To understand the relatively new Hippie-American holiday, click here.
4/20, 4/20 Day, Celebrate 4/20 at Happily Hippie, 4/20-- the Hippie-American holiday
Happy 4/20, 2009!
To understand the relatively new Hippie-American holiday, click here.
4/20, 4/20 Day, Celebrate 4/20 at Happily Hippie, 4/20-- the Hippie-American holiday
Do you wince at the word hippie, yet you're undeniably countercultural? Do you resort to euphemism to describe your cultural identity or refer to yourself as "kind of an ex-hippie" like a still-living leaf attached to a dead vine, your present defined only by the past? Are you unable to comfortably speak about your cultural identity, especially now long after the sixties have ended?
"Coming Out of the Countercultural Closet; Reclaiming and Redefining Hippie" may help alleviate some of that psychic fumbling. It explains why we sometimes feel the ambivalence we feel about our cultural identity and how to "come home," to accept ourselves.
It also does something that badly needs doing: redefining hippie in a sensible, accurate and respectful way. Your opinion on this proposed definition is sought.
Our Presidential Endorsements
Writing partially in response to Rolling Stone editor Jann S. Wenner's enthusiastic endorsement of Barack Obama, we try to give Hippie-America sensible, realistic advice for voting in a way that serves the best interests of both the nation and the American counterculture. Unfortunately, in the words of Tom Petty, "There ain't no easy way out." Please see "The Presidential Race, 2008: How Hippie-Americans Should Vote."
"Saving our Nation and Planet"? Isn't that an exaggeration?
If a society creates a scapegoat group, some cultural or racial "other" it can hate and blame things on, that society can be driven towards fascism, particularly when such persecution becomes institutionalized. And while American neoconservatives aren't necessarily Nazis, one, they tend to be hippie haters and hippie baiters; two, through the War on Drugs and other policies, they've institutionalized persecution of the counterculture; three, they've made America more repressive, more ugly, more internally hateful--more fascistic.
Our research shows that neoconservative power over the last forty years stems largely from its ability to use "the counterculture" as a foil. Thus, to save America from hippie hating is to save America. See please "Hippie Baiting: What Makes Modern American Politics Tick" and "Slouching Towards the Third Reich."
And of course, as the most powerful nation on Earth, as America goes, to a large extent, so too goes the planet.
If hippies ended with the sixties, then explain this . . .
An emerging gallery of hippie families asks, "If hippies were just a thing of the sixties, and if this is the 21st century, then how do we explain today's obviously hippie children?" "Gallery One: Hippie Families."
Your countercultural family photographs are requested. So far, we have one three-generation family identified; somewhere out there is a four-generation hippie family.
What are hippie values?
We at Happily Hippie believe there is no "hippie philosophy," that within hippie culture, one finds a broad diversity of beliefs --political, religious or philosophical. But that doesn't mean there isn't a common core of countercultural values. Indeed, values are widely seen as an identifying trait of ethnicity.
So, what do you think those core hippie values are, those attitudes that define us? Your input is appreciated; take our hippie-values poll.
counterculture," are an ethnic minority--one created by unusual means, but an ethnicity nonetheless. This assumes, by the way, that the counterculture never died, that hippie identity is being passed down generationally, and that counterculturists now comprise a significant portion of the population of the United States and many other nations. Using an ethnic definition, we believe that roughly ten percent of America is now hippie.
We also believe that the US government and much of "respectable" America treats hippie-America much the way it has traditionally treated other spurned ethnic minorities. This dynamic between the counterculture and those who would destroy it explains much of the last forty years of American history, including the movement of the nation towards the repressive right.
At HappilyHippie.com you will find the most advanced ideas about what hippies were and are, including a new, scientific definition of hippie. You'll find accurate, insightful analysis of social issues that concern us. You'll find an antidote to the poisonous propaganda society directs towards hippie culture. You'll find greater self-esteem in and acceptance of your hippie self--when you "went hippie," you made an ethnic choice, and we believe it was a wise one--you shouldn't have to be ashamed.
Here's what's here:
What's New? will keep you posted on the progress of this site, the related book-in-progress Happily Hippie: Understanding, Celebrating and Defending Forty Years of Countercultural Ethnicity and other matters. If you visit regularly, it's a way to find the latest postings.
Introduction summarizes the ideas underlying both book and website--an overview of ethnic-hippies theory.
Media Hall of Shame comments on media stereotyping of hippies, particularly films and TV programs which use long hair on a male character to denote villainy. Our first "winner" is an episode of CBS's Shark.
Galleries--our first contains photos of hippie families. More on the way. We'd love to see your hippie-family photos.
The Hippie Hammer replaces our previous blog, Bloggéd Be, as of January 1, 2009. It is interactive (you my post responses), and we plan to have a new post weekly. Think of The Hippie Hammer as a place to learn ethnic-hippies theory, to see it applied; think of it as a place to boost your countercultural pride and self-esteem, a cyber rallying place for post-sixties Hippie-Americans. To our knowledge, there is nothing like it anywhere.
Happily Hippie, The Column--five sample pieces for a proposed newspaper column. Editors please take note.
Book Excerpts contains seven excerpts from the book-in-progress.
Articles contains related pieces, most published.
Note to Publishers contains an overview of the book, why it's original, who its readers would be, an examination of the related book market, source books, publicity and promotion ideas, who the author is and a general outline.
About this Website contains answers to questions a reader/viewer might ask such as how Happily Hippie identifies someone as hippie.
Merchandise is under 
development. Bumper stickers are our first product; others, on the way.
Links and Contact Us should be self-explanatory.
Free, Downloadable 4/20 Refrigerator Art!!!
Yes, imagine these stylish additions to your refrigerator door! Your Hippie household will be the envy of neighbors everywhere! And each and every piece of refrigerator art is guaranteed hand made! (Or at least it will be after you print it and cut it out.) And they're darn purty too. Yes, your refrigerator door is crying out! Begging you to place one of these on it! Pleading, "Please, God, give me the strength to go on until I can get one of those things on me!" (Yes, your refrigerator door is terribly needy and has a worrisome flair for melodrama.)
All we ask is that you keep the website address at bottom intact, and don't try to make money off these--copyrights remain ours. Eventually, we'll put these images on tee-shirts and posters.
Click on either or both.
"How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world That has such people in 't!"
Shakespeare, The Tempest
