wtf are these 'rules' you speak of???
It would be easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle......................you're too responsible.
I'm probably taking you way too seriously but here goes:
Watch the History Channel's documentary on hippies and the 60's narrated by Peter Coyote, read Rubycon's psychedelic music thread when (or if) the search function returns. :hmm:
It's about more than putting on a headband and tye-died t-shirt. You need to find an agent of change..... psychedelics, eastern philosophy, Kerouac, the Doors, etc something to jolt your perspective. Most people's brains are like a receiver with a gazillion channels, but permanently stuck on one. For those familiar with Castaneda, I always thought that's what Don Juan meant by his term "The Assemblage Point".
Society reinforces this through established customs, organized religion, media etc.
Example: The precursor to the hippie 'movement' were the beatniks (Kerouac, Ginsberg etc). William Burroughs writing career began when he played a game of William Tell - had his wife put an apple on her head. He tried to shoot it, but missed and shot an arrow through her head killing her. His point of view changed. Of course he was a degenerate drug addict as well. He was really into speed and morphine.
That part is easy. Any asshole can drop a few hits of blotter. The challenge is integrating that without turning into a drug addict or worse, a psychotic lunatic. You get a telephone call, pick up the phone and listen to the message. The hard part is putting the phone down. The answer is not the drugs themselves, it's a slippery slope at best.
Haight - Ashbury was ground zero, and it culminated in '67 - the summer of love. George Harrison was fascinated and finally visited. But by the time he got there, hippies from all over the country swarmed in, and there were strung out speed freaks and what not laying around, begging, stealing, dirty and in general an infestation. He was not impressed. My current gf's father was living there at the time, and he was not impressed either to say the least.
The hippie dream died soon after with Altamont and good ole' Charlie Manson. Drugs can have a negative side after all . Hendrix, Joplin & later Morrison were in a way sacrificed as symbols of what can go wrong with the hard stuff in excess. They had to learn the hard way as pioneers in a sense, and in the end served as an example for the younger people coming of age into the seventies (like myself). And the Beatles broke up. Also after that, drug use changed from trying to expand your mind to just getting fucked up.
Who's to say, but a lot of people from that era who indulged, were inspired in a positive way and went on to create the technology and world we now take for granted - Jobs & the Microsoft dude (he he I forget his name ATM). And also lesser known people like Stewart Brand and his Whole Earth Catalog. To me, that was a stepping stone to the concept of the internet - information that was always there, not new but now accessible in a new way. But these people are the exception, for every Steve Jobs there are thousands who fucked it all up.
It's impossible to measure what part not just drugs but the whole climate, the vibe in the air if you will, played in how the world changed later on. There's a reason why they don't make music like "The End" anymore.
They had some cool dreams of self-sufficiency and free love. For those of us growing up in that era, the popular culture was incredible artistically. The music pouring out of our little transistor radios was sublime; but a lot of the hippies had no grounding in reality. Some were lazy and dirty, no personal responsibility, refused to bathe or work. Worst of all for me a complete lack of understanding and respect for the young men who got drug into Vietnam like my uncle. Anyone who actually spit on returning soldiers can DIAF AFAIK, but I digress............
Anyway why the fuck would you want to be a hippie in 2012?
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