Hippy

See also: Hippies

This article is more concerned with the overall politics of the movement, and its comparison to other 20th century movements. For the entry-level discussion of the subject, which is more on individual members of the movement and the trappings of it, see Hippies.

Hippy culture was as a whole separate from punk culture by one major distinction, which led to a second.

Being first meant opposition to things that today seem mundane, like actually choosing to be an activist at all. The base definitions, like authority, were yet to be established in the hyper-expanded activist community that hippy culture represented. Sources of authority that are taken for granted as being authority figures to be confronted were not even categorized as such, for instance parental authority.

Being first led to the Pacifism / Radicalism divide. Hippies were wannabes, unfortunately: there was just as much hedonistic 'stuff' for sale as radicalization, and there were too many hippies for the core to radicalize all of them. In one sense, it was the failure of these definitions to be solidly established that led to the decline of the hippy movement and the eventual rise of the Punk movement. And in another, it was the success of the radicalization that did take place that led to the Punk movement.

Being the first and major 20th Century drug culture made Hippy culture more of a hedonistic culture than Punk