The Hippie Hammer

It’s probably the most important thing in the world, and though it sits right in front of our eyes, we’re blind to it. And when it’s pointed out to us, we dismiss it out of hand, sniggering usually. It’s the social status of hippies.

First, hippies didn’t end with the sixties. Ask most people why they think hippies did end with the sixties, and they can’t give you an answer other than, “Hey, everybody knows it.” Point out to them the many hippie types easily identifiable today, most of whom hadn’t been born when the sixties ended, and they’ll retreat into a definitional argument: if you define “hippie” as one who existed only in the sixties, then by definition contemporary hippies can’t be “real hippies.” Yet beyond the denial lies a living cultural group comprising about ten percent of modern America (and much of the Western world).

Certainly, the most powerful force in the world today is the US government. As the world’s sole superpower, the United States plays a vital role in everything from global warming to the living conditions of billions across the globe, including, of course, Americans themselves. Meditate all you will, in this life, there is no escaping the power and influence of Washington.

In turn, Washington is dependent on how Americans vote and American politics in general. Unfortunately, over the last forty years, we’ve seen the nation slide steadily towards the repressive right, increasingly placing the interests of a tiny, super wealthy minority above all else. The election of Barack Obama is not a reversal of that ugly slide; at best, it’s only a brake on it.

When societies start to shut down, when nations become less democratic, not more, it’s usually because those privileged, reactionary few who benefit have found a scapegoat with which to demagogically manipulate the rest of the population. Whether it’s witches in New Salem, Communists under McCarthyism, Jews in Nazi Germany, African-Americans in the old South, “capitalist roaders” in Mao’s Cultural Revolution or whomever, to make a society more repressive, a scapegoat is needed to excite and absorb a society’s hatred, to trick the majority into betraying their own self-interests.

There are several ways that neoconservatism has grown so powerful–electoral fraud or a whorish mainstream media, for instance–but among these, persecution of the counterculture is likely the largest since it engages what Karl Rove calls “anger issues”; for much of America, “the counterculture” has become its favorite pulp-novel villain–“Yeah, it all started with the hippies in the sixties!”

Now America has had many scapegoats; today, we see gays and undocumented workers targeted as well as continuing appeals to anti-black prejudice and other forms of bigotry. Thing is, those other groups have organized, and they fight back. The NY Times, for instance, reports that opposition to gay marriage has lost it’s political punch due to organized resistance; politically, Hispanics have made opposition to illegal immigration as much a liability as a strength. But the same can’t be said for the counterculture. Unorganized–often not even understanding who as a group we are–we remain vulnerable, easy pickings.

Do reactionaries really target the counterculture? Regularly–from the late sixties right through the recent 2008 Presidential elections. And they do it regularly because it works. For evidence, see some of the articles on this site: “Slouching Towards the Third Reich,” “Hippie-Baiting: What Makes American Politics Tick,” and “Hippie-Baiting: The Republicans’ Secret Weapon.”

Too often, progressives see repression of the counterculture and related issues (the legalization of marijuana) as trivial–“Well, maybe picking on hippies is wrong,” they say, “but I’m going to devote my efforts to more serious matters.” But, to trivialize the very real repression of Hippie-Americans–many have been beaten, raped and/or murdered, for instance, simply for being countercultural–is to trivialize a portion of humanity and is thus a form of prejudice. And even if that repression were mild, it’s foolish to ignore: the far right is feeding off it.

Until such easy demagoguery is stopped in its tracks, until we have an organized counterculture that fights back, the repressive right will continue to have a mysterious and inordinate advantage in American politics. An injury to one really is an injury to all; the freeing of the counterculture isn’t a political luxury: it’s an indispensable step towards the rebirth of American democracy, the liberation of humankind and the salvation of our planet.