To be a hippy, 2017

We were passing through Glastonbury, for the first time in many years. I was pleased to see that it still had shops selling healing crystals, joss sticks and, for all I know, kaftans. There were still colourfully dressed types walking through the streets, some of them looking a little dazed and out of touch with the year 2017.

“What does it mean to be a hippy in 2017?” I asked Mrs Oblique.

She thought carefully.

“Well, now it’s making a statement. It used to be just…. being.” Which got me thinking.

A hippy was, I believe, somebody who espoused freedom, rejecting the conventions of the time and living according to their own ideals. This inevitably led to them developing new conventions of their own, typically an acceptance of drug use and sexual freedom. Hippies also had a certain convention of dress, typically colourful and loose. Hair was worn long. “Flower power” was the key phrase.

New conventions perhaps now had to be followed to be a hippy, which of course ran counter to the ideal of freedom. (I am sure some of the original hippies would object to this reading.) I suppose that 1967 was the high point of the movement. It couldn’t last, despite ecstatic welcoming of the “Age of Aquarius”. It turned into a fashion style, rather than a lifestyle. Eventually, musically at least, punk came along and rejected it, in characteristically energetic style. Unfortunately some punks had an aggressive approach to life; Daevid Allen, leader of the ultimate psychedelic band, Gong, and probably an archetypal (and certainly peace-loving) hippy, was allegedly nearly lynched at a B******* R**** concert when the singer, one B** G*****, saw him and urged the audience to “kill the hippy”.

Mrs Oblique, upon further discussion, said that she thought originally hippies did not necessarily call themselves hippies; they just were what they were. I’m not sure if there is anybody who calls themselves a hippy now; but what does it mean to be a hippy in 2017 if this is not just a fashion statement?

I would say that a hippy is still someone who espouses freedom and lives according to their own ideals. This cannot mean, and has never meant, that they have no morals or responsibilities. We live in a hugely interdependent and interconnected world. It is almost impossible to live “off the grid”, at least in the UK, if that is your idea of freedom. It is also certainly wrong to interfere with the freedoms of others. In this I am with the duchess, who, I seem to remember, on being told of the activities of Oscar Wilde, said: “My dear- as long as they don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.”

It is, however, possible to live something of the hippy ideal; going your own way; perhaps being as independent as possible; perhaps being as self-sufficient as possible. I am exposing my own instincts here, but sadly I don’t follow them.

Incidentally, since writing this, I saw a mention of “rich hippies” in a newspaper. Clearly I have a different view of what the word means; or perhaps it is now just a fashion statement. Do a search for images on the word “hippy” to see what this means.

I finish with a cartoon by Mrs O. This is a reimagining of an original idea I saw in a music paper long ago. Please contact me about any copyright issues!