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December 29, 2011
The Occupy protestors are more
principled than hippies were. Both started with good intentions.
Both were driven by world events. The Hippy movement grew out of opposition to
the Vietnam War and had roots in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.
The Occupy movement sprang up in the heart of capitalism, Wall Street, but was
inspired by the courage of the Arab Spring protestors.
By the time I visited the corner of Haight and Ashbury in 1966, 15,000 hippies
had moved into the area. As in the Occupy movement, there was a feeling of
optimism and exhilaration that we really could change the world.
Unlike the Occupy movement, hippies distrusted anyone over 30. When I recently
attended an open-air general assembly of Occupy Kamloops, I was struck by the
way I was welcomed in a way that would not have happened with someone my age
back in my hippy days. Back then, everyone over 30 was not to be trusted; they
had sold out to the establishment.
The Hippy movement was primarily about my generation: the baby-boomers. We wanted to
tear down the old order and give peace a chance. We wanted to break free from
the corporate drudgery that enslaved our parents.
And we wanted to have fun doing it. The Hippy movement was ready for a good time
and it was as much a fashion statement as a movement. And even if you didn’t buy
into the message of world peace, who could turn down free love? “Weekend
hippies” emerged from their dull nine-to-five cocoons to join in the party. The
nouveau hippies grew their hair long, went to be-ins decked in flowers, beads
and bell-bottom pants. Long hair was a big thing, so controversial that it
became the subject of a Broadway musical.
Drugs were a gateway. In 1967, Timothy Leary told a gathering of 30,000 hippies
in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, drop out” - - drugs,
rock-and-roll, abandonment. Leary later said the slogan was given to him by
Canadian media guru Marshall McLuhan.
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And drop out they did, often with disastrous results. City kids with no farming
experience went back to the land and moved to communes to grow their own food
and set their souls free. They paid attention to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:
“We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we got to
get ourselves back to the garden.”
My flirtation with communal living was limited to a “co-op” house that a group
of students started. It was while I was attending the University of Calgary in
1969. We rented an old nursing home with twenty-five bedrooms. It was a lovely
old building. A physics student pounded out classical tunes on the piano in the
sun room and the pop machine dispensed beer for a quarter. Everyone took turns
cooking and cleaning the house. Like the Occupy movement, we didn`t turn down
anyone and soon we collected assorted draft dodgers, the homeless, and
drug-users.
The hippy dream began to take on a dark side. One newcomer fed
his dog LSD. Another, a huge Native American draft dodger, suffered from PTSD
and we feared he would go on a rampage and kill us in our sleep. A pathetic
young homeless couple remained, clinging to a few worldly possessions, even as
the house was being demolished a year later.
The Hippy movement died for me in 1969 with Charles Manson and his California
quasi-commune, “The Family.” Manson`s manic leadership led to the grisly murders
of seven people, including a pregnant Hollywood starlet. He had perversely
justified his mayhem by a Beatles song, Helter Skelter.
The Occupy movement has a better chance of success. They are more dedicated and
less hedonistic than hippies; more substance than style. Organizers of the
Occupy movement are less interested in dropping out of society than they are in
changing it. Their gritty camping-out in freezing temperatures has not only
brought them closer to the disenfranchised homeless, drug-addicted and mentally
ill street people, it has won respect of many of the 99 per cent they hope to
represent.
They certainly have won the admiration of this ex-hippy.
David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
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