From a discussion on Gab about why older generations weren't fat:
Rice and veggies was standard fare in every hippy abode. Herbal tea. Fruit for desert, if the trees were producing. Alcohol was not that socially acceptable. And a lot of us were luddites who walked a lot because we didn't own cars. Most people I knew who were mobile had vans that they slept in. We all did yoga, which we learned from each other. We all breastfed our babies. We didn't use disposable diapers, or disposable anything, for that matter. People my age who lived the "subculture" were by no means the majority of Boomers, but the healthy back-to-the-land lifestyle seeped into the mainstream culture eventually.
@Wilderlurker @josefbosch
I lived in a commune for a couple of months. Not what people think. We
all worked, shared responsibility and grew/farmed as much of our food as
possible. Spent more time outside and moving around doing things. Had a
lot less stuff, just what you needed. It wasn’t like some think, a life
filled with drugs alcohol and sex. Quiet the opposite, never drugs or
alcohol or sex and the focus was always healthy living physically and
mentally.
@SuzettaAnne @josefbosch
Yes, I agree. It was going on all over the place. Here in BC there was a
huge family spread out over the islands that all knew each other, and
word somehow got out about craft fairs where most of us generated enough
money to carry on. By the way, we made our own music, too. "Canned
music" was regarded as inferior to the music we made ourselves. I always
tell everybody that I missed the "seventies", the music, the clothes
styles, the movies... I was busy with raising three babies the old
fashioned way. We were homegrown and happy with simple living and high
thinking.
Sounds quite wholesome to me.
BTW, once again it proves that there is no "secret ingredient" in modern food which makes you fat. They avoided simple carbs, were physically active and their diets were (oh horror!) chiefly plant-based (rice, veggies and fruit). I keep wondering if their movement was co-opted because powers that be saw their rejection of consumerism as a threat...
There are two sides to every story. The people who did indulge in drugs, alcohol and sex are probably dead! Those who lived a more wholesome lifestyle merged into the mainstream eventually. I graduated high school in 1975 at the tail end of the back to the land movement, just before the yuppies and DINKs came along.
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean is that those who engaged in destructive lifestyles were probably used for propaganda purposes both to promote degeneracy and simultaneously to discourage normal people from emulating the positive aspects of the movement (more natural life, rejection of consumerism) and it was actually win-win in both directions...
ReplyDeleteI have long theorized that (excepting politics), that if you go far enough right or left, you find overlap on things such as food and health, sustainability, etc. Or at least that was the case up until about 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThere have always been crunchy hippies who are fairly disciplined people, and there have always been conservatives who care about health, sustainability, and earth friendly practices. Spend a year in any large American homeschool and the crunchy moms will find you, :)
The problem with both groups always emerges when political ideals trump all. Hippies who were all in on a lot of the protests, free love stuff? They probably weren't a part of the more virtuous hippie movement you're describing here.
One could argue that the modern left-right dichotomy was artificially created with some nefarious objective but it's probably a too deep discussion for this blog:) It's fashionable nowadays to attack boomers and accuse them of all possible sins, which I disagree with, but a lot of them sure do mistake usurious corporate capitalism with traditional Christianity...
ReplyDelete