Neither.
From the sixties to the eighties and even today–among the hyper conservatives–the word “hippie,” is used as an insult by most everyone except hippies themselves. Those dirty, drugged up, free love hippies have been the ultimate counter culture.
That is until the hipster gained popularity. Now the world has a new subgroup of people to hate, they’re so hated they even hate themselves, refusing to embrace their own subculture as “hipsters.”
The hipster is a very different breed from hippies who wanted peace, love, and rock and roll. The hipster is all about cool, being so anti-mainstream that they circled back into the mainstream. Or at least that’s what society’s negative perception of hipsters says. But what is a real hippie versus a real hipster, and do both groups deserve all the hatred they receive?
Let’s start with a brief history of the hippie.
Hippies grew up with the expectations and wealth of the 1950’s. They were supposed to be good little boys and girls who would never go necking on a first date, marry their high school sweetheart, and live the American dream white picket fence and all. That’s what their parents did. And thanks to their parents fifties utopia, they were able to grow up comfortably middle class with constant stability. But as teenagers do, hippie kids decided they weren’t right for the conveyor belt of fifties conformity.
And off they went embracing rock in roll, freakiness, everything their parents said was wrong like marijuana and LSD, and rather than finding they’d sold their souls to the Devil, they discovered that things they were told were “evil,” made them feel really good and embraced it as beautiful.
As Time Magazine points out, the hippie revolution was what brought Americans weed legalization, gay marriage, civil rights, even personal computer (because let’s be honest you had to have been really high to think up something as strange as the internet).
In many ways, hippies paved the way not just for modern hipster subculture, but for modern society as a whole. Tinder might not be a thing if the U.S. had never delved into free love.
Now a brief history of the hipster.
The word hipster is derived from the 1940’s. Like hippies, these early hipsters were white middle class youths who sought to—Gabrielle and Troy style—break free from the social norms of the time. These cool cats were all about the jazz scene. They set the origins for the hippie movement, experimenting with marijuana and other drugs, and living a generally down to earth, less materialistic, lifestyle, according to Micar.com.
These hipsters, like the hippies, self-identified as hipsters. They were all about being “hip,” and viewed themselves as having a greater appreciation for culture.
Today’s hipster seems to suffer from tragic self-hatred.
NPR describes modern hipsters as people who, “follow indie bands and camp out at Occupy movements. They work as programmers and shop clerks, baristas and bartenders. They are gamers and volunteers, savvy entrepreneurs and out-of-work basement dwellers.”
Hipsterism is no longer a subculture because it’s vague definition, and refusal to self-identify allows it to seep in to the mainstream consciousness. Hipsterism might actually just be millennials, who happen to (ironically enough) also hate the millennial label.
The modern hipster, like most millennials, rejects commercialization, values education, culture, flocks to cities, is politically liberal, dresses in American Apparel or Urban Outfitters, according to NPR.
The U.S. is at its most liberal to date, and it’s only bound to get more liberal (link to 2028 election), meaning that Time Magazine was right, the hippies won. The hipster wouldn’t be possible without the hippie. So even though they differ greatly, is either group really that bad?
It may be unhip, but let’s embrace the hipster for what they offer society today, innovation, individualism, and art.
Hippies shouldn’t be condemned for being tree huggers, and hipsters shouldn’t be condemned for seeking something outside of the norm. After all where would we be if subcultures never dared to emerge?
