The Hippies Were Right!

[Hestia]

The Hippies Were Right!
Green homes? Organic food? Nature is good? Time to give the ol' tie-dyers some respect
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, May 2, 2007


Go ahead, name your movement. Name something good and positive and pro-environment and eco-friendly that's happening right now in the newly "greening" America and don't say more guns in Texas or fewer reproductive choices for women or endless vile unwinnable BushCo wars in the Middle East lasting until roughly 2075 because that would defeat the whole point of this perky little column and destroy its naive tone of happy rose-colored sardonic optimism. OK?

I'm talking about, say, energy-efficient light bulbs. I'm looking at organic foods going mainstream. I mean chemical-free cleaning products widely available at Target and I'm talking saving the whales and protecting the dolphins and I mean yoga studios flourishing in every small town, giant boxes of organic cereal at Costco and non-phthalates dildos at Good Vibes and the Toyota Prius becoming the nation's oddest status symbol. You know, good things.

Look around: we have entire industries devoted to recycled paper, a new generation of cheap solar-power technology and an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" and even the soulless corporate monsters over at famously heartless joints like Wal-Mart are now claiming that they really, really care about saving the environment because, well, "it's the right thing to do" (read: It's purely economic and all about their bottom line because if they don't start caring they'll soon be totally screwed on manufacturing and shipping costs at/from all their brutal Chinese sweatshops).

There is but one conclusion you can draw from the astonishing (albeit fitful, bittersweet) pro-environment sea change now happening in the culture and (reluctantly, nervously) in the halls of power in D.C., one thing we must all acknowledge in our wary, jaded, globally warmed universe: The hippies had it right all along. Oh yes they did.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/05/02/notes050207.DTL

[Marblehead]

1. I feel vindicated

[Hestia]

4. As we all should

but I am too young to be a True Hippie (R) - I guess 2nd generation? Like the song says "What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding?" My son and I were watching a movie (forget which one) and we were discussing it, he turns and looks at me and says, "Mom, you're just a hippie without the clothes." I told him why thank you, what a wonderful compliment!

[1776Forever]

2. Here Here to my Generation - It is Time to Wake Up Again

When I read your post I immediately thought of the "green ho" as he called her - Imus's wife Diedre! She is FANTASTIC and her cleaning products and book are the BEST out there! I urge everyone to learn more on this remarkable woman! Imus was truly the lucky one here!

http://www.dienviro.com/

Her Mission statement:

To identify, control and ultimately prevent
exposures to environmental factors that may cause adult,
and especially pediatric cancer,
as well as other health problems with our children.

Amazon link to her new book - Green This!

http://www.amazon.com/Green-This-Greening-Your-Cleaning/dp/1416540555/sr=1-1/qid=1171426971/ref=sr_1_1/105-4054608-9644431?ie=UTF8&s=books

[liberal N proud]

3. And what are most of the hippies doing today?

Driving big SUV's living in Mc Mansions driving 20 plus miles each way to work. They were assimilated back into society by the lure of money!

Not trying to discredit the article, because it makes perfect sense. It just a shame that they all didn't maintain their lifestyle and were allowed to promote it for what it's benefits. Although the hairy legs and armpits on women did nothing for me.

[JDPriestly]

5. I don't think you are right about that.

The ex-hippies that I know (who are still alive) are non-conformists even if they are professionally successful. Lots are still activist Democrats.

[truedelphi]

13. Wall to wall hardwood floors and the ability to plunder

The grandpa's company for its workers' pension funds - ah, those things have lured more than one or two old time hippies.

But not all of us!

And believe me, if we had known that while we were merily passing the bong to the Peter Frampton tunes, that the Repukes were planning on taking over the country - we would have passed that bong a few times less and started workng against tyranny sooner and harder.

[liberal N proud]

16. Maybe it's been too long since I have been to California

[CRH]

18. Many of us still live very simple lifestyles, ...

and if the society in general had listened to the core values being expressed, there would be an infra structure in this country that would allow more people to live the simple life, conveniently. Just think of the difference an efficient mass transit infra structure would make in our lives, in place of the car culture. This is just one example. Think if more than the 'hippie crowd' had paid attention to Buckminster Fuller, and the ways humankind in total, could become 'enduringly successful.'

Instead what we as a society got was disco and Reaganomics, later countered with the growth of blue dogs and corporate democrats, and nearly everyone trying to call themselves progressives and/or liberals. And, while they called themselves progressives, liberals and later centrists, and the political labels became more smudged and blurry; they found that the foreign policy of economic hegemony and war, and the domestic policy of corporate person hood and privatization, was an acceptable political platform.

And, in this mix now, the old hippie is still dismissed as the far left radical fringe, too ideologically pure to be realistic or have political relevance. Yet, that ideological purity slur eventually is found to be nothing better at bottom than contempt for the words wisdom wears, in search of human rights and sustainable life on this planet.

[IronLionZion]

6. it's all very corporate

it's profitable to sell that stuff. you would do well to invest in the corporations that sell hippie stuff.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. I'll be sure to tell my neighbors

Some of them:

1. farm with mules and don't use electricity

2. have a greenhouse raising organic plants from open pollinated seeds and who have been seed savers for decades

3. have complete solar electric units for their communally owned land

4. have built houses heated geothermally

5. are designing houses built with scrap/recycled materials

6. continue to be politically active via lobbying, letter writing, demonstrations, etc.

And some of us who were never hippies really dig what they are doing.

[damntexdem]

8. Of course we were right! About time the MSM realized it.

But look at the mess that's been made in the meantime.

[ErnestoGuevara]

9. Do democrats really want to be associated with hippies anyway?

I think the democrats that get this stuff done probably wear suits and ties, not tie-dye shirts.


Also the workers that actualy manufacture this stuff are probably a mixed bag as far as thier politics go. Even, I might suggest, more republican than democrat.

[Hestia]

11. Of course, we want to be associated with Hippies

they are the core base. I feel that the word Hippy needs to be taken back, rather than used disparagingly as it is now. If playing the game means wearing a suit, so be it.

[1776Forever]

15. Right on Brother! We paid our dues and we are the base - we care and have cared for years!

Right on Brother! We paid our dues and we are the base - we care and have cared for years! We're the ones that voted for Kennedy, and went to Vietnam, we are the mothers and fathers of those that are in Iraq 1 and 2! We should be respected! We don't all drive SUV's and live in 20 room mansions!:kick:

[ClayZ]

10. Right on! Cool!

:-)

[Amonester]

12. Of course they were right, then!

And they are still right, NOW!

Also, everything they "predicted" about this sham of a war in Iraq happened.

But, they were ridiculed en masse by the corporate media's overpaid RW shills when they were RIGHT.

What R they gonna do about it now that they've been proven right?

I bet they'll continue to ignore them because... Greedy idiots rule.

[katty]

14. yup, and California (the state the Beltway hates) had alot to

do with creating and acting on the green, healthy movements-but we will always be bashed by D.C.

[madmom]

17. YEA US!!!!!!!!!

:headbang: :applause: