Hippyocrisy: Trying to Understand the Hypocrisy of Traveling Hippies


Is it just me, or has anybody else ever thought that some of the hippies you meet while traveling can be pretty hypocritical? Iā€™ve been thinking about this for some time, and while Iā€™m not about to write off every single traveling hippy out there, this post is definitely directed at a couple of those ā€˜deeply spiritual new age hipstersā€™ jetting around the world right now.

Iā€™ve wanted to write this post for a while, but swayed away from the idea of offending people on a platform that weā€™ve worked so hard to please people with. But, you canā€™t please everyone in life, so the least we can do is stay true to ourselves. And so here it is fellow hippies, strap yourself in for this truth bomb!


The Hypocrisy of Hippies = Hippyocrisy

I think Iā€™ve invented a word. Well, Iā€™ve Googled it, and I didnā€™t find much, so Iā€™m just going to claim it. Itā€™s called HIPPYOCRISY, and Iā€™m seeing it everywhere I go around the world! Before IĀ explore this, letā€™s get back to the roots of this word ā€˜hippieā€™. According to a very opinionated and definitelyĀ misrepresented Google search on the term ā€˜hippieā€™ this is what you getā€¦



ā€œA person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugsā€




hypocrisy of hippies

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So, to be a hippy you canā€™t show that youā€™re conforming to conventional values. But, what exactly is conventional these days? Any form of ā€˜non-stereotypeā€™ takes effort, so just own the fact that youā€™re trying to be a hippie, or a hipster, or a nerd, itā€™s ok, Iā€™m not judging you on that part. I could get stuck into a lot of stereotypes or subcultures, but I’ve just focussed on hippies this time.

Thereā€™s also nothing wrong with trying to look like a hippie while you’re traveling, or whatever the look it is that youā€™re going for. Dress how you want, Iā€™d never judge people on that. What HIPPYOCRISY is all about is a person who will dress, act and preach a certain lifestyle to be trendy, and canā€™t live up to the hype! Hypocrisy is all around us, and nobody is perfect, but there seems to be a lot more of these wandering wannabes traveling the world right now.

And let me add, in many senses of the definition I consider myself a hippie. As a global vagabond, vegetarian and humanitarian, Iā€™m just wandering this earth passing on knowledge about the simple life. I donā€™t need a lot of fancy items in my life (pretty much everything packs into one backpack these days), but I also donā€™t need to preach about my bodyā€™s positive energy as I eat a bag of mushrooms and wear tie-dye to be an environmentally and animal friendly compassionate guy.


hypocrisy of hippies


So What Is Hippyocrisy?

Rather than a definition, let me give you an example of some hippyocrisy at its best!

Christine and I are taking a ferry trip from the incredible Kong Rong Island in southern Cambodia. As our ferry lazily glides across the water towards the mainland there are bunch of these ā€˜non-conventionalā€™ ladies sitting across from us. Dreds, long ripped baggy pants, more necklaces and bracelets than Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and theyā€™re talking about this new age mumbo jumbo. Everything theyā€™re saying starts to get me thinking; ā€œhey theyā€™re the real dealā€.

As they start to dig into some really deep convo a couple of them pull out cigarettes and light up (no Iā€™m not even going to get stuck into them about supporting a multinational corporation that promotes death… too easy). The story goes on and the cigarette dwindles down to the butt. One girl in particular who seems to running the ā€˜guidance sessionā€™ satisfactorily concludes on a point, but not before stubbing out her butt and throwing it over the edge into the ocean.


hypocrisy of hippies

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WHAT? Was she serious? Polluting the word with her contradictions and non-degradable cigarette butts, am I alone in thinking this is madness? Forget the fact that sheā€™s just committed Hippyocrisy in the highest degree, but why in this day and age are people still thinking itā€™s ok to litter? Itā€™s beyond me!


Other examples that really piss me off are as follows:

The ultimate wanderer, living out of a backpack without a care in the world. Probably watched Into The Wild or The Beach a few too many times. Lands on a beautiful pristine island and sets up camp, when its time to continue lifeā€™s journey, gets up and leaves all their rubbish behind! HIPPYOCRISYā€¦ and a tool!

