Watching the Arthur Penn directed “Alice’s restaurant” starring Arlo Guthrie I was surprised I’d forgotten how dangerous it was to be a hippie in 1969. During one scene some not really red ncks at all, beat Arlo up and throw him throw a pizza shop’s glass window (Arlo rubs a pizza in one of the cowards faces, proof that love and peace will only get you so far) and the police jail him destroying private property just because he had long hair.
In all my writing about Woodstock it was the x factor I’d failed to factor in. Being a hippie in 69 was like being an Arab in 01 -you could get your head kicked in just for the way you looked. The hippies were kinda brave before the culture glommed them and they got usurped and emasculated.
Same thing happened to the punks in England -attacked and beaten by the population of the UK with figurehead Johnny Rotten being shashed by a knife and later jailed because, ahem, he had short, spikey hair. The punks were kinda brave before the culture glommed them and they got usurped and emasculated.