Yup, pretty much the way I saw them too, Ron. I'll say this, though, among the hippies were a few really sweet, gentle, lovely people. Those individuals I value having known. It just goes to show that in any general group of people at any given time you can find a few gems.

I'll say this too...the hippy movement was a hell of a lot more appealing (at least to me) than the punk movement that followed it. ;-P (or the rap and hip-hop stuff now, God knows)

I find starry-eyed idealism and lyrical romanticism much preferable to self-hatred, deliberate ugliness and self-destructive nihilism, or the idealization of "gangsta" culture.