Maggie's Farm

Hippies were 50 years ago. I havent seen any hippies since 1973. Why is the media so fixated on a fad that lasted maybe 5 years?

Not just the media uses the term. I know a fifty-something electrician who is quite competent at his trade. He doesn't like to work full time- at least no more than a month or two at a time. He likes his time off. Because he is good at his trade, he can always get hired WHEN he wants to work. I once made the crack that he was born 10 years too late, as he would have made a good hippie. His mother has called him a hippie for his lackadaisical work habits. BTW, he has short hair.

My book club had a Ukrainian visit us when we discussed Gogol's Dead Souls. After the meeting, some of us met with him at a local bar. The Ukrainian guest discussed some of the history of Ukraine and Russsia. He mentioned he was a college student when Gorbachov introduced Glastnost.
The rejoinder came back that the equivalent of Glastnost on US campuses was the rise of the hippies. I did not agree with that, but didn't want to get into a discussion. I had been a college student during the hippie era- the person who brought up hippies had not. The point is that it isn't just the media that brings up hippies.


UMD student calls hippie-inspired fashion 'deeply offensive'
From the link: As if back in the day, hippie style clothing wasn't sold in stores that lived and died by the rules of market capitalism. I used to play soccer with a guy who once had a store that sold hippie style clothing, which he closed because shoplifters ate up his profits. I recall reading about a Rolling Stones visit to a San Francisco clothing store, where the Stones left the store with quite a lot of clothing. IIRC, there was some complaint from the store that the Stones thought they didn't have to pay for the clothing.

The assumption that hippie style clothing didn't involve conventional customer-clothing store interactions is absurd. Very few hippies sewed their own clothing or abjured market capitalism in the acquisition of their clothing.

A further point is that back in the day, there was a big conflict between the "politicals" who wanted to make a big deal about the Vietnam war, and the hippies, who just wanted to groove. Those who spent time back in the day in the Bay Area would know what I mean. The dearly departed Dr. Mercury- departed from Maggie's Farm- was an example of a nonpolitical hippie. I, having migrated to hyper-political Berserkeley, was an example of a "political," though my politics were geared towards environmentalism, not SDS heaven.

Given the above examples, I would agree with bgarrett that a lot of media mentions of hippies would be better not being made, as they show how ignorant the media is.

As is I had to reduce my work week for health reasons, which I guess in your book makes me a lazy socialist idiot as well?

Please do not misquote me. I never called my electrician friend a "lazy socialist idiot." Those are YOUR words. That is YOUR projection.