I like hippies. I like hippies because they counterconform, and because i know they may not know that counterconformity is not independence. I like that they don't try to know. I like them because they counterconform not so much out of concern for their own selves as out of spite for conformity, even if at the cost of their own selves. I like them, because even in their dope-elevated, reckless, devil-may-care persona, they are still the same as us all, lost, and searching. I like hippies because in the garb of this dope-elevated, reckless, devil-may-care persona, they represent to me humanity in all its nakedness. What all people would be - all-out manifestations of their real minds - open wounds without the trappings of the bandage strip - if they let themselves go, if they let themselves be. I like hippies because they are strong enough to be weak enough to let themselves go, to let themselves be. I like them because they are so beautifully obviously misguided - not because they don't follow social mores, but because they are going to be misguided nevertheless, because we are going to be misguided any which way, because finally there is no way, no path, and to me they put that pictorally. I like them because they may be leading empty lives, but at least they are leading them their way. I like them because from where i stand, they are shattering all kinds of myths about ways and rules and styles and values like respect for the self and all that. And they are redefining them, but only for themselves, custom-made, each for his/her own self, not expecting anyone else to live by their redefinitions, and that is also why i like them, because when you realise you don't fit into somebody's clothes, you have the guts to make your own size and then when somebody else doesn't fit into these, you let them make their own. I like hippies because for them, this fit does not just mean fitting into a size, but fitting into a cut, a pattern, a colour, perfectly, beautifully, Marks and Spencer style, and they like to settle for no less. I like that they create their world to suit them, and not the other way round, because that may be the only way they interpret freedom. I like hippies because i could go on and on and on about why i like them but i have promises to keep but if i were one of them i wouldn't bother and go on and on and on with writing this because at this moment, this is what i really want to do but since i'm not one of them i must go. Damn you, Kerouac. Damn you, Frost.
