I have no problem with giving median sign-flyers money when I know they are just passing through. I know they probably just need money for food and whatever while they are in a city that is not home. I also have no problem giving money to physically or mentally handicapped pan handlers who I know are unable to get a good paying job or any kind of stable living in society. HOWEVER, when I see the same guy out on the streets every day, able mind and bodied, asking for money… I get a little cranky. Because, I hate working and capitalism and all that stuff too but I still do it, and I get money for it (hurrah). But why does HE get to say, “fuck the system” on the back of his dirty jean jacket and then ask me for the money I got from said system? I guess his point is that if everyone just stopped making money through “the man” or “the system” like him, there would be no economy… WRONG! I am sorry dirty bum kid, anarchy does not mean depending on other peoples’ hand-outs and then getting face tattoos. —Observer on the #7 bus
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
I can’t believe you buy into the median sign flyers are just passing through, unless you count being there for two+ years passing through.
Don’t give money. Tell him you’re part of the system that is fucking you.
What ever happen to that girl who wanted to go West?
Actually OP, that’s pretty much exactly what “anarchy” means. You see, when radical lefties say “From each according to their abilities; to each according to their needs” they actually assume that they will be allowed to determine these limits for themselves. It’s really pretty funny when you think about it.
a follow up to the other hippie bitch. as i stated before, there are no true hippies in n.s., just wannabes. the true hippie was a product of the 60’s, and believed in free love, speech, sex, and GOOD rock and roll.
the crappies that are out there today, are either street bums(real or eigned), and losers that are too lazy to find a job, and work at it. the other few are junkies, ho’s, and the nut cases.not sure where mm would fit in there tho?
so no o.p., there are no true hippies in our province.
Eh whatever
Ivan, you’re in my head again.
Gotta laugh at anarchist, circular thinking at its best.
My zen moment came about a couple of years ago when I was panhandled by pair of kids dressed in the latest revolutionary-hip fashions, replete with buttons that read “No To Free Trade” and “No More Corporate Welfare”. I asked them “Are you being ironic, or can you even tell the difference any more?”
..I love the wankers in the che guevera t’s … morons 🙂
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L2NJ9aoy1pQ/S7Qa…
http://i42.tinypic.com/2lk9slw.jpg
I would hazard a guess that most folks don’t know anything about ‘anarchism’ as a political philosophy and that includes critics and street corner devotees.
The “Unsinkable” Ocean Liner of Political Theory frequently encounters the Iceberg of History with predictable results.
well Commandante Esposito, no one knows much about Anarchy because it’s one of those political movements/philosophies where all the groups that claim to follow it, oppose one another when it comes to the nitty gritty details. “to burn the car or not burn the car…that is the question”
I guess, to define my personal philosophy I would have to call myself an ironic pragmatist.
The idea of someone; who doesn’t want any “State” or rules, believes that none other has the right to tell them what to do, not only do they live within this State, but they greedily embrace all the technology and luxuries that their hated target provides. That they would destroy the very system that their lives depend on? The irony of it amuses me. So why do Anarchist feel they have the right to tell me what to do?
I would think that a true Anarchist would move to the mountains and live “off the grid”.
I dunno whether I’m a right-of-center libertarian or a South Park Republican. >: ) Interesting assessment Hugo – I wonder what “True Anarchists” would think of Randy Weaver, the Montana Freemen, and the Posse Comitatus?
i like ron paul, so i’m gonna go for left-of-center libertarian
Here’s my take: Why in Odin’s Eyeball should I work my arsehole into a fine powder to support some dumb as a rock non-conformist? Dissing the system only says one thing loud and clear: I’m too fucking lazy to work.
“Interesting assessment” holy fuck, that’s the full-body slam of philosophical put-downs 😉 Hugo reels bact to his corner.
You made me google again Ivan.
Posse Comitatus; I think it would be considered a step in the right direction, but not nearly enough.
The other two, I really don’t know.
When a group declare themselves no longer under the authority of any outside government, they themselves become the government, imposing their own rules..arggggh I keep thinking Animal Farm
NO HUGO, not a put down at all.>: ( I’d never try and debate you on philosophical points because you’d mop the floor with me and not even raise a sweat. I only meant that you’ve given me something to think about, especially about how the true believers would reconcile individual liberty with the good of the collective.
