Laisvės troškulys

LTLaisvės troškulys yra bene būdingiausias kontrkultūriniams jaunimo judėjimams, o ryškiausias jų sovietinėje Lietuvoje buvo hipių judėjimas. Laikotarpiu, kai sovietinės sistemos draudimai buvo neatsiejama kasdienio gyvenimo dalis, laisvė buvo pati karščiausia siekiamybė, hipių pasaulėžiūros ir gyvenimo būdo ašis. Vakaruose (JAV ir Didžiojoje Britanijoje) kilęs hipių judėjimas Lietuvą (ir kitas Sovietų Sąjungos vakarinės dalies šalis) pasiekė XX a. 7-ojo dešimtmečio vidury ir netrukus tapo vienu reikšmingiausių kontrkultūrinių judėjimų sovietmečiu. Tuo metu, kai jauni žmonės buvo auklėjami ir formuojami pagal sovietinės ideologijos principus, t. y. auginamas naujasis sovietinis žmogus - ištikimas partijos vertybėms, sovietinis patriotas ir pan., hipių judėjimas virto tikru iššūkiu sistemai. Tačiau iššūkis buvo dvipusis - hipiai tapo iššūkiu sistemai, o priešinimasis sistemai buvo iššūkis hipiams. Protesto prieš sistemą gylis ir mastas pačių hipių terpėje tapo tikro hipio ar tik hipiuojančiojo, besivaikančiojo mados skirties kriterijumi. Pati sąvoka hipis (ang. hip arba hep) kilo iš bitnikų žargono ir anglų kalbos slenge reiškia apsėstas, netekęs pusiausvyros, nutolęs nuo ko nors, naujoviškas. Galima sakyti, kad atsiribojimo, nutolimo nuo varžančios sistemos lygis, laisvės idėjos apsėdimo raiška ir lėmė buvimo tikru hipiu lygmenį. Per kelis judėjimo dešimtmečius pasikeitė kelios kartos, transformavosi ir pats judėjimas, tačiau jo deklaruojamos vertybės nekito. [Iš teksto, p. 23]Reikšminiai žodžiai: 20 amžius; Hipiai; Jaunimo judėjimai; Menininkai; Gyvenimo būdas; 20th century; Hippie; Artists; Life style; Youth movement.

ENCounter-culture youth movements can be most accurately described as hunger for freedom, and in Soviet Lithuania, the most prominent of them was the hippie movement. It reached Lithuania in the mid-1960s, at a time when young people were being educated according to the principles of Soviet ideology, which meant they had to obey party values and be Soviet patriots. The hippie movement, based on altruism and mysticism as well as the rejection of middle-class values and lifestyles, became a challenge to the Soviet system. In contrast to the West, ideas by theorists Timothy Leary or John Sinclair did not have so much significance for the Lithuanian hippies. What appealed to them most was the pursuit of internal and external freedom. For a young person living in Soviet Lithuania, freedom meant self-expression, freedom to listen to one's favourite music and not to be persecuted for one's appearance. Hippies were often sued on the grounds of demonstrating this attitude, as well as for not being in employment or education. Problems would arise when teenage boys would be drafted to the Soviet Army. To avoid it, hippies would choose to fake insanity and would voluntarily commit themselves to psychiatric hospitals, using the status of madness as a form of resistance. However, they were not the only ones to use it, as the Soviet regime too imposed this diagnosis on hippies as a way to exercise control over them. One would symbolically oppose the Soviet system by listening to rock music, hitchhiking, using a specific hippie way of speaking, that is, slang made-up of English words with Lithuanian or Russian endings. A form of slang made-up of English words would help hippies recognize their insiders and soulmates. Another way to distance oneself from the surrounding reality was the use of drugs.LSD, which was the most popular drug among members of the psychedelic generation in the West, was inaccessible in Lithuania and the entire Soviet Union, so here they used pills containing alcohol called koliosa, or smoked marijuana imported from Central Asia. The identity of the Lithuanian hippies was most clearly reflected in their appearance. Here, like in the West, hippy outfits were dominated by beads, amulets, bells and flower motifs. However, genuine jeans, an important element of hippie clothing, were very hard to come by in Lithuania. They could be acquired only by those with relatives in the West or those who could afford smuggled merchandise. Meanwhile, the vast majority wore cheaper Indian jeans or sewed bell-bottom trousers by themselves. An important part of the look (for both men and women) was long hair with headbands. It symbolized freedom to be oneself, a challenge to the conventional norms of society and proximity to nature. But the Soviet system associated men's collarbone length haircut with untidiness. A long-haired man walking down the street could be stopped at any time and have his hair shaven by the Komsomol (members of the Soviet youth organization) by force. The hippie movement in Lithuania was not just a fad copied from the West. The social alienation that hippies proclaimed and their attempts to escape the system, along with dire consequences that it brought onto them, allow one to see it as young people's symbolic resistance to the regime. [From the publication]