Living Car Free - Do you consider yourself a hippie?

Just curious. Most of the reactions I get for being car free are something along the lines of me being a dirty hippie. I don't really see myself as a hippie, despite being a vegetarian as well.

My reasons for being carfree are too complex to fit me into an arbitrary category like hippy. I'm not sure there even is any such thing as hippies! I would not spend too much time worrying about what ignorant people think.

Nothing wrong with being a hippie.

Nothing wrong with being a hippie.
lol, I'm not saying there is. I was just curious. Maybe I am and I don't know it.

Hippie: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.

I think that's a pretty good definition. So you tell us, are you a hippie under that definition?

I think I am, although in some ways I'm a political moderate.

I don't know...did Jimi Hendrix drive?

I was kidding about Hendrix. There have been several threads arguing about whether he was a hippie.
I don't think the dictionary.com definition is adequate. Hippies were young people in the late 60s who had many or all of the following characteristics: generally opposed to excess commercialism, interested in exploring communal living, promoted sexual freedom, were opposed to war, opposed to restrictive drug laws, interested in Eastern philosphy and religion, and fond of particular fashions like beading, tie-dying, bell-bottoms, sandals and long unstyled hair.

How much of that applies to you?

hippies were a generation...one i definitely do not consider myself part of. The current generation of eco-passionate and more liberally minded people are a product of a different social fabric....one facing different (some still the same) struggles toward social reform, a different time with a different generation that has yet to be defined.....So no, i dont consider myself a hippie

Hippie was never but a dirty word, friends. It was adopted as a badge of honor but it's somewhere between queer and ****** on the spectrum.

I have been known to wear hemp, while smoking hemp in hemp paper. Does that count?

PS the answer is, no, I'm a 'burner'

Definately.
Todays Hippies are yesterdays punk rockers who's angst and
anger at the 'Man' and 'system' have mellowed into resignation.
Instead of using a 50 watt marshall to complain we now show up
at the zoning board meeting. Hippies rock !

Apparently the term as such originated in the commercial media. Or maybe not. Here is the Wikipedia take:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie#Etymology

i'm too busy hugging trees to think about hippies.

What's wrong with my 100 watt Marshall? :)

Its not in my house. ;)

My wife just bought me a folkie for my 4? birthday.......Wow, I am really going Tofu & Sprout !!
:eek: :eek:

Let's see...
-born in '71
-use #2 clippers on my steadily disappearing hair
-like to bathe
-work for 'the man'

Nope, not a hippy :)

But, I do prefer to ride and walk instead of drive. And I had long hair as a teenager. Does that count?

Teen Ager: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.
But who are ultimately even more ultra-conformist and xenophobic than the people they criticize. I hate hippies because they're complete hypocrites; they reject anyone who isn't exactly like them.

F.uck those dirt-bag, pieces of s.hit.

But who are ultimately even more ultra-conformist and xenophobic than the people they criticize. I hate hippies because they complete hypocrites; they reject anyone who isn't exactly like them.

F.uck those dirt-bag, pieces of s.hit.

Apparently you actually never met any real hippies.

I think looks can be deceiving. It's how one thinks that is the test. Not sure what a hippie is? I don't think one should be forced to think conventionally just because society demands it. To hell with them.

Hippie is simply the liberal version of redneck.

I get accused of being a hippie. I do have long hair, avoid make-up & elaborate hair grooming rituals, and I like wearing colorful, long dresses. Then I open my mouth. No one mistakes me for one after that. :D Also, I bathe and wash my clothing.

not a hippie, i prefer the term economically challenged

well showering isn't my most favorite thing to do, so yeah, maybe.

It's not a label i give myself, but others have used it about me.

I'm not rebellious enough to be what i'd consider a hippy, i just live my life my way.

Not washing is something others have applied to hippies, rather than being any part of what being a hippy is. As far as I'm concerned, a hippy is someone who believes generally in peace between people, and a respect for the planet you live on, and in taking their own decisions on what to wear, and how to live. So I'd definitely qualify, even if I have cut all my hair off.

There has not been such a thing as a hippie since the early 1970s and the retreat into disco dancing for most people or the hills for the very few. I think of myself as just a person getting older by the day and rides a bike for good reasons.

I can't believe the term still inspires such passion! I agree than it was coined by the press and right wing politicians, and used almost always as an insult. Archie Bunker would use the word, for example, and some of the posters on this thread sound a lot like him. ;)

In the late '60s-early 70's, I had long hair, wore bell bottoms and tie-dye, lived communally, used a lot of drugs, experimented with various religions and meditation systems, vehemently protested the war and the draft, and listened to acid rock and folk music. For the record, I showered daily and my long flowing locks were never greasy.

But I and the people I associated with never called ourselves hippies. Resisting labels was part and parcel of the whole movement, so we actually never called ourselves anything but "people." If forced to describe ourselves as members of a movement (which we clearly were), we might use some of these terms: radical left, street people, freaks, counterculture, stoners, peace activists, maybe even--for a couple months in 1965--"flower children." But we never used the term "hippie." NEVER!!!

