A Happy Little Hippy

A-Z of Life as I know it....."H" today..........

I'm always amazed by the different interpretations people seem to put on the word 'hippy' and when I observe this reaction as a negative or condescending I am always taken aback as I just don't get it. For me it's always been associated with the 70's, freedom, love, peace, mind blowing music and being a little bohemian.

The hippy person of my world has always been a compassionate, creative, open minded and environmentally and socially conscious individual. Many were musicians as music was an intrinsic part of the culture. So I'm at a loss to comprehend how any negatives can be associated with such a lifestyle. 

Back in the good old days the sense of community was important as was having a voice and passionately protecting the environment, the old growth forests of northern NSW and particularly the Errinundra Plateau in East Gippsland in Victoria.  I recall, logging of that old growth forest being the cause of me taking pen to paper many a time and finding myself in 'debates' with that wretched Forest Protection Society of the day, I mean that name implied they were protecting the forest when in fact they were a peak logging body in Gippsland. Grrr  I feel my hackles rising just thinking back about that time!

I just had a flashback to a time when my son who had grown up with his mother and father being strong opponents of the logging industry in Victoria, came home from school one day so excited about the people protecting the forest. We were living in Traralgon, Gippsland at the time and he was very young, probably in grade 3 or 4 in primary school, anyway the Forest Protection Society's semi trailer truck was in town that had a huge mural of a flourishing forest painted on the side of the truck sprouting about re growth forests. My boy was all revved up about this environmental group who had obviously done the job they had set out to do, that is trick people and innocent children into believing that they were protecting the dwindling old growth forests of East Gippsland...yeah well I remember sitting in the middle of what had once been a flourishing forest on the Errinundra Plateau, clear felled, timber laying on the ground, and burnt black from being torched....I just sat there in silence and tears rolled down my face such was the impact of being witness to that logging cancer. Perhaps back in the 70's I'd have joined the ranks of those that chained themselves to dulldozers if I had seen that then, who knows.

Those with a conscience felt strongly about protecting our dolphins and wales, keeping the oceans clean, demonstrating against uranium mining, nuclear power plants, the Gordon below Franklin in Tasmania and the Vietnam War,  seizing the hearts and minds of so many during those turbulent times.

People felt passionate about these very important issues and weren't afraid to stand up for what they believed in. Such strong beliefs that propelled the more radical of the clans to chain themselves to bulldozers while others saw the intellectual tool's value and took to the power of the pen. And then it was like a spell was cast across society where hopes and dreams for a better future disappeared into the 80's.

Sure drugs were associated with that era, marijuana and the odd LSD trip didn't change people into violent and out of control individuals, to the contrary, the peace and love aspects were magnified much of the time.

In stark contrast to today's breed of drugs where the police are having to employ heavy handed tactics and tazers to subdue violent drug inducted behaviour and to protect themselves from the fury of adrenalin powered brute strength.

I doubt any 'hippy' carried  a gun or a knife or felt the need to. It wouldn't have even entered the mind, as opposed to the drug scene of today. Bad drugs, drug labs, fear based lifestyles where trust is unheard of.

Sexual inhibitions went out the door in the 70's, the sexual revolution as it has become known didn't see an epidemic of aids, clamydia, HIV and Hep C,  sexually transmitted diseases such as the likes of today.

Growing your own food was second nature and communities sprung up where like minded people could congregate, communes such as the legendary Tuntable Falls in Nimbin and so many others all over the world. Unfortunately today, bad drugs have destroyed the very nature of so many communes and communities in Australia and no doubt in other places around the world.

I like to think there's a little bit of hippy inside me still today, I might look different on the outside but on the inside I still hold many of those beliefs, it's harder to maintain them in our evolving society today, they get challenged every now and again,  but they're definitely still there.

I might not wear those beliefs and attitudes and values on the outside but I still have many of them and I'll keep them because I still strongly believe in them just like I did in the 70's. I just choose to use them in a different way today.