I know a guy who sometimes wears a t-shirt that says "THE HIPPIES WERE RIGHT." I was thinking about it and realized that the hippies were wrong on almost EVERYTHING.
I don't know how many letsrunners are old enough to remember the hippies, but it actually was a fairly short-lived phenomenon. It really took off around 1968. My recollection was it really came into full bloom around the time of the release of the Beatles 'Abbey Road' which I looked up and was dated Sept, 1969. Many young people were quitting drugs, getting haircuts, and moving on by around 1973, so it little more than a 5-year phase.
Where were the hippies wrong?
1) Drugs. No real explanation required. I'm all for drug legalization, but no reasonable person still thinks that drug use is something to be promoted like the hippies did.
2) Sex. We're still feeling the negative effects of the 'free love' theory. Single moms, (very rare when I was young), babies having babies, AIDS, etc.
3) Politics. The hippies liked socialism and flirted with communism. Mao's 'Little Red Book' was a hit among the hippies. Communism proved to be an utter failure and I believe that socialism eventually will too.
4) Non-violence. The hippies were big on non-violence. I remember hippie girls sticking flowers into the barrels of M1 Garands carried by National Guard troops. The hippies didn't like guns, and provided much impetus for the gun-control fetish of the late 20th century, one of the dumbest ideas ever. How anyone could have ever come to believe that Joe and Jane Avg. shouldn't be allowed to protect themselves against killers, rapists, and robbers, I don't know. No animal is dumb enough to give up its claws and teeth.
5) Eastern religions, new age garbage, and assorted mystical BS. I suppose every era has to have some of this, but with the hippies it became pervasive.
6) While we're on the topic, we forget that the hippies played a big role in the rise of fundamentalist Christianity. They were known as 'Jesus Freaks' and virtually all were ex-hippies who had crashed & burned with drugs. Fundamentalism had been a backwater previously. After the hippies it was a major force.
7) Exercise and fitness (had to cover this one on lets run). Very few hippies worked out. They were too stoned.
8) Grooming and dress. I suppose you have to give the hippies for popularizing more casual/comfortable clothes. But there is a reason that few people still go years without haircuts and shaves as the hippies did. It just isn't practical, unless you're Anton Krupicka and I don't know how he can run like that.
Like a stopped clock the hippies may have been right about a couple things. Some of their music was good; a lot was god-awful. I still think people like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin were great musicians. The hippies didn't invent health-food, but they gave it a big boost and clearly there is some value there. The hippies played a role in environmentalism, and we all now realize the value of clean air and water.
But despite a few contributions, the bottom line on the hippie balance sheet is a disaster. The hippies were wrong about damn near everything they held dear, and god help us if they ever come back. (Then again maybe they are back--they're called the U.S. Democratic Party).