But to move the discussion on.... I wonder if some people think that carfree people are some kind of fringe group associated with leftist politics and alternative values. I guess a lot of us are, but judging by this forum, a lot of us are not!

I'd like to offer a recursive acronym definition for hippies.

HIPPIE: Hippie(s) imbibe peyote peacefully inhaling (and) exhaling.

My parents would've been called hippies and I've been called one because of my pursuits to be a vegetarian cyclist. (not having much trouble on the cycling part...its that first word that's hard to stick to)
I was also called a hippie NUMEROUS times because I own Macintosh computers and prefer them to PC's...WTF's up with that?

And regarding today's generation of youth...if every preceding generation did such a good job inventing their own "thing" that really puts the bar up too high for people who were raised on Cable TV and Nintendo...I mean the majority of a childhood in the late 80's early 90's was defined by various and sundry forms of distraction all of which were far more compelling than those offered to our predecessors.

I was also called a hippie NUMEROUS times because I own Macintosh computers and prefer them to PC's...WTF's up with that?


in that case, it's probably just because you're going against the mainstream. hell, i've been jokingly called a hippie because i don't like hollywood movies.

anyway, it makes little sense, because (especially with the mac example) you're basically purchasing one mega corporations product over anothers. what's "hippie" about that?

My wife won't let me get birkenstocks for fear I'll wear socks w/ them.

anyway, it makes little sense, because (especially with the mac example) you're basically purchasing one mega corporations product over anothers. what's "hippie" about that?

Yes, but the Mac is a mega-corporation-product that is reputed to be more useful for artsy-fartsy stuff and less useful for business. :D


Teen Ager: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.

I guess I'm a 23 year old teen ager, and most of the people age 13-19 I've met seem to be non-teen-agers!

Teen Agers are all nonconformists (yeah, because all the cool kids are nonconformists) and have sociopolitical attitudes! Who woulda thunk it? :roflmao:

yes sammyboy i know. there was a bit of sarchasm in my answer....relax...

I was called a hippy recently. However, I'm not sure an Engineer can be a hippy. Some of those guys from MIT look like hippies though. I cycle everywhere. I'm vegetarian, too. I hate wars. I'm very activist oriented, and prior to the first attack, I demonstrated against the Iraqi war on weekends. But I don't do drugs, other than an occassional beer.

I don't think the dictionary.com definition is adequate. Hippies were young people in the late 60s who had many or all of the following characteristics: generally opposed to excess commercialism, interested in exploring communal living, promoted sexual freedom, were opposed to war, opposed to restrictive drug laws, interested in Eastern philosphy and religion, and fond of particular fashions like beading, tie-dying, bell-bottoms, sandals and long unstyled hair.

How much of that applies to you?

Good definition. And most of it applies. I've never been very communal though and always preferred hiking boots to sandals.

But I noticed you didn't mention bicycles in your definition. Certainly Kerouac, Kesey, Ram Dass, Leary or any of the musical groups identified as hippie never made much about cycling. I don't think the Foxfire books covered it much. I don't really remember there being much about them in the Whole Earth Catalog either.

Though 10-speed were legion back then. And many friends enjoyed combining cycling with pot or psychedelic drugs.

Umm... no, I'm not a hippie. :p

A large part of why I'm car-free (Well, mostly. I own a truck... it just hasn't moved under its own power in over 6 months!) is because the biking is good for my bad knee. And to prove to the naysayers that it IS possible! :p

I dunno. I really don't care either.

i wear birkenstocks while i ride.....i must be a hippy...jk/ speaking from experience tho...i think the whole "dirty hippi" stuff comes from following a certain band back and forth across the country living out of a VW. i know i went a few days sometimes between shows without a shower......but hey whatever.

i wear birkenstocks while i ride.....i must be a hippy...jk/ speaking from experience tho...i think the whole "dirty hippi" stuff comes from following a certain band back and forth across the country living out of a VW. i know i went a few days sometimes between shows without a shower......but hey whatever.

If folk are gonna lump me into a sterotype group I prefer the term -Phreak-Think more like Slater from the Movie Dazed and Confused:D

Vegan and car free................freakin hippy. lol

See also Abbie Hoffman and Yippy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yippy
BTW, hippies were not car-free, the Flower Power VW MiniBus being the favoured mode of transportation. And despite crossing the Canada several times in said vehicle, I was always too geeky to be considered a hippy.

Being less clean then what american society says, is one way to live in a hippie state of mind. Its about being different. If we are riding bikes in a car dominant culture, than we would be called hippies. There is nothing wrong with cycling away from the herd of sheep.

I'm a meat-eating, gun-toting Alaskan. But I spent enough time in Eugene to develop an inner hippy. And I've logged enough miles in cars to really hate them.

I even ride my bike to the rifle range.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/Gussick/Vets1.jpg

Bell-bottoms would get caught in the chain all the time.

