Originally published January 21 2012
We are all hippies now
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) The term hippy is often used contemptuously. Some ex-hippies have a sense of failure with that counter culture movement's inability to change the world. The occupy movements taking place now are reviving memories of that 1960s anti-establishment counter culture activity. Hopefully, awareness of this counter culture's consciousness will not quickly fade.
Of course the original hippy movement's fragile life raft couldn't continue in the corporate shark infested waters of today's corrupt culture. The movement peaked in the late 1960s and faded out completely by the 1980s, when Wall Streeter Gordon Gekko declared "greed is good."
Sure, there were many who were too preoccupied with "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." But among them were conscientious and concerned humanists actively seeking not just exit doors from the establishment, but new doors for a better future. They left a legacy that Natural News helps maintain today.
Positive dynamics that didn't exist before 1960
The communal attempts of hippies to get back to the land didn't last for the most part, unfortunately. But that's where a lot of previously unknown vegetables such as kale, chard, and others that couldn't be purchased were grown. The resistance to Big Ag's "green movement" of large monoculture farming dependent on toxic chemicals for production had begun.
And so did organic farming as the market expanded into mainstream commerce. Many health food stores in existence today were started by ex-hippies. This is also true for supplements and super foods.
Different healing and health modalities with us today were initiated during the hippy era. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, especially acupuncture, began making inroads around that time. Not necessarily directly by hippies, but invited into this culture as a result of the openness for looking outside the box of mainstream medicine.
Orthomolecular (non drug high dose vitamin therapy) psychiatry and medicine grew during that period. Orthomolecular psychiatry and medicine still exist today, though lately mainstream psychiatry has embraced Big Pharma more than ever before.
Hatha yoga got built its foundation during that hippy era. On yoga's coat tails came Chi-Gong and Tai-Chi. Alternative and holistic medical approaches were very secluded until the hippies looked into it. Their interest survived even as the movement faded and they were forced to pursue more practical lifestyles suited to the way things are.
The 1960s counter culture spawned ecological environmental awareness and anti-imperial war attitudes. Unfortunately, Big Brother has clamped down and the mainstream media is all about lies and withheld information. Much of the hippy legacy has been crushed. What little remains is seriously threatened by corporatism, big government,Big Ag, and Big Pharma.
Revolution then and now
Today's occupiers may possibly be a last gasp attempt at popularizing change from the current destructive status quo, if the internet remains long enough. Pre-internet alternative media also started during the hippy era. But in the 1960s, the mainstream media was not as much of an establishment propaganda voice as now.
The hippy population was mostly a large group of middle class baby boomers that didn't have it bad materially, which puzzled many. The 1960s zeitgeist precipitated a shift of consciousness that motivated many baby boomers to walk away from middle class comforts.
Hermann Hesse's 1927 Steppenwolf novel featured a character faced with the dilemma of staying with middle class comforts or stepping out of the matrix. That novel made the rounds among early hippies.
Today's occupiers are coming from economic need mostly, and the fuel for their awareness of what's really going on behind the mainstream media curtain is the internet. Hopefully, this will precipitate a shift in human consciousness that 2012 is prophesized to initiate (http://www.naturalnews.com/034554_consciousness_awakening_2012.html).
Sources for this article include
http://phillips.blogs.com/goc/2006/01/hippy_history.html
http://www.mortaljourney.com/2011/03/1960-trends/hippie-counter-culture-movement
http://www.synergymag.ca/food-the-west-coast-hippie-diet-of-the-%E2%80%9870s/
http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-05-02/bay-area/17242484_1_ex-hippie-alternative-energy-ancient-cultures
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