And yeah – Animal Farm is where I keep winding up as well.
No prob Ivan, I knew it wasn’t a real put down, notice the – 😉
“mop the floor with me” What? lolz, glad you think so 🙂
I’m just expressing my opinions, like everyone else. Remember what I said about opinions and hemroids?
Yeah – Every Annie’s got at least one? >; )
There are no true hippies in NS, as someone already said. There are only poseurs. However, it should be noted that true hippies stank just as badly as the new kind.
Heh, heh >: ) Is it laziness & stupidity stank or civil disobedience stank?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1129/119997…
@Ivan…it’s just a generalized aura of stank.
I guess I’d consider myself a left-of-center libertarian, but at the same time I hate labels, especially when it comes to political views.
@Orgasmatron…I’m sort of a right-of-centre libertarian. BTW, what’s an orgasmatron anyway? Where can I buy one and what kind of batteries does it take?
Orgasmatron is the name of a song/album by Motorhead. The first verse goes like this: “I am the one, Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand. My image is of agony, my servants rape the land. Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain. Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name. Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law. My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore.”
though with Lemmy singing it, it could be anything…
he’s not the greatest at ‘annunciation’ and with words like obsequious, clandestine, and hypocrisy…. just bob to the metal beat and accept it.
I know a few real hippies in NS, actually. As in, people from the original generation who stayed as true to their ideals as possible. Some of them also had kids who maintained those values and way of life, and there’s a few converts from the younger generations that seem fairly genuine too. I have to say, aside from the occasional super reclusive one, they smell pretty okay to me.
Oh there are still some original hippies left in Nova Scotia. The communal living experiments are long gone but many of the survivors hung on and built satisfying lives for themselves and their children (and their grandchildren!).
At one time, Nova Scotia was on the list of ‘places to go’ for young people looking to set up alternative living arrangements.
Remnants of the 1960s counterculture survive (and thrive) in some of the most unlikely places. There are still hippies in Nova Scotia. You just have to know where to look.
As far as young people today rediscovering some of the values of that counterculture, I don’t regard that as a bad thing. The dominant system we currently ‘enjoy’ is leading us into a cul-de-sac. Young folks who are committed and engaged could do far worse than emulating their hippie elders in seeking alternatives to the destructive paradigm which currently guides our society.
Well put, Commandante. I was in a hurry earlier and didn’t get to respond to this thread as thoroughly as I wanted to, but you pretty much said it all, and more eloquently than I.
I know this will come as a shock to many (haha), but I was raised by hippies, my parents and their circle of friends. Lots of smart, talented, and kind individuals who’ve inspired me and instilled in me some pretty great core values.
Well good for them, really. Damn the man and live off the grid, create a community that self serves and what not. But just don’t ask for money to fund that lifestyle. Especially when the money comes from the very thing you fight against. People have problems with Hippies because they lack integrity.
Who’s asking who for money? Lacking integrity? I think you, and others, are somehow confusing vagrants or anarcho-punks with hippies, and making broad generalizations at that. I think most people have some misguided notion of hippies because they don’t actually know any. They’ve either seen some two-dimensional portrayal in mainstream media, attended uni with a few naive 20year-old patchouli-wearing idealists, or they saw a panhandler with dreadlocks and decided that’s what a hippy is.
Most genuine hippies would fly completely under most people’s radar, because they don’t look like the caricature that everybody conjures up when they think about hippies. They may dress differently in a perceptible way, they may not. They may be living off the grid somewhere and doing their own thing, or they may be working within the system and trying to make it better.
The hippies I know have plenty of integrity. What speaks more of integrity than staying true to your belief system despite being dismissed, opposed and ridiculed? Creating community and being involved in social issues, trying to create a better world? I’ll take hippies over the hordes of apathetic schmucks any day.
applesnapple, I though that you were refering to anarchist, till the last sentence.
The real Hippies that I know (my eldest sister being one), are hard working and generous to a fault.
Then again, I have trouble believing anyone who says that they became a Hippie after 1977.