can a non-"hippie" be a free thinker?

[ericthompson13]

It's all in your mind.
What is free?
People have the freedom to think, but does this mean we are free thinkers?

I believe a free thinker is somebody who is able to observe anything objectively. Often prior associations and experiences govern someones opinions before they have a full understanding of the confrontation. When people become very involved with things such as activism for instance they delve so deeply into their tasks that they forget why. It becomes their norm rather than their fight and reason is pushed aside. Which leads me to believe that very few, if any, people are free thinkers. Most of our daily rituals are based upon human standards for civilized manner, which are broad due to high population, and we only act because we know that it is the humane way to live.

[ericthompson13]

I believe a free thinker is somebody who is able to observe anything objectively. Often prior associations and experiences govern someones opinions before they have a full understanding of the confrontation. When people become very involved with things such as activism for instance they delve so deeply into their tasks that they forget why. It becomes their norm rather than their fight and reason is pushed aside. Which leads me to believe that very few, if any, people are free thinkers. Most of our daily rituals are based upon human standards for civilized manner, which are broad due to high population, and we only act because we know that it is the humane way to live.

Your words on that other topic about LSD + this one = It makes me laugh ! Thanx !
I don't say more about it, it makes me laugh... holy shit.... thanx....

The connection between the real me and internet me is rather disappointing i assure you. Whatever your take on me.

[kswaby10]

Good point.




........................................
K. Swaby

[ericthompson13]

"Free" thinking is really just a term people use to sound liberated. hipsters and other new age spiritualists like ideas such as free thinking because it helps them to define their individuality. No label is necessary for anyone with any kind of self confidence.

[Baxter]

Non-hippies sure can be free thinkers. At least I would like to think so. There are norms that have impregnated our society for years and decades, and while the foundation often remains the same, it keeps evolving into something different.

For a couple of months I've been finding myself thinking more like hippies in the sixties did. Well, I guess I like the idea of their thinking back then. Although not necessarily in a left oriented way, because I consider myself a liberal, but the ideas of acceptance, other realities, being open-minded and a certain degree of spirituality. To me, spirituality doesn't necessarily have to be about religion, because I'm an atheist, but spirituality can exist in many forms and I like the concept of that.

Then what is free thinking really? Firstly, I think it's a clichéd term. But then again, to me, it's about choice. I have chosen to be all those things because of my integrity, and the fact that nobody else said I should be this and that, and no one did foist me about what I believe. It's easy to get lost in political perspectives when discussing free thinking (sometimes people border on anarchy). Free thinking is bigger than politics. It really is. And the fact that I don't share my free thinking with anybody else might also be considered free thinking (with the exception of sharing it with a partner).


Well, I don't know if this sounds pretentious or lacks 'logic' in every sense of the word, but I don't care, and I'm tired. It was hard to explain, so hopefully you will get what I mean!

[Susan Butcher]

You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking that Osama was a cracking good villain, and I kind of miss him. Maybe other people are thinking this, but I haven't bothered to check and I don't particularly care.

[redrabid]

No need to worry.
Soon the first "true believers" will vow that they saw him. Risen from his grave in the sea, washed ashore, he spoke to them.
You too can be a convert, Susan.

[Susan Butcher]

You've done it now, RR. My pin-up of Stella Maris is growing a beard and a funny hat.

(No, no, JB, Osama, not Obama!)

[Susan Butcher]

Perhaps a role in the tradition of Dr Fu Manchu? Carol's been reading the Fu Manchu books recently, and the main reason Fu is a villain from the books' point of view is he's determined to undermine England's quite natural postion as top nation and guardian of civilization. That's like America's conceit, isn't it?

To get back to Baxter's comments on "free thinking", there's a kind of thinking that seems to me to define a "hippie", the urge to explore the region between "madness" and "sanity" without getting damaged in the process. It's hard to explain to a "normal" person why you'd want to take the risk and do this thing.

[redrabid]

You're gonna love this, Susan.
I was in Turkey for a short vacation (yes, again) and I saw a very funny cartoon in a Turkish newspaper on the death of His Saintly Badness.
The corpse of Ozzy B. is sinking to the bottom of the sea. Two hungry sharks are eyeing this:
One shark asks the other one:
"Is it halal?"
"I don't think so."

[Princess Aiko]

The real question is can a Hippie be a free thinker; most of the Hippies I know all like the same stuff and talk the same

[Susan Butcher]

That's why I'm wary of the term "hippie", because it's collected a bunch of cliched attitudes over the years. I'm a "head", because only "heads" use that term. Or something like that.

[Ensign]

Rhetorical question: Were there no free thinkers before the time of "hippies"?

[Egg Crisis]

What makes a "hippie" a "free thinker" ?

Is he a free thinker because he is a hippie,
or is he a hippy because he is a free thinker?

Or is the original question flawed?

[Susan Butcher]

Have we even decided what a "hippie" exactly is already?