The Hippie Movement: Living Their Legacy

How far has the “Make Love, Not War” mentality come today?

BY: PAYAL DASS

Photo Courtesy of Click Americana

During the 1960s, there was a wave of many movements that ultimately led to the functioning society we live in today. Amidst the aftermath of the Second World War, the emergence of nuclear threats, and the fight for equality among gender and race, it would be hard to accept the idea of the Hippie Movement having actual significance in our day-to-day lives. It would be quite surprising to take in just how significant the Hippie Movement is for our society today. 

Throughout the decade when the most crucial social movements were taking place, such as the antiwar protests regarding the Vietnam War, rebellion, satanism, and the civil rights movement, I can’t help but see the legacy of hippie culture that is still embedded in our daily routines.

The most common ideas that come to mind when we hear the word “hippie” are long, scruffy hair, tie-dye clothing, bright colours, peace signs, Volkswagen campers, and marijuana. Back then, it was also assumed that whoever identified as a hippie had low intelligence, which is why we might reject the similarities between ourselves today and a group that strongly represented counterculture in the 60s.

It might come as a surprise that many Hippies had forward-thinking, in the sense that Canadian society today has adopted many hippie ways-of-life and ideology. From the way we dress to the social causes we advocate for in 2021, some were influenced or thought of by Hippies long before anyone else.

Fashion and Pop-Culture

Photo Courtesy of Ian Clarke

The most obvious hippie legacy in fashion is tie-dye. Tie-dye has always been in our lives in some way or another, from being an activity to participate in at summer camp, to being one of the most popular clothing trends in the year 2020. Tie-dye clothing has been desired by the world throughout our entire lives—even if the trend originally symbolized the psychedelic movement.

Scrolling through TikTok and Instagram, many influencers and creative designers adopted the trendy tie-dye design to make their items of clothing more appealing to their consumers. A huge trend, however, took place in the early 2000s to mid 2010s, regarding the bohemian style of clothing and home decoration.

Although bohemian (also known as boho) trends no longer look the exact same as they were in the 60s and 70s, fashion critics note that it is a trend that never completely goes away. The bohemian style is stapled to the image of long, draping, paisley-printed dresses and cardigan ‘kimonos.’ It also includes headbands, fringe accents, belts, and a palette of earthy colours. Spotting similarities between modern-day clothing and hippies from the 60s is not a difficult task as not much of the evergreen style has changed since.

Photo Courtesy of BestLife

It must be noted that hippie fashion has opened doors to self-expression through external appearance. This was done through the popularization of denim material (becoming a symbol of counterculture while creating a wider range of clothing), long hair on men (influencing Pierre Trudeau to try a longer haircut), and an encouragement to the youth to be yourself and to try new things.

Our pop-culture today is undoubtedly influenced by the pop-culture in the past. Hippies are considered one of the groups that have had a huge influence on how music, festivals, and youth-idolized culture formed.

All of us today are familiar with the annual Coachella music festival that takes place in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It is known today to be one of the biggest music festivals in the United States and the world by having an estimated 250,000 people attending it each year. 

The true rave over music festivals can arguably be traced back to Woodstock of 1969. This music festival took place amidst the civil rights movement and tensions regarding the Vietnam War. This festival was advertised itself as a three-day festival filled with “peace and music.” Serving as an escape for many youths (mostly hippies), the festival had over 100,000 tickets pre-sold when it was originally made for an audience of 50,000. This event has earned the reputation of one of the most iconic festivals and is often used as a symbol of peace despite being known for the sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, and rain involved in its celebrations.

Photo Courtesy of Jim Marshall

Apart from influencing festival culture—from dress and attitudes—hippies have greatly influenced the music scene on a whole other level. Hippie culture has led to the emergence and popularization of the psychedelic genre of music. It wasn’t long before musical artists of different genres began to incorporate psychedelia into their own style. This involves psychedelic music influencing artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles (most notably John Lennon, who later became a symbol of counterculture). 

Some notable songs include “Paint It Black” and “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” by Paul McCartney, “Hey Jude” and “Hello, Goodbye” by the Beatles.

