This is no doubt a hippie. His name is Issa. He travels in the mountains mining for opals. A free hippie life style.

But there are some that are more on the margins. What exactly makes a person hip (see How to Be a Hippie).
The general rules are vague but that is what this blog is about; to clairify the hip-woke-counterculture paradigm.

Being a truth seeker and allowing yourself to be unique is a quality of the hip. So here is a guy who said he is not a hipster but his story is one of being woke.

“I’ve done my share of traveling around on bicycle, motorcycle, hitchhiking all around the United States and I’ve been to Vietnam, Okinawa, Philippines, Hawaii and Australia as a Marine. But I’ve come to the real sad conclusion that most people live like hermit crabs. They are all in a bother when they get out of their tin can to go into a box and get out of their box, then back to their tin can. They are all upset and worried and frustrated until they get to their tin can or their box. This makes me lonelier than I would normally be. I’ve been outside and on my own all my life. All my life I had to fight, even as a baby, this has given me a different perspective.

I just don’t get it, the media promotes everybody to get in their car and to get married, stay in one spot all the time and be nice and secure. I think this builds a national aura of paranoia. I was in Australia, for six days. I walked all over Sydney and I was like, the only person out there. Everybody else was in their tin can or their box. It gets me thinking- what is the problem. I think the biggest problem is that people are afraid. Either the media scares them to death or… they couldn’t have the experience that scares them because they are never outside - they are with their entertainment centers. I’m a lonely man but I’m also blessed.

I’m not a hippie though. When I got back (from Vietnam), I grew my hair long just to get laid. But no, I’m not a hippie. I joined the Marines to make a career. But I went to Vietnam and when I went, they told us it was to stop the encroachment of communism. I found out that that was definitely not the problem. The Vietnamese had fought the Chinese for a thousand years to get them out, so they didn’t want the Chinese there with their communism. So that was definitely not the problem; so, what was the problem? I found out, through reading, like National Geographic even, Ho Chi Minh had wanted independence and his problem when he didn’t get our backing is that he embraced Marxism instead of Capitalism. That was why we went against him - because he embraced Marxism. In 1945 OSS officers parachuted into Hanoi to talk to Ho Chi Minh. They said that we have these rockets and these grenades to fight any Japanese that pop up - and he said sure. But they had nothing against the Japanese because the Japanese were kickin’ ass on the Chinese. They loved the Japanese. So, they used the rockets and the mortars to shoot at the French, which they definitely did hate because the French were occupying their country.

I saw the rubber trees in Vietnam. The French wanted to control the rubber tree market but when they were failing, we came to their rescue because we were their allies. That is why we went there - to save the French economic interest. Michelin is the biggest tire company in France. That was why they were there - to control the rubber tree market. The French had been there a long time. They just had bad tactics, that is why they got their ass kicked so bad. The French had these great big concrete bunkers. You could not enter- absolutely guaranteed you could not enter but you also couldn’t get out. So, the Vietcong just surround them and waited until they starved.

So that is how the war started - they wanted independence. They were willing to live in dirt and willing to suffer all these casualties for independence. That was what they wanted. If I had known that to begin with, I wouldn’t had been so gung-ho to be in Vietnam”. - Kalso