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a hippie is his courage to stand in revolt. The character of a 'yes-man' or a conformist symbolizes one type of life. He is always ready to say 'yes' to anything he is asked to do, although it may be that he might not have fully heard what has been said. He may not even understand to what he is giving his consent, but he simply goes on saying 'yes' to everything. