An introduction to Ethnic-Hippies theory

Although to many hippie has become a limiting stereotype or even an epithet, it (and the counterculture) need not be negative, and just as gay women have reclaimed lesbian, it's possible to reclaim hippie. Further, if we reject hippie out of hand as pejorative, we then have a portion of the population largely without a name; a people without a way to even describe themselves are a people that are crippled.

Contrary to popular belief, the counterculture isn’t dead; a majority of today’s hippies weren’t even born when the sixties ended; the counterculture has been expanding geographically and is in many ways thriving; hippiedom has a future.

Although it has unusual origins, the counterculture is an ethnic minority; the way the counterculture is being treated by the larger society closely parallels the way America has often treated traditionally formed ethnic minorities; in fact, these many parallels are one way we recognize that the counterculture is an ethnicity.

Technology--particularly mass media--was crucial to the counterculture’s birth, making its creation synthetic as opposed to natural. The counterculture is eclectic, borrowing elements from a variety of cultural sources and fusing them into a new whole. Thus, because it is synthetic in both form and content, the counterculture is best described as a “synthetic ethnic minority.”

Individual ethnicity is seldom just a matter of inheritance; even traditionally recognized ethnicity has often involved matters of choice; with the emergence of the counterculture (and probably Rastafarians), other ethnic options appeared on the socio-cultural map.

“Stoners,” and often "boarders," are usually younger hippies. Many calling themselves “ex-hippies” are really middle-aged hippies who are strongly discouraged from saying so and don‘t know how else to describe themselves. The existence of other hippies is obscured by euphemisms (“New Ager,” “earth mother,” “Bohemian,“ etc.). Since the sixties, hippie identity has often been passed on to hippie offspring. This has resulted in second-generation hippies (think Dharma of television's Dharma and Greg) and even third-generation hippies (imagine if Dharma and Greg had a child).

Many traditional ethnic groups are actually an amalgamation of various culturally distinct groups which have bonded for practical purposes; often Happily Hippie will speak of "traditionally formed" ethnic groups, and certainly aspects of ethnicity can be "inherited," but on the social and political level, the creation of a recognized ethnicity has often been an act of will. Again, ethnicity usually involves far more than the choiceless passivity characterized by simple biological inheritance.

Today--long since the end of the sixties--there are tens of millions of hippies in America; there may be as many as 100 million hippies in the world. We should refer to these American hippies as “Hippie-Americans,” Dutch hippies as “Hippie-Dutch,” and so forth.

While we're encouraged to laugh at hippies, to see the very subject of hippies as trite and silly, the plight of the counterculture was one of the most important issues of the late 20th century--is one of the most important issues of the 21st century; yet, many are ignorant, even in denial, about this.

Ethnic-hippies theory explains the counterculture and the way the larger society treats it hands-down better than any other approach; in fact, it often explains the other approaches themselves (for example, regarding the above-mentioned trivialization of hippies, it‘s common for people to trivialize disrespected ethnicities--we‘re taught not to take them seriously).

Without ethnic-hippies theory, one cannot fully understand much of the last forty years of American history, including American culture, law and politics.

There are other largely unrecognized ethnicities in America, particularly Country-Western people and our countercultural cousins, Rastafarians.

Current laws targeting marijuana and other drugs closely associated with hippie culture are there not to protect public health but primarily to persecute the counterculture; in fact, most American drug laws have historical roots in the cesspool of racism and ethnic chauvinism.

When people, particularly voters, think about marijuana, what they often see is a hippie stereotype; Americans have been taught to disrespect hippies much the way bigots have historically been taught, through stereotypes, to disrespect members of traditionally formed ethnic minorities; to legalize or decriminalize marijuana-- and to lift the larger siege on the counterculture--those stereotypes must be crippled.

Because the counterculture is a secular ethnicity, it’s comprised of people holding a variety of beliefs; while the counterculture may have distinct values, there is no “hippie philosophy.” Thus, politically, there are conservative hippies as well as liberals, leftists, the apolitical and others. Regarding religion, much the same could be said: there are hippie Christians, hippie Buddhists, hippie Jews, hippie Muslims, hippie wiccans, hippie agnostics, hippie atheists and so forth. Thus, the counterculture is neither a political party nor a religion; it‘s an ethnicity, stupid!

Far from being a bunch of drop-outs and lazy losers, the counterculture has been a cultural dynamo whose accomplishments are impressive and whose overall impact on society has been overwhelmingly positive.

Much of America’s slide towards repression in the last forty years has been the result of successful stereotyping and scapegoating of hippies; thus, the persecution of the counterculture is bad not just for hippies but for all of America and the world.

Bigots--neoconservatives, in particular--are vilifying and scapegoating hippies in much the way that rightist Germans vilified and scapegoated Jews in the 1930s.

The US government and America’s powerful are engaged in a concerted program of ethnocide against the counterculture and do not recognize the right of hippies to exist; they have convinced themselves the counterculture poses a dire threat to America and Western Civilization and that for the good of all, hippie culture must be destroyed.

Since the scapegoating of any cultural group creates a sort of anchor that retards the forward movement of the ship of society, for real social progress to occur, this attempt at ethnocide must be resisted and rolled back.

Ethnicities have rights, including that of cultural respect and tolerance--the right of an ethnicity to exist; the counterculture has these same ethnic rights; ethnic rights are fundamental human rights; those violating these ethnic/human rights are in conflict with emerging international law and morality.

The key to defending the counterculture and stopping this national slide towards repression is recognizing that the counterculture is indeed an ethnicity and organizing it along ethnic lines; this does not mean yet another attempt to build a new political party since an ethnic organization is a horse of a different color.

The counterculture has the sense of group identity, the numbers, the ability and the wealth to accomplish this important task; it will have the will; America and the world will be better for this.

While our need to change the world--to take a sometimes sad song and make it better--may seem a burden, the opportunity to make positive and meaningful change is in fact a blessing; to facilitate that change, that growth, is one of life’s greatest joys. We should be joyous. We should be happily hippie.