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22 June, 2006
What's a hippie?
This month I spent a whole week at North Country Fair, an outdoor
camping music festival near Driftpile, Alberta. I put in more than 30
hours of volunteer work, earning myself a free ticket and free meals.
On the last day of the Fair, a friend said "It's nice to see so many
hippies in Alberta. I had no idea there were so many!" I agreed; it
was nice. Then I thought, "What is a hippie?" The original hippie days
were before my time, but yet people still use the term.
In the late '90s my friends and I spent many Saturday nights at a
nightclub downtown, dancing, drinking, and being driven home by the
designated driver (usually me). A lot of people there called me
"Hippie Dave". This was odd because I certainly didn't do drugs, wear
tie-dye, have poor hygiene, engage in "free love", live on a commune,
or listen to the Grateful Dead. These days a different group of people
call someone else—far more hippie than me, apparently—"Hippie Dave",
and just call me Dave Lloyd.
But I haven't changed that much. The difference is in the context. The
first group of people wasn't very hippie-ish. The second is. So, what
makes a hippie? When people want to insult and discredit others, and
they say "Oh, they're just a bunch of hippies", why is that an insult?
Is it because hippies do drugs? Maybe some do, but plenty of
non-hippie people also do drugs. Plus, many hippies are too health
conscious to do drugs. Anyway, I don't really see drug use as a moral
issue. To me, morality concerns three questions: Do you harm people in
any way, directly or indirectly? Do you contribute to your community?
Do you keep your promises? People have the right to harm themselves.
If they do so without breaking those tenets, then the only problem is
the legality. So does that mean that alcoholics are committing no sin
because alcohol is legal?
"Illicit" drugs are a legal issue, but the roots of that go years back
to persecuting largely immigrant drug users than controlling the
substances. Alcohol and tobacco are sold by rich old white guys,
illicit substances by young poor people of many races. (Also, many
believe that loads of rich white Americans obtained their wealth by
involvement with illicit drug sales.)
No, most "illicit" drugs are just as bad as alcohol, tobacco, and the
flood of pharmaceuticals that are legal today. For that reason, and
because they're illegal, I strongly recommend against using illicit
substances. But the link between those substances and hippies is
tenuous.
Maybe hippies are bad because they're lazy or smell bad. I've been on
medical unemployment (because our medical system couldn't—and still
can't—diagnose my chronic pain), and I didn't see many hippies in the
line-ups. And has anyone seen the proliferation of "Please stop
wearing colognes and perfumes at work" signs? Are those aimed at
hippies?
No, I think a hippie is someone who has a live-and-let-live, truly
free perspective. I don't think they're a big problem. Yes, many of
them seem to have read Ernie Zelinski's {The Joy of Not Working}, but
that's why so many of them are happy and healthy. Yes, many protest
environmental damage and corporate rule, but that's just an extension
of "live and let live", a defense of people's right to clean air,
water, and food.
The problem is with those who force others to live certain ways, to
love certain people, and to think certain things. And who needlessly
pollute our planet.
So peace, dude.
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15 August, 2007
Summer vacation 2007
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16 February, 2007
February funk
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12 January, 2007
What is plain language?
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5 December, 2006
Writing the LSAT
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6 November, 2006
Saddam's execution
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2 October, 2006
Young, scared, and condemned
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1 September, 2006
Eliminating legalese
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2 August, 2006
Sexist me
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27 July, 2006
Regulating Canadian TV Content
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22 June, 2006
What's a hippie?
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17 May, 2006
Why have kids?
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11 April, 2006
"Get Some West", a dream of a radio show
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9 March, 2006
Religious intolerance and Danish cartoons
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1 February, 2006
WTF? (On the importance of writing skills)
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28 December, 2005
If you don't vote, you're an idiot
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24 November, 2005
On Aging
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18 November, 2005
Buy Nothing Day
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22 October, 2005
Halloween brings eerie coincidences
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8 October, 2005
Autumn's not so bad
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17 September, 2005
Sticking it to people who forward e-mails
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13 August, 2005
Premier Klein Warns of Supernatural Terrorism
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9 July, 2005
A Columnist's Travelogue
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4 June, 2005
Oppression Cocktail: One Part Religion, One Part Government
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30 April, 2005
Episode XVI: A New Pope
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26 March, 2005
Red Lake Massacre: Another American School Shooting
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19 Febuary, 2005
The Healing Power of the Brain
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17 January, 2005
A Media Tsunami
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18 December, 2004
Is Winter Biking Activism?
