In a message dated 5/20/99 8:34:11 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
rmb29@cornell.edu writes:
<< as for the hippies... they talked a good game, but ultimately they were
mostly just hedonists. No matter what they like tell you about themselves.
>>
I disagree with this statement. If not for the hippie movement, The
Vietnam war would have lasted many more years and thousands of more lives
would have been lost to this futile and corrupt war. Yes, many of the hippies
turned to hedonism as an escape from the stifling social and intellectual
values of the time, but many turned toward the spiritual and mystical; many
of these, more opened minded people, were the ones who originally bought Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance when it first came out making it such
an unexpected best seller at the time. Pirsig even states that the hippie
movement was the higher moral road, but that it's leaders confused biological
values with dynamic spiritual values insofar as they both were anti social
and anti intellectual. But not all hippies made this mistake, and it's wrong
to demean the contributions many hippies made, such as promoting racial and
sexual equal rights, pacifism, and political activism, by lumping all hippies
into a label such as hedonists.
Most of the hippies I knew were more humanists than hedonists. The creative
and dynamic atmosphere they created was a great time to be alive, and their
music and art were outstanding. Freedom of expression and ideas were at a
zenith. I loved growing up in the 60's. Remember, when the hippie movement
died out, disco was created! Ouch.
Fred
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