People who preach to me about balancing my Chakras, finding my positive energy, and how their body is a temple, but then they smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. Sorry, thatā€™s HIPPYOCRISY!

Thereā€™s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself on your travels, but donā€™t tell me youā€™re off on a deeply spiritual journey of enlightenment while sitting in a bar every second evening. HI-HI-HIPPYCRIT!


A Growing Trend

Unfortunately this example of Hippyocrisy isnā€™t an odd event along the backpacking trail. Being scrubby, letting your hair get matted, accumulating bracelets, taking lots of drugs, partaking in retreatsā€¦ these are all growing trends among some (definitely not all) backpackers these days. There’s nothing wrong with all of this, we even enjoy a few. Each to their own I say, but if youā€™re going to start taking up a new trend, at least pick a couple of the most important convictions and stick to them.


hypocrisy of hippies


What To Do If You See A Hippycrit?

If you see a Hippycrit, or any form of Hippyocrisy please act now! You are not alone in this battle against the nasty Hippycrits taking over the world. If something looks Hippycritical, please speak out. We have established a hotline at 1800-NO-HIPPYOCRISY or you can visit our newly developed website at www.nomorehippycrits.com for more information. This is PSA brought to you by Jules and Christine of Donā€™t Forget To Move.


Am I alone with this idea? Or have you seen a few of these Hippycrits floating around on your travels? Drop us a comment below or find us on Facebook and Twitter!

16 thoughts on “Hippyocrisy: Trying to Understand the Hypocrisy of Traveling Hippies”

  1. I totally get bothered by this stuff as well. It drives me crazy when people talk about how they’re wanting to be independent and away from society but then instagram EVERYTHING they do. I think people like to look a certain way but often don’t want to change their behaviors or attitudes to reflect it. I tend to think of them as poser hippies.

    Reply
    • Yep agreed, and it’s not just hippies. I singled them out in particular with this post, but i’m not picking on them haha. There are lots of posers out there, and i think you come across quite a lot of them when you’re traveling because people get the chance to ‘reinvent’ themselves and trial new styles, so they’re often going with the trends.

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    • Humans are the base structure component behind any movement, of course. All humans are guilty of hypocrisy during their lives. Some grow wiser and realize their hypocrisy and change it. Others never open their eyes and many choose to live in denial. Its our nature to be any of the many aspects we see in each other and to be expected anything other than what we are is silly – therefore I don’t believe any human is any more right or wrong than the other. Something only become right or wrong when we put our label to it. Take a magnet for example, you have positive and negative energy fields. Except there isnt positive or negative- those are just labels we put to constant states of energy to help us understand that energy. Same in life – its just energy- something is only good cause it happens the way we feel or understand something should happen. Something is only bad cause it happens the way we don’t think it should happen or understand it. Yes, I noticed quite a bit of hippyocrisy but that said I notice alot of religious hypocrisy, political hypocrisy, hypocrisy among family members. We are all humans and whether you’re black, white, Jewish, Muslim, Asian, a rock, a fly, a tree, etc.. we all come from the same place and we all recycle back into the same place. We are all family in this journey we call reality and we all learn and experience life at our own paces. It’s good to recognize flaws so that one can make changes one feels the need to in oneself but noone is righteously in any position to pass judgment on anyone or anything in this reality. Life is 10% how we make it 90% how we take it. We are all in this stream of life, you can go down beaten up trying to fight it, or you can cool cruise baby, cause you’re going either way:)

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  2. Yes!! Haha, great post! As a middle-aged woman who has spent a lot of time around younger hippy wannabes, I’ve seen the hippyocrisy you so aptly articulate! Lots of folks who speak but don’t act on their convictions, who want to make the world a better place but then don’t do anything about it, or worse, change the world in a negative way. =)

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    • Thanks for the comment Sarah. Although it was meant as a bit of tongue in cheek post, it has a lot or real ideas behind it. No one is perfect, but walk the walk if you’re going to talk the talk šŸ™‚

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  3. This post has some very good points about hypocrisy in humans in general. And I’ve seen your examples thousands of times. Especially bad is when I see it happen at dedicated communities, such as Rainbow camps vs just backpackers with certain clothing style who don’t necessarily claim themselves to have those convictions just because they enjoy wearing that style. But in any even semi organized community there are bad apples, and I actually think that a much better spending of time is working on your own authenticity than running around pointing fingers “Hippiocrate!!”