So no. :p

i am a hippy and proud of it. i believe we can all be reduced to social stereotypes. and mine is "hippy". i ride my bike all the time, eat organic foods, bathe irregularly, and smoke pot.

ditched the car - check
wear socks w/ clogs - check
like to go to some grassroots music festivals - check
have engineering phd - check
wear spandex on the bike - check
woops - don't know about those last two
most of my friends think i'm a bit loopy, but i don't think i've ever been called a hippy.

Living in rural northern California (Humboldt County) surrounded by the aging remnants of first-generation hippies and legions of new-wave hippies as well as college kids experimenting with dreadlocks (which are really 21st century bell-bottoms) and Bob Marley posters, I can't say I'm really a hippie. However, I commute by bicycle, am somewhere between vegetarian and vegan, and take showers every few days instead of daily, which are all associated with the young hippies of northern california. If i had to catagorize myself, I would say I'm a bike-punk kid who listens to DIY punk music, has bike-related patches on his black hoodie and has DIY punk shows at his house. I don't ride a vintage fixed-gear like most of my peers, though.

Can I be a conservative, redneck, meat-eating omnivous, hippy that wears underwear, showers and knows the proper way to tie a tie?

Thank you emor. You expressed (indirectly) just what's been frustrating me about this topic. It assumes that anyone who does X (no car, vegetarian/vegan, politically progressive, whatever) is a hippie. I'm not saying that people here carry this assumption, just that, in my experience, I've been lumped into the "hippie" catagory when people find out more about me. Frankly, I'm not really all that bothered because what someone thinks is of no real consequence to me, and there are worse things to be called than hippie. It's just absurd that we (socially) are still having this hippie discussion, as if ideas and values and people have not progressed (slightly), or at least changed, since then. I guess I'm coming from a place where, throughout school/work/volunteering, I've met all different sorts of people who, based on their views/interests, could be called "hippie", but doing so would totally miss the mark. Bah. Go ride a bike!

NOTE: I'm aware that my tag says "Typical Leftist".

If people use the term "hippie" when talking about you, then you are a "hippie", to those people.
Do I call myself a "hippie"? Sometimes, depending on who is asking.

It really depends on what someone means when they say "hippie".
A Hippie can be a rebellious peace-loving, long-haired, bellbottoms-wearing child of the 70s.
OR
A hippe can be a liberal, tree-huggin', bicycle riding, peace-loving, vegetarian.
OR
A hippie can be a war-mongering, baby-hating, SUV-driving, bunny-eating, friend of Dick Cheney.
OR
A hippie can be a yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda-yadda.

It doesn't really matter, as it's all relative anyway.

Hmm. I'm an engineer, not a hippy. I'm car free because I understand thermodynamics and efficiency, because I'm time-wise enough to turn my commutes into light workouts and nummerate enough to recognize how much money I save by foregoing car ownership for occaisional rentals. When people try to belittle me for not worshipping a car, I usually respond by laughing (quietly) at their poorly developed legs, their pathetic finances and stress-mangled dispositions.

They belittle you because you are a hippie.

Here's a simple definition of a hippie: A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society.

I used to live with a hippie. I felt totally out of place.

He never wore any clothes around the house and refused to allow furniture in the house. He'd have dinner parties but be the only one without clothes on. With no furniture, he'd entertain his guests while they sat on the floor and he stood. Very hard to avert your gaze. His girlfriend was nude all the time, too.

He would go out on his bike, which he had outfitted with special leather covers over the pedals, wearing only jeans and nothing else (bare feet, no shirt, no underwear). He had a box on the back of his bike which he would fill with fruit and other wild foods and herbs gathered from wherever it was he'd go. If you ever caught a cold, he'd whip up a cup of the absolute nastiest tea you ever tasted.

He did not believe in flushing the toilet. Instead you showered with a 5 gallon bucket and used the water that accumulated in the bucket to flush the toilet.

Every now and then the living room floor would be full of garlic that he grew and harvested and had peeled and set to dry.

He had a lifetime membership to the food co-op (ok so do I) and he'd buy tons of natural food on a monthly basis. He'd cut the mold off the cheese before eating it. Sometimes he'd just eat the mold.

He smoked a ton of pot and took apart electronics when he was stoned while listening to reggae and jazz (and he'd rant and rave how Steely Dan stole these songs from these jazz guys). He wouldn't let me have any of his pot because he had been in prison for selling pot in the past and didn't want to go back.

He had a part time job passing out condoms and as a nude artist model at the city college.

I'm not quite like that. I'm just an original GenXer, not the ones they talk about on TV but one of the real ones, the ones that are completely invisible, the ones they actually wrote about in the book. I ride a bike and don't drive much because it just isn't fun and it just isn't necessary. I wear long hair and am liberal but I can't claim to be a hippie because you had to be one back in the day, and although my ex-roommate had been one back in the day, I'm too young. More recently they called them "Dead heads". But maybe that's even too out-dated.