecessors. They call themselves hippies, and wrongfully so, for they do nothing more than sit on their asses and smoke maarijuana. They are lazy, and they are giving those from the 60s and the youth of today a bad name. They have taken this amazing concept of young people who care about peace throughout the world and turned it into something terrible.

I think some would be quick to jump to the defense of these new hippies and say today is a different day and a different world. Surely it is, I would be more than willing to concede that, but there are disturbing similarities between thirty years ago and today, not the least of which includes international conflict. These hippies today could be doing so much to advance their peaceful ideals, but they would all just rather steal the fashion sense and mentality of those who came before them and abandon the responsibility they have to the peace movement. They are a disgrace to the name and should not be identifying themselves as hippies. They are slackers, and it's about time we start calling them just that.

The good hippies