Hip, Hip Hurray!

I have met many people in the last five years who would describe themselves as hippies. They eat organic food. They wear long flowing shirts and they play the guitar. They would rather die than wear fur. They love the earth and they look a little like Twiggy. However, they dont believe in free love, they dont live in their van, they havent done pot since high school, and the last time they help up a sign in protest was for rising University fees (often admittedly as a happy substitute to going to class). So has our definition changed or has this generation moulded the word to a modern one?

The word knight used to signify one of common birth. Today, it signifies someone with noble birth and a fabulous accent, a la Sean Connery. Before, the term hippie or flower child was a very clear label. According to the dictionary, it meant someone who rejected the established culture and advocated extreme liberalism in politics and lifestyle. It went beyond a look to indicate lifestyle, much like the punk movement is more than Mohawks and chains hanging off of low jeans. It indicates one who is counterculture; who will not accept a lifestyle of cubicles and faces with only expression, rather than decoration.

Lexical expansion is not a new thing: it is a big part of the fickle English language. We pick up words from other languages, and we ruin them with our inability to roll our rs or insert romance into our speech. So if one were to broaden the term hippie, it could be used to describe dress, behaviour or economic status. It could as much used to describe one who religiously eats granola to one who rebels against the established order. However, does this expansion of the term give suitable tribute to the roots and history of the idea.

In the 60s, the hippies were a force to be reckoned with. They were not the placid, calm, often lazy people of today who describe themselves as hippies. There were protests and ways of affirming beliefs that transcended conventional social boundaries. Of course, there were the elements that led to a form of dress that is now many childrens Halloween costumes. Today, a person can look like a hippie in dress, but also can be quite tightly wound and corporate in spirit. On the other side, there can be hippies in disguise the people who wear suits in the office but secretly say groovy and transcend the norms of church and state. Thus we must be clear on this. Mr. X. looks like a hippie. Mr. Y. is a hippie. Brings you back to your grammar school days, doesnt it?

The adjusting priorities of a person who has a family means that it is much easier to be a hippie while young. It is almost expected that there is a certain degree of rebellion while growing up and gaining wrinkles, but once the wrinkles are embedded, there are often other people to think about. Thus, even the most dedicated hippie of the 60s has to drop some of the irresponsible tags that are attached to his belief system. However, the core of the hippie philosophy can always remain impermeable: that of love and tolerance. Peace continues to be an essential message in todays times, even if we no longer express tolerance through our style.

As the hippie movement emerged out of a need for acceptance, I suppose we should accept that the term now does not have a clear boundary. It is a label that is free to wander and hang loosely on identity or appearance. Just as hippies rebel against order, the word hippie itself refuses to neatly follow its participants.

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