If anyone is interested in first hand accounts and criticism of old school beatniks and hipsters , I just came across this absolute gem:



Basically it's the mind altered father of the beat movement (drunk Kerouac) bopping for an old school cheeky gentlemen (the interviewer), a critical sociologist (Yablonsky), and a next-gen hippy musician (Sanders). It touches on the essence and causes of beat and hippy movements and indirectly addresses the nature of drugs in the movements. It was filmed half a century ago, the year following "the summer of love" (a bunch of hippies reached critical mass in some random Californian town or something). The different perspectives and language of these four individuals paints a really vivid and intimate picture of this bygone culture and the environment it grew out of and into.

Did the hippy beatniks find enlightenment or cosmic consciousness?

No...

They really should have listened to Kerouac, in the end all they did was just have a good time.

Perhaps someone of finer vintage can back me up here, but their main shtick was smoking the lowest quality weed known to man, talking about spiritualism/poetry, and having sex; enjoying themselves. It was a political and cultural movement AFAIK, not one based around substance use or abuse. — VagabondSpectre

Yes, I can back you up. :grin: That's more or less how it was. :grin: