And Now... A Few Good Words About Hippies

Via Blog-Bud Old Iron... a tour de force from Zombie about the synergies between hippies and the Tea Party Movement.  Yep, you read that right and the words are tight.  (Poet, don't know it, and all that)  You really should go read what Zombie has to say, especially if you're in one of two classes: either (a) a member of the misguided "progressive" political class or (b) one of those mouth-breathing, ultra-con droolers who routinely toss the "dirty hippie" epithet around.  Not to steal Zombie's thunder or anything... but more to whet your appetite... here's his close:

Big Hippie Tent

Which brings me back to the beginning. This essay was addressed to self-identified hippies — but I assume that plenty of non-hippie liberals have been eavesdropping on us. And it may very well be that you eavesdroppers may not personally think of yourselves as “hippies,” per se, but you do hold to some hippie-esque values which place you in the Big Hippie Tent. There are all sorts of “neo-hippies” who use other identifiers. And any number of preferences and habits and opinions would make you a semi-hippie, as it were. Do any of these apply to you: Are you a Deadhead? Attracted to alternative spiritualities? Avoid chain stores? Love nature? Listen to ’60s music, reggae or jam bands? Smoke pot? Go to Burning Man? Wear ethnic clothing? Like world cultures? You may not be a full-on hippie, but you’ve been influenced by hippie culture. And because of that you may feel some allegiance to what you have always assumed is hippie politics: left-leaning and “progressive.” And that allegiance, perhaps unconsciously, has prevented you from embracing, or even truly acknowledging, the anti-authoritarian vim of the Tea Party. Tempting, isn’t it? And now you no longer have to resist temptation. Let it all in: your newfound awareness that the Tea Party is the embodiment of the hippie ethos after all.

You’re home at last.

Oh.  One more thing.  IF you happen to be one of those mouth-breathers who invoke the "dirty hippie" meme early and often... just sit down and have a big cool glass of STFU while you read Zombie.  And mebbe a joint.  Please.

(The photo?  Me and The Boys, c.1975)