Is there a movement today as big as the hippie movement?

[justaregularguy]

I was going to post this in the random questions thread but questions die really fast there so I decided to make a new thread. 

I was not alive during the hippie movement. My feeling about it is that it was bigger than life, it consumed every conversation and every family knew about it or had someone swallowed up by it. Do I only feel that way bc when something is gone it feels bigger than when it was around? Kind of like when a close friend, rebbi, mentor dies we suddenly feel how great he or she was. Or was it really that big?

The purpose of my question is this: is there anything in the world today that rivals the hippies in its bigness? There are plenty of crazy things in the news every day - are any of todays movements in the same ballpark?

[EliJelly]

I was going to post this in the random questions thread but questions die really fast there so I decided to make a new thread. 

I was not alive during the hippie movement. My feeling about it is that it was bigger than life, it consumed every conversation and every family knew about it or had someone swallowed up by it. Do I only feel that way bc when something is gone it feels bigger than when it was around? Kind of like when a close friend, rebbi, mentor dies we suddenly feel how great he or she was. Or was it really that big?

The purpose of my question is this: is there anything in the world today that rivals the hippies in its bigness? There are plenty of crazy things in the news every day - are any of todays movements in the same ballpark?

Of course it was bigger than life, people had to leave their cars behind on the NY 17 for Shabbos because it was jammed from all the hippies making their way up to Woodstock

[AsherO]

Context plays a big role: The world moved slower then, so the hippie movement was huge and iconoclastic relative to that. It was also a big deviation from post-war Americana’s 50s attitudes, where people wanted to live, live well, succeed, and settle down.

The introduction of the internet, smartphones, and social media, are each potentially equally disruptive to life as it was before, combined the three of those make for a 20-30 year paradigm shift that likely dwarfs the hippie movement and the sixties. Technology will continue to (d)evolve and we’ll have further evolutions of the same that will in their own right change paradigms as well.

So you’ll say, technology isn’t a movement. The hippie movement and it’s effects on American society from 1955 to 1975 go way beyond those who belonged to the movement.

[Lurker]

The size and impact of the hippie movement was more about the world it was borne from, rather than the "greatness" of the movement itself. IMO, our culture is too diverse and the world too fast for anything to ever replicate it in the near future.

[justaregularguy]

The size and impact of the hippie movement was more about the world it was borne from, rather than the "greatness" of the movement itself. IMO, our culture is too diverse and the world too fast for anything to ever replicate it in the near future.

just to play devils advocate, you might say the opposite, that any movement builds much faster nowadays bc of social media and technology, as opposed to back then.
but then the reaction to that can be any movement can grow fast and then die fast bc of the next big thing.

[Lurker]

just to play devils advocate, you might say the opposite, that any movement builds much faster nowadays bc of social media and technology, as opposed to back then.
but then the reaction to that can be any movement can grow fast and then die fast bc of the next big thing.

It's not Devil's advocate; it's part of what I'm saying. The speed by which a movement can spread today is the same speed by which other new shiny things can take the wind from the sails.

[CountValentine]

Should we discuss Allen Ginsberg? 

[ckmk47]

You're calling it the hippie 'movement'.  It was a change among (mostly young) people in attitude and sense of purpose.
We've recently undergone a new such change.  The 'woke' movement.  It started as political correctness and has changed society's attitude toward prejudice and inclusion. How does it feel to be part of an era of history?

[AsherO]

You're calling it the hippie 'movement'.  It was a change among (mostly young) people in attitude and sense of purpose.
We've recently undergone a new such change.  The 'woke' movement.  It started as political correctness and has changed society's attitude toward prejudice and inclusion. How does it feel to be part of an era of history?

Wokeness is collective virtue signaling, fraught with hypocrisy. The hippies meant it for real.

[Lurker]

You're calling it the hippie 'movement'.  It was a change among (mostly young) people in attitude and sense of purpose.
We've recently undergone a new such change.  The 'woke' movement.  It started as political correctness and has changed society's attitude toward prejudice and inclusion. How does it feel to be part of an era of history?

The "woke movement" isn't comparable at all. First, it's not new. We just have a new name for it right now. It was "political correctness" until recently, and has gone through many iterations since its roots in the civil rights movement (which also played a part in the hippie movement). Second, I feel like one movement was about people changing themselves and their lifestyles, and the other is more about changing others. To me, that makes one much more sustainable than the other.

[TimT]

The "woke movement" isn't comparable at all. First, it's not new. We just have a new name for it right now. It was "political correctness" until recently, and has gone through many iterations since its roots in the civil rights movement (which also played a part in the hippie movement). Second, I feel like one movement was about people changing themselves and their lifestyles, and the other is more about changing others. To me, that makes one much more sustainable than the other.

Just want to add that the hippie movement was an experience. They knew how to have fun. The woke movement is just one big train wreck.

The hippie movement was about Love, the woke movement is about hate.

[ckmk47]

The hippie movement was about throwing away all conventional rules of life. Rebelling against all parental and societal rules. Self-centered, life affirming pleasure.


The woke movement is about power and control.  Each time you personally intimidate someone into changing their behavior, you win. 
If you're a person at the top, you get to win big. You get power and control and riches over whole swaths of the public.

[CountValentine]

Seems everyone is missing the biggest part of the movement.

[Euclid]

Seems everyone is missing the biggest part of the movement.

There's a reason why there was so much love

[CountValentine]

There's a reason why there was so much love

Timothy Leary

[Lurker]

Seems everyone is missing the biggest part of the movement.

Another reason nothing like it will happen anytime soon. The most appealing parts of the movement are now found in common culture.

[CountValentine]

Another reason nothing like it will happen anytime soon. The most appealing parts of the movement are now found in common culture.

Not exactly.

Timothy Leary

[AsherO]

Seems everyone is missing the biggest part of the movement.

LGBTQ alphabet soup?

[justaregularguy]

You're calling it the hippie 'movement'.  It was a change among (mostly young) people in attitude and sense of purpose.
We've recently undergone a new such change.  The 'woke' movement.  It started as political correctness and has changed society's attitude toward prejudice and inclusion. How does it feel to be part of an era of history?

so this is one example. id like to know in your experience (were you alive back then?) is the "woke" movement as all encompassing as the hippie movement?
i dont particularly feel the weigh of the "woke" movement in my life. i read some news and talk about it sometimes, but i dont feel swept up by it nor do i know anyone who is.
was the hippie movement bigger than that? do people here have a similar feeling towards their hippie era experience as i feel towards the woke movement (which is light at best)

to be honest im quite interested to know what @CountValentine has to say on the matter

[YitzyS]

is there anything in the world today that rivals the hippies in its bigness?

DDF