The thing for these guys was to be against the “system” – the white middle-class society that preached attachment to material goods. Based on the principles of non-violence and cooperation, the more traditional hippies used to live in groups. The center of the movement was the American city of San Francisco, California. Over there, hippies rented old mansions, where up to 30 people lived (see the illustration on the side). They lived up to the motto “sex, drugs and rock’n roll”, but, contrary to popular belief, they also worked and had normal hygiene habits. The expression “hippie” derives from the American slang “hip”, which means “cool, cool” and was used by the predecessors of the hippies, the beats (intellectual rebels of the 1950s), to indicate cool things. Drinking from this influence, professors and students from universities in California founded the hippie movement in the early 1960s. Fighting against the Vietnam War (1954-1975) and the draft, their pacifist ideals spread throughout the western world and were fundamental in the development of the so-called counterculture – a form of expression that fought the values of capitalism. The greatest channel of the movement was music. Rockers like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Beatles embraced «peace and love» and psychedelic experimentalism in lyrics and sounds. With the end of the Vietnam War, in 1975, the movement underwent a demobilization – after all, the great engine of the pacifist union was over. If San Francisco’s “alternative societies” were dismantled, hippie ideals influenced other groups that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the ecological movements, in defense of indigenous and women’s rights.
MODERN CRAFTSMAN
Hippies preferred to trade with each other rather than use money. They avoided “normal” jobs and supported themselves by making handicrafts. Some created small factories of musical instruments and food products that later became large industries.
ROCK IN THE VEIN
Many communities had their own bands, which played for free in the streets. Hippies are associated with psychedelic rock groups, but there were also folk music ensembles, a more acoustic genre, with protest lyrics.
SAUDOSA MALOCA
Being low on cash, they lived in cheap rent or abandoned houses, which they redecorated with psychedelic murals. In cities like New York and San Francisco, “hippie ghettos” emerged, with neighborhoods formed by large houses inhabited by many people.
MYSTICISM IN THE AIR
Synthetic drugs, such as LSD and mescaline, were used in mystical-religious experiences, the so-called “collective trips”. These rituals were conducted by a guru (spiritual leader) and included eastern meditation to achieve «expansion of consciousness»
ANYTHING GOES
Hippies preached sexual freedom: they saw “little parties” with more than two partners and accepted homosexuality in a good way. In communities, children were encouraged to discover the world for themselves and were rarely enrolled in schools.
BUBBLE BATH
Despite their long, disheveled hair, hippies were not “pigs”. Bathing once a day was the most common. They just weren’t fond of deodorants or perfumes, considered superfluous products of the consumer society
NATURE RANGE
They rejected industrialized foods, preferring fruits, vegetables, vegetables and natural juices. Rural communities grew what they consumed. What was left was sold at cost to other hippies.
CLOUD OF SMOKE
Hippies used two types of drugs. Those considered “light”, such as marijuana and hashish, were consumed at parties or meetings. Some communities improvised small plantations in closets to guarantee their “stock”