Okay, if you say so. I remember transcendental meditation and the yogis. And yes, George Harrison got into that crap. But “transcendentalism” was not a salient part of the hippie world as I experienced it.
Oh, great. More philosophy.
Note: If I saw the length of this post, I wouldn’t read it. But I was literally called back and the topic piques my interest.
First, “Hippie culture.” What that is - its definition - depends on your perspective. If you are coming at this as a literary review of societal norms based largely on transcendentalism and other literary ideals, then great. Have fun with that. Seriously. Not much I can add.
But if you were a young person who experienced the “Hippie culture” in the U.S. - that’s me - then here is what you saw and thought as you were just entering adulthood (I use letters so as not to confuse your numbers):
A. There is a war going on. Young men were forced to have draft cards (conscription). Bloody bodies showed up nightly on the news.
B. Puberty.
C. A large part of the population thinks the Vietnam war is costing lives for no reason. Partly because veterans are coming back saying that the politicians and their puppet generals are keeping us from winning the war by keeping us from bombing key targets. The Pentagon Papers came out and reinforced this.
D. Nixon started his war on drugs.
E. Marijuana was readily available. After experiencing it, I (and millions of others) noticed the drug war much ado about very little.
F. Given E, D seemed stupid. It was obvious that Nixon didn’t really think marijuana was bad (he was likely clueless), he simply wanted to punish the war protesters - many of whom were “hippies.” I.e., scared young kids who were good but didn’t want to die.
G. Music. For me (and millions of others) the music of the 60’s and early 70’s was magical. The Beatles, CS&N, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, The Doors, Credence, Cream (Although Eric turns out to be a disappointment) and many more created powerful and novel environments everywhere we went.
H. Free Love. This was a result of B and G, but also a reaction against the prude ways of the conservative and religious Americans (remember the Moral Majority?). We discovered on our own that sex wasn’t a four-letter word.
Regarding your numbered items:
The hippie culture didn’t give us anything. The hippie culture was a phase of growing up for a new generation who saw a bleak future if Nixon, Falwell, Gingrich, and their ilk remained in power. We were not against laws. We were not against a strong military used for good. Many of the veterans who came back from Nam were hippies. They weren’t necessarily anti-military, but they were against the current military involvement. And yes, some hippies hated the entire industrial military complex. Much of that came from being young and naive.
For me, that is the end of hippie culture. Now, did others try to make the hippie culture their own? Yep. The yogis and those bald guys with incense recruited some. Several communes that were really cults took some. Tantric sex people? I suppose, although I hadn’t heard that one. Mysticism? Sure, some went there but that was their adventure - not part of hippie culture. That “new age” culture came later. We were not against reason. And we were not anti-science or anti-intellectualism. In fact, we saw much in the world (conservatives and religion) that was not reasonable. We wanted to fix that. Still do.