Budget Travelers Are Hippie Scum
Photo courtesy of hippies.
Why don’t all you damn hippies get a life?
Looking around, you don’t see many hippies these days. Sure, you see bellbottoms, tie-dyes and Birkenstocks - why not, they’re comfortable - but the people in them don’t consider themselves hippies.
They don’t live on communes. They’re skeptical about love being “free.” And though some will hug trees, you can’t make them do it for very long.
Weird.
To the literal-minded observer, this is sheer chaos. How do you make sweeping judgments if you can’t go by appearances?
What’s wrong with these people? Did they miss orientation? Are imitation hippies worse than hippie hippies? Who’s counterfeiting hippies?
Shockingly, hippies aren’t not the only ones doing it wrong. It’s common to see baseball caps without baseball players under them. Biker jackets, in Buicks. Cowboy boots nowhere near the Range.
Even me - not only have I never been to Hawaii, I’m pretty sure my shirt hasn’t, either. I’m sure it’s the hippies’ fault we’re all so confused.
Hippies Ruin Pure Travel
The problem of knowing who’s a hippie and who’s just dirty is magnified when abroad. Travel is a grungy business - many of us leave our Armanis and Donna Karans at home.
By dressing comfortably, we lose the trappings of respectability and ethnocentrism, risking hippie contamination. We may even appear… unemployed (hippies love unemployment).
“Budget travel” and “relaxing” are travel trends that lead us to mix with “different” company - some “very” “different” “company” indeed.
The downward spiral begins innocently: You meet someone from another country, perhaps talk to them. You accept a bottle from a friendly young lady. You begin to notice aesthetics and music.
You voice opinions and express your personality. Soon you’ll quit your job at the bank, view foreign policy as important and accept anything natural without question.
You are now a hippie.
Damn the Hippie Swine!
Once, being a hippie was a political statement. The Hippie Movement was a vibrant exploration of repressed human nature - in a nutshell, they believed “all you need is love.”
They promoted avoiding violence and materialism. They wanted closer relations with nature and one another.
But the hippie movement showed us dangerous new dimensions as well: an empowered youth, bold artwork and music, and a bigger choice on the menu than blind obedience. Many hippies today are harmless, nothing more than walking fashion statements. For some though, the hippie ideal remains a lifestyle choice.
Even though many of them wash their hair, there is no question that young people today embrace the most dangerous element of the hippie attitude: the independent spirit to question authority.
The damage is incalculable.
What Makes Hippies Tick?
A hippie digging for marijuana. Photo by Hendrik Dacquin
Stumble it!
