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Why the 60s happened:

After WWII the GIs came home and started families.  The US exploded in production and manufacturing, construction, innovation, and standard of living.  The depression was over, the war was over.  Deprivation was behind them. Now they could have nice things, go nice places on nice roads. All of which was great. But that lead to a desire to not stand out, unless it was to stand out as the best and the brightest. But certainly not to stand out as odd or eccentric.

But the truth was many of those people were faking it.  They didn’t really live these great lives full of fashion and money and grace and charm. They looked like they did, but not inside. Their outsides said one thing and their insides said another. Maybe the outside said dutiful housewife, but the inside said thwarted creative. Maybe the outside said successful businessman but the inside said thwarted outdoorsman.  The point isn’t about the specifics though, it’s about leading an disingenuous life.  It’s about not having who you present yourself to be matching who you really are.

Thank a Hippie

And so the people who saw this first hand, saw the hypocrisy and the pain it caused, who saw the thwarted lives, who saw the waste of trying to fit in, rebelled against it.  Those people were the children of those adults trying to fit in.  they became the beatniks, the hippies, the yippies (look it up) the flower children, the radicals. They became the ones promoting love, peace, creativity, freedom. They were the ones that said you could be who you want to be, not who you think others want you to be.

Even though we are 40-50 years removed from that era, if you feel that you are genuinely who you want to be, you have a hippie to thank for it.  Maybe not directly, but in our modern world, it started with them. And if you don’t feel you are who you want to be, if you feel you are putting on a facade that isn’t really you, then take a lesson from the hippies and take a small step out into the unknown and see if you can’t do it too.  You can you know.

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman | napkindad.com

Quote by André Gide, 1869-1951, French author