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13 November, 2004
The Meaning of Horror
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9 October, 2004
How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: A Lesson
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4 September, 2004
Technology: A Double-edged Pen
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14 August, 2004
On writing clearly
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16 July, 2004
Percy Schmeiser vs. Monsanto
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12 June, 2004
Malcolm Azania
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15 May, 2004
Learning to Ride a Bike
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10 April, 2004
Responsible Computing
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13 March, 2004
The "Low-carb" Fad
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5 February, 2004
A day at the beach
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10 January, 2004
Are you a slave to your television?
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13 December, 2003
Multi-level Marketing
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15 November, 2003
Hollywood's Anti-Piracy Campaign
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October, 2003
The Friendly Canadian Prairies
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September 2003
"How's Married Life Treating You?"
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23 August, 2003
Eastern Blackouts
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26 July, 2003
Canada's swell
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31 May, 2003
Canadian marijuana law
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3 May, 2003
Canadian Literature and Culture
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5 April, 2003
Truth in Mass Media
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8 March, 2003
Careers away from home
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8 February, 2003
Checking out Vegas
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11 January, 2003
40-hour bus ride to the desert
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14 December, 2002
Kyoto accord
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16 November, 2002
U of A becoming more selective
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19 October, 2002
Alberta's employment boom
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21 September, 2002
Thinking about marijuana
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24 August, 2002
Health care, or Wealth care?
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27 July, 2002
The uniquely Canadian summer
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29 June, 2002
Soldiers and freaks
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1 June, 2002
My puritannical place of birth
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1 May, 2002
Why activism?
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6 April, 2002
Child porn or extreme art?
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2 March, 2002
The Olympics are a farce
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2 February, 2002
Information Control
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5 January, 2002
Disintegration of language
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8 December, 2001
Why do we live so far north?
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3 November, 2001
Brand name America™
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13 October, 2001
Teachers' Pay
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1 September, 2001
Consumption: Disease Old and New
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4 August, 2001
Paying the Global Costs of Automobiles
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7 July, 2001
Whyte Avenue Riot
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9 May, 2001
Good fences make good neighbours
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14 April, 2001
A healthy relationship with parents
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14 March, 2001
Sheep's clothing, wolves' reputations
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17 February, 2001
American universities in Canada
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3 February, 2001
Love just the way you want to
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6 January, 2001
Alberta's barren future
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23 December, 2000
What is Christmas, anyway?
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25 November, 2000
Learning on the job
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28 October, 2000
Family-oriented community?
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30 September, 2000
Freedom and happiness
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2 September, 2000
Consumerism in Bulgaria
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3 June, 2000
Visiting Ottawa
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29 April, 2000
School Shootings:
A Year Later
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8 April, 2000
A love shop in St. Albert
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18 March, 2000
Why reality TV?
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19 February, 2000
Raves
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5 February, 2000
Try listening on Valentine's Day
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8 January, 2000
The new millennium is for thinking
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4 December, 1999
The retail Christmas
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10 November, 1999
Young people and Remembrance Day
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16 October, 1999
Wayne Gretzky Drive
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18 September, 1999
High School students protest smoking ban
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21 August, 1999
Breast Enlargement
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26 June, 1999
Witchcraft
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5 June, 1999
School Uniforms
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30 May, 1999
Corrupt St. Albert RCMP
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22 May, 1999
Littleton and Taber
school shootings
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1 May, 1999
Gay Marriage: Less God, more love
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3 April, 1999
Drunken grad night
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March, 1999
All-consuming materialism
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20 February, 1999
What are you so proud of?
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30 January, 1999
Try a buy-nothing Valentine's Day
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9 January, 1999
The Real Value of Education
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December, 1998
New Year's Resolution
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24 October, 1998
On Faith
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September, 1998
The Starr Report
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2 September, 1998
High school hazing crimes
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1 August, 1998
Brand name clothing
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15 July, 1998
Smoking is rude
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17 June, 1998
Sex and Violence
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20 May, 1998
Hockey Fever
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22 April, 1998
Religion is not Law
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11 March, 1998
Gay Bashing
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18 February, 1998
It's Only Hair
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17 January, 1998
"Riot" at a St. Albert heavy metal show
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