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    • I agree with the points you’ve made, but I’m not exactly sure what your point is at the end? Nobody is perfect, and I make that point pretty clearly. I could have singled out many aspects of humanity, but for the sake of a ‘not so serious blog post’ I focussed my attention more specifically. Being constructive is a good idea, and hypocrisy is all around us, but this is not an example of that šŸ™‚

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  4. I feel the same about tips on choosing the best look for your next Summer festival (falls into this category as well). Everything is fabricated, they all grew up in the Social Media age and don’t seem to know the difference between “being” and “appearing” — I don’t blame them (heck, I love Social Media too!), but I advise parents (like myself) to explain them how to use the tools and give them basic values (as in, be yourself, not another dot in the crowd). Traveling is suddenly “a thing” you MUST do. Forget about the lessons you’ll bring or the people you’ll meet. The other day in Lisbon two girls (in their 20’s I presume) were very upset because the lady at the counter didn’t understand what they were saying. I stepped in and said “that’s because you’re talking in Spanish. we speak Portuguese…” They looked at me as if they didn’t even know it (and my dear friends, I’ve seen stuff like this happen even with travel bloggers…). They wanted ice coffee (a frappy whatever thingy) and I explained they only served espressos, being a typical Portuguese cafe; however, the lady was willing to pour the coffee in a tall glass over some ice cubes, if that helped, and wouldn’t charge more. But no. They were looking for a SPECIFIC product and were bummed about it. What they were wearing resembles a lot what you describe here, and they looked hungover from the night before (then again, it could be jet lag or allergies).

    Sorry about the rant guys (I’m on full ginger mode lol)! I still believe that us, as independent bloggers, can make a change in this mentality. šŸ˜‰

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  5. Hahaha love it šŸ™‚

    Yep, I know exactly what you mean – the young (oooh, stereotype!) backpackers who visit places like Thailand and Bali and *specifically try to look and act like hippies because they think that they’re supposed to and/or it’ll help them fit in* but in reality are the same type of person thinking the same ways as they do at home.

    People sometimes see me as ‘hippie-like’; certainly I share some of the same theoretical ideas but I’m not quite that pretentious! I also, despite paragraph above, don’t preach about my (travel) ways being ‘better’. They work for me; YMMV, I Am Not A Travel Guru, Terms and Conditions Apply, your lifestyle may be repossessed if you fail to keep up with the karma payments … :p

    Mind you, as for: “donā€™t tell me youā€™re off on a deeply spiritual journey of enlightenment while sitting in a bar every second evening.” – hey hey! I find my path to spiritual enlightenment is enhanced by a couple of pints of local craft beer … :p (indeed, I’ve been to countries where the entire purpose of the trip was to find nirvana in beer. Well, one – Belgium. I’m going to call that trip a ‘pilgrimage’ … !!).

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    • Thanks for the comment! It’s been interesting hearing people’s different views on this haha. What started as a bit of a lighthearted dig has definite;y raised some conversation šŸ™‚ Love your last paragraph! Hey nothing wrong with solving the world’s problems over a couple of pints or bottles of rum. Maybe I should amend that part a bit haha! Thanks for stopping by šŸ™‚

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  6. Haha I love this and you’re absolutely right. I once met this girl in Chiang Mai, who was preaching about chakras and healthy body, and finding herself. I am not really into that, but enjoy a conversation about it and try to find out more. If it makes people happy then maybe there’s something in there for me, too.
    Anyway, as the evening went on she drank more and more cocktails, smoked more cigarettes, then got extremely drunk and had a one night stand with this other ‘hippie’ guy. It was then that I decided not to belive what these kind of people say.

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  7. I am not as well-traveled as yourself, having been only to Mexico and various parts of the U.S. (I will likely be one of those people who travels more later in life.) That said, I have met plenty of Hippycrites in my own backyard. I have lived in Portland, OR, and now live in Medford, OR. There are plenty of hippies from nearby Ashland.

