Views On Vassar | Vassar has brought back parts of past hippie culture

Tendai Musakwa Opinions Editor

The Princeton Review’s “2007 Best 361 Colleges” ranks Vassar 14th in the category “Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Colleges.” A ranking such as this suggests the emergence of a neo-hippie movement among college students in the United States. The old movement, which was characterized by campaigns for the use of organic foods, women’s rights and resistance to war, has been brought back with the appearance of the new one, led primarily by groups of young people who believe in hippie ideals. “Hepcats,” as they are called, have exerted their influence throughout the nation, reaching places such as our own college. Even though they may not realize it, students at Vassar have come to embrace the values and ideals taught by the neo-hippie movement and have helped create a new youth movement that may bring the positive elements of hippie culture back in the 21st century.

The neo-hippie group advocates the use of organic foods, much like the hippie movement did in the ’60s. At Vassar, the movement has prompted the change to the use of hormone-free dairy products and organic foods in the Farm-to-Home section in the All-Campus Dining Center. The move toward the use of these products at Vassar started as a campaign initiated by a group of students in the ’90s that also led to the use of fair-trade coffee, tea and chocolate at Vassar. Ferry House, the only communal-living dorm in the College, has also recently switched to using only organic foods. Vassar can be said to embrace a trend that is seen throughout the nation as people become more aware of the benefits of eating “green food.”

Another way in which the neo-hippie culture is exerting itself at Vassar is the continued number of students advocating women’s rights. A large number of Vassar students joined their peers from other colleges and half a million other people in Washington, D.C. for the March for Women’s Lives on April 25, 2004. The demonstration protested the Bush administration’s policies on abortion, reproductive rights, and women’s rights, much like the second wave of feminism, which accompanied the hippie movement, did in the ’60s. A third wave of feminism led by college students who are increasingly equality-conscientious is sweeping over the country.

Anti-war demonstrations were fundamental parts of the old hippie culture and have now been incorporated into neo-hippie culture. From draft-card burning to anti-Vietnam War protests at colleges during the mid 1960s, hippies have always advocated for pacifism. This trend now manifests itself with protests against the Iraq war. At last Saturday’s anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. “tens of thousands” (according to The Associated Press) of people marched, including many college-goers together with Vassar students. The new wave of pacifism is unarguably due to the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, and comparisons could be drawn between this and the unpopularity of the Vietnam War. However this anti-war sentiment also signifies that the peace-loving nature of hippie culture is back and here to stay.

There are positive aspects of hippie culture that the new movement has not as yet fully encompassed. The environmentalism of the ’60s is back, yet, we could still do more to make the College greener. We have electric carts for maintenance staff, but why stop there? Why can’t we have the electric or compressed natural gas buses or campus-wide solar panels that our colleagues at Emory University and Oberlin College have? We should channel more money to enhance the sustainability of our environmentally threatened planet. I applaud the efforts of the senior class to promote sustainability at Vassar through its decision to donate solar panels to the College. Like their predecessors in the middle of the last century Vassar seniors have recognized the need to protect our fragile planet and have brought back the most commendable part of our former “hippieness”: environmental conscientiousness.

Many other aspects of the hippie counter-culture have been assimilated into the mainstream and are pervasively becoming the norm at colleges such as Vassar and throughout American society. The “free love” principle of hippie culture is now expressed through unmarried couples that are now able to live together without societal disapproval, something that would have been unthinkable before the ’60s. Interest in herbal remedies and natural cures has become widespread as the small hippie “health food stores” of the ’60s have become large-scale, profitable businesses such as Centrum. Likewise, the cultural diversity advocated for by the hippie culture has been assimilated with the increasing popularity of Eastern religions such as Buddhism. The neo-hippie culture is bringing back the hippie movement, even though we might not recognize it as such.

A new non-conformist way of life very similar to that was advocated by the hippie movement is emerging among Vassar students. The neo-hippie culture has brought back some of the more commendable aspects of “hippiehood” which were prevalent in the middle of the 20th century.

While some outsiders may describe Vassar students as tree-hugging, naked-sit-in hippies, we are embracing the redefinition of past ideals to accomodate living in the 21st century.