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on the members of our society to obstruct free natural expression. The long tale of woe starts quite early in life when a child is given directions to behave in a particular way.
All our education starts with 'don'ts' and we go on thrusting more and more of don'ts down the throats of helpless children. Ultimately the whole creative energy, the whole capacity to act, gets dissipated under the crushing load of 'don'ts.' Either that person stealthily indulges in that activity from which he had been stopped or he suffers from mental conflict or tension. There are only two options open to him: either to become a hypocrite or go mad. If he is a sincere and honest fellow and fights with his conscience, then the inescapable consequence will be that he will go mad. And if, on the contrary, he is clever and cunning, he will take to hypocrisy. He will manage to have a back-door to his house through which he can indulge in any activity of his choice without any inhibitions, so that on the front door he can very well display all the don'ts and the Ten Commandments. He will always stand there pretending all innocence, as if he is not doing anything unworthy of himself, though he may be very well steeped in the other world of inhibited activity.
These inhibitions of civilization have played a vital role in making the human mind schizophrenic, in dividing man into conflicting parts and in destroying his inner harmony.
The slogan of the hippie is that he would do whatever he feels like doing, no matter what price he may have to pay for it, but the one thing which he would not at all do is to profess one thing and to behave quite the contrary of it. It is a very deep revolt against society, although saints and holy men have always been clamouring that our outer actions should conform to inner thoughts. The hippies are just re-echoing their sentiments, with, of course, one basic difference: when saints and holy men say that our outer actions should conform to our inner thoughts, they only mean to say that the interior should be the same as the exterior. The hippie, on the other hand, holds that the exterior should be the same as the interior: that is external
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