Activism and Ideology

Photo Courtesy of John Hill

Apart from being the reason why we ingest certain things as our culture and influences, it is important to remember that hippies were the youth of the 1960s-1970s. Much like us, they were critical of society and the government, pointed out inequalities around them, and took to the streets to fight for what they thought was right.

Throughout this article, I have brought up the concept of counterculture often. Counterculture in the 1960s was a cultural phenomenon that rose during the civil rights movement and aimed to progress ideals regarding human sexuality, women’s rights, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, nudity, and modes of authority. Counterculture is what led to the emergence of the hippie lifestyle and other subcultures that focused on these ideals. 

Criticizing the actions of the government, hippies were often seen at protests advocating for peaceful measures to solve problems instead of starting a war. During the Vietnam War, it was common to see signs amidst a crowd of youth marching on the streets that read “Bring Our Boys Home,” “Make Love Not War,” and “Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.”

Today, youths march on the streets when we see injustice taking place in other countries as well, like recently, Indian youths having demonstrations in Toronto in support of the Farmers’ Protest in India. Before this, global demonstrations were taking place to advocate for justice for Geroge Floyd and his family in the United States.

I think there are a lot of similarities between the attitudes and ideology of the Canadian youth today and the hippie youth of the 60s. From topics spanning from health and wellness to drug use and love, some Canadian values show parallels with the controversial subculture back then.

Photo Courtesy of Jim Marshall

Let’s start with the most controversial aspect of the hippie lifestyle—drug use. Hippies were known to smoke joints as a daily activity, which is why they were stereotypically thought to have been calm all the time. Although many of us disapprove of the idea of psychoactive drugs being involved in our everyday lives, the national legalisation of marijuana came as no surprise to the country. This is because there have always been medicinal marijuana dispensaries throughout the nation, initially being opened for hippies, giving easy access for public use. Having access to marijuana has undoubtedly changed our initial opinions on these drugs, making these dispensaries stay in business long after hippies were gone.

Another huge impact hippies have had on modern-day society that we take for granted is the popularity of vegetarianism and veganism in the Western world. This was due to their belief that animal cruelty was wrong and that indulging in plant-based diets would be more beneficial to everyone. Hippies also stressed the importance of naturally-grown food that would greatly benefit the world and its ecosystems. Due to their demand for natural food, the emergence of an organic food section in grocery stores exists today.

This comes as no surprise as the number of vegans and vegetarians in the Western world is increasing every year. This really shows the changing attitudes of society tend to line up with the hippie beliefs we have been questioning all this time.

Finally, the idea of self-love and normalizing all kinds of love was advocated by hippies, as it is today by modern youth. Hippies were among the first groups in Western societies to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in the sense that people should be able to love whoever they want openly. Unfortunately, some places in the world still need advocacy on this topic, but it is reassuring to know that people in the 60s thought there was nothing wrong with not being straight.

They also endorsed self-love in the sense that people should worship their bodies and mind through nudity, meditation, and yoga. Nudity, for them, was a way to feel more comfortable in their own skin without the worry of anyone else judging them. Today, however, nudity is being used as an attempt to obtain equality between men and women. Women want to be able to show their nipples the same way men can. It is also viewed as a method of self-expression, which demonstrates a form of self-love to an extent.

Meditation and yoga may have been popularized by hippies through the exploitation of Indian culture, however, it was a way to obtain inner peace in the context of a  stressful decade such as the 1960s. Nowadays, we see people diving more and more into self-care habits, with yoga and meditation incorporated into their daily routines. These spiritual thoughts and methods are quite normal to observe in our modern society.

A Flower Child

Photo Courtesy of Danielle Pergament

Flower children are another name for hippies. Flowers have become a symbol of passive resistance and the use of nonviolence to progress to brighter futures. Flower children are, simply-put, idealists who had big hopes for nothing but love, peace, and unity in society.

I feel like hippies have been quite misrepresented in pop-culture and mainstream media as only rebels of the 60s that had low intelligence. Although they did not have all the values and beliefs we cherish, we do have a lot in common. The flower children had noble ideas that many of us still advocate for in modern society. It may have been the fact that their decade was one of the most crucial decades in recent history that prevented them from having an even larger impact on the shape of society.

They were the youth that were, in a sense, ahead of their time.