Modern Hippies

Two shaggy-haired young men, one wearing an oversized blue, brown and white striped flannel, basketball shorts and a skull-cap and the other wearing a long-sleeved shirt with four buttons and jeans, both wearing moccasin slippers and glasses, sat in their studio apartment on a futon bed while an air conditioner was quietly buzzing in the background. The walls of their apartment were covered in Phish, Beatles and other trippy themed posters and just over their heads on the ceiling hung a tie-dye tapestry with teddy bears dancing around a globe

“Modern hippies compared to old hippies,” said Shain Vitukhnovsky, one of the two young men, “it’s not like no one showers and smells like shit, the world has modernized.”

America in the 1960s experienced an explosion of culture, liberalism, empowerment and protest. This was truly an era that has claimed its territory in the common knowledge of the inhabitants of this country for decades to come as well as in history books and popular culture as a whole. Of all the activism, scandal, political uproar, musical innovation, shift in social norms and flowery peace signs with embellishments of drug-influenced art associated with the sixties and early seventies by not only those who were products of this era or eras prior to, but also those who came much after, no symbol is so strong as that of the hippie.

Although the hippie movement seems like an era in time confined to history books and the memories of those who lived through it, there are modern day hippies of this generation maintaining some of the values of the old hippies while forsaking others for more modern customs.

“Does it matter what type of music I listen to?” said Kean University student Midiyna Bass. “No. Does it matter where I chill at? No. Does it matter where I die at? No. That’s what makes me a hippie.”

Although you may not be able to tell if someone is a hippie by the way they smell anymore, certain philosophies remain the same when it comes to mentality and the out look on the world around them. According to sociologist Kazimierz Zygulski the youth of today are manipulated by multiple political and propaganda schemes, ideas and opinions on the state of the economic crisis as well as campaigns they are subjected to, to be assimilated to become customers of the consumer market. When youths are subjected to such treatment, such as in eras of the past when the beatniks were born in the fifties and later thy old hippies in the late sixties, a youth revolution occurs.

Joe Exarchakis, Vitukhnovsky’s roommate defined modern hippies as “a counter-culture just not flowing to the normal flow of society or conforming to it. The rebels of today’s society like the old ones were in the sixties.”

Although modern hippies may be as unhappy with their society and their government as the hippies of yesteryear, not all are as environmentally conscious and they are definitely not as involved with activism or politics.

“Yeah we think that the government is already a lost cause,” said Exarchakis, “so we just stay away from it and stay to our own.”

Although the statement of “stay to our own” may seem reminiscent to a time of communal living when the old hippies literally only relied on each other and abandoned society’s norms to live with each other and care for each other, these two modern hippies had no idea what “communal” even meant. Even though they lacked knowledge on communes and off-the-grid living, their purple carpeting that was barely visible under the layers of clothes, blankets, sneakers, mail, plastic bags, a TV, Sega Genesis game system and empty bottles scattered across the floor that never get cleaned up showed that these modern hippies were no strangers to living their own way with no intent to change for anyone. The one table that was in the studio apartment was glass with three red chairs surrounding it, was covering in an array of objects ranging from pennies to nutella to Camel cigarettes and a plastic gallon container with the top half cut-off and filled with water as well as a single tie-dye pen that read “hippieshop.com”.

Another notable difference between modern and old hippies is their interactions with law enforcement. Even though hippies of today and those of yesteryear both may have hard feelings toward police officers and vice-versa, modern hippies feel less of a need to voice this opinion than their predecessors did. Modern day hippies even tend to steer clear of too much activism for the fear of arrest, a thought of concern that had never even crossed many old hippy activists’ minds. Although modern hippies may forsake these anti-establishment acts of civil disobedience they do appreciate what their forefathers achieved for them.

“We would never be able to speak out like we can without them [old hippies],” said Exarchakis. “They were the first generation to say ‘fuck you’.”

One major similarity of both old and modern hippies alike is the importance of music to the movement. Well-known journalist Hunter S. Thompson that made much of his living covering the old hippie movement and culture named Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” the old hippy National Anthem, modern hippies seem to find Sublime’s “April 26th 1992” as a more suitable anthem for their scene.

“Anyone that is categorized as a hippie tends to listen to more music, more crazy stuff,” said Vituknovsky. “If you stop any average person off the street and you ask them if they know this [particular hippie] band and let them listen to them, they’ll be like ‘this stuff is crazy’.”

Exarchakis sat on the futon with a laptop playing trap music beats as he explained that there are two different types of modern hippie music fans, those who lean towards psychedelic rock and reggae, which he deemed the “mellow stuff” and those who prefer some type of electronic music which is more fast paced. Some modern hippies may stay to one side and one side only while others may be fans of both. No matter which type or both types of music the individual modern hippies may prefer, they have one thing in common. Live music.

Large music festivals such as Woodstock were staples in the old hippie scene and this rings true for modern hippies as well. The only key difference is the price of these shows. Such concerts and festivals can range in prices from $10 to nearly $2,000. Bands such as Phish bring in large crowds of modern hippy followers. Phish’s annual three-day concert at Madison Square Garden that ends on New Year’s Eve brought in $4.6 million in revenue and sold 73,569 tickets in 2012. A largely popular electronic music festival that draws in crowds of modern hippies is Electronic Zoo, a three day festival from Aug. 30-Sept. 1 on Randall’s Island Park located along the East River between Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Prices for the three day event range from $300-$1,299 depending on travel options.

“When I go to a show I like to stand close to the band, see all the lights and really enjoy the music. It’s all about the music,” said Vitukhnovsky. “I try to attend 15-20 concerts a summer if I can.”

The two hippie roommates sat in their apartment as one continued to play trap beats and the other put down his Playstation controller and stared at the tie-dye tapestry with dancing bears on it that was thumbtacked to the ceiling.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RussianRainbowGathering_4Aug2005.jpg

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