Your Inner Hippie

I miss hippies.

Well, maybe not the flag-burning, psychedelic mushroom-consuming protesters of the Sixties era. I miss the peace, love, “live and let live” ideals of the Hippie Movement.

“Everyone is beautiful in their own way,” sang Ray Stevens.

So what if it’s a cliché? I don’t care if the Hippie Movement was a social, political and cultural backlash against the maddening mainstream mores of the post-WWII era. Forget the communes, free love, long hair, tie-dyed T shirts and folksy guitar riffs. The Counter Culture was crazy, but its most basic, boiled-down ideology that all people deserve respect was not.

I miss hippies because we now live in a “live like me OR ELSE” era. Intolerance is the ideology of the day. Everyone demands to be right. Large factions of the American public make clear that if you don’t look, think, act, and believe like they do, you’re wrong, stupid, deluded, and, quite possibly, evil. Over the years, common ground has shrunk to a thin sliver of almost non-existent real estate.

In today’s society, there’s little respect, but a lot of meanness. It comes from podiums, pulpits, airwaves, the Internet, social media and every day talk. No matter how advanced we think we are as a society, we still live in an era where racism remains deeply entrenched, the police are now the “enemy,” and a small-minded clerk is viewed by many as a hero for making a public spectacle out of her personal prejudice.

When it comes to public meanness, the current political atmosphere guarantees that the upcoming election season will sink to new lows of dirty tricks, smear campaigning, name-calling, fearmongering and vitriol. This is what happens when everyone thinks “it’s my way or the highway.”

Fifty years ago, when young people rebelled, it wasn’t because they wanted more material things, they wanted less. They rejected the status quo where the traditional white and privileged class held all the power. They wanted justice, fairness and equality for everyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or gender.

Maybe we need a New Hippie Movement to remind us to strive for peace, listen to each other, and embrace our differences. So just like the motto from a local donut shop, I’m going to “feed my inner hippie” and do my part by offering the following:

I will respect everyone, human and animal.

I will never impose my political or religious beliefs on others.

I will listen to any opinion different from my own.

I will NOT listen to anyone who can’t express their opinion without being hateful, insulting or demeaning towards others.

I will “live and let live.”

Maybe we don’t need a New Hippie Movement. Maybe we, as a society, simply need to be more humble and empathetic human beings and be grateful, rather than threatened, by our differences.

Feed your inner hippie.