    I’ve noticed in my life that some of the people who most outwardly tout peace and unity are actually suppressing the most hidden anger and hatred. For example, the other day I totally got yelled at by this guy for accidentally calling him about a car that I thought he still had, when apparently his ex-wife now has it. (I am the Internet manager at a dealership). I actually did nothing wrong, and he could have just calmly explained his situation rather than yelling and hanging up.

    I Googled him after our call, and it turns out he was some new-agey guy who promotes unity amongst all religions. He was wearing tie-dye and had this image of being SOOOO peaceful. Yet he was one of the biggest a-holes that I have spoken with at my job to date. I’ve met a few more like him, as well.

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  8. Great Post. But let’s talk about the counter-culture, free love, if it feels good do it, to hell with society if it doesn’t meet our expectations, original 60s hippies (you know, the ones who run our colleges, and many of our government institutions). I grew up in those days, and often wondered how these kids could be laying around all day enjoying sex and drugs in their lil commune with zero responsibilities!! Who bought the drugs, alcohol, food, clothes? Who paid the utilities, mortgages or rent, the taxes? Who? WHO?? Mommy? Daddy, Gramps? Granny? No,no,no and hell no. Here’s who!
    A few years ago, I was watching a documentary about the Hippies. A young hippie girl was being interviewed about life in the commune, she was currently living in. The interviewer asked many questions about her and her 40 some friends living there. Questions covered all the hot topics, mostly about Sex and Drug Use. Then, he asked, How can all of you afford this? are there some of you that are rich? The Hippie girl replied laughingly, Oh No, there are a couple of us that have a job, that pitch in a bit. But Mostly, well, every month we put a basket in the middle of the table. And everyone drops their WELFARE checks in it!!
    That told me everything I needed to know about the Hippie Movement!!
    I lost any and all respect for anything they represented. To this day, they were and ARE, Total BS!

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  9. Yes! I’ve met a few people who look like hippies and my first thought is, oh they could be a new friend but they probably look at me and don’t see a like minded individual. But when I do get talking to them I realise I’m the real hippie who actually buys local produce, avoids disposables and toxic crap, and meditates etc etc

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  10. Commenting pretty late, I stumbled upon this by chance as I was thinking about my own frustrations of what you call “hippyocrisy”. Except in a different way.

    I spend half the year in Guatemala (working remotely) because my partner and his family live there. They are indigenous to a town on Lake Atitlan. Theres tons of hippies on that lake, always talking about how “conscious” they are etc. Many also environmentally friendly, which Im happy with. But they seem quite ignorant about the impact their actions have on the local (indigenous) population, so not as “conscious” as they claim – and its not like people havent tried to point it out to them, they just choose to ignore it.

    My main issue is that many buy land in this “sacred” space because they “feel a calling”. Indigenous land, while indigenous people have already lost so much from colonization. Or they rent houses at prices that locals cant afford. Of course, over time this leads to gentrification, with indigenous people slowly being pushed further out of their land. But if you call the hippies out on this to try to raise awareness of the harm they are causing by moving to a third world country because the nature is pretty, and taking advantage of local poverty (i.e. cheap prices), they get mad. But I thought these people were supposed to be so “conscious”? Or does their “positive energy” mean purposely ignoring suffering or harm in the world so they can “stay positive”?

    On top of gentrification, a Maya (local indigenous) friend of mine has been trying to call them out a lot for their cultural appropriation of Maya culture, and he’s really upset that foreigners are benefitting off local land and culture but do nothing to help indigenous people fight for equality, or fight for maya migrants in the US.

    To me, its upsetting that they move to these towns clearly not because they care about the locals inhabiting it (otherwise they’d mingle more with locals and try to learn their language, but few people actually do that – which is another problem, because many indigenous languages are endangered), but just because they care about pretty views and being around other white hippies. And they are anything but “conscious” about how their way of life affects real local people. Granted, some do wonderful community projects, but in my opinion, its not enough and foreigners need to be more aware of the harm they cause in third world countries.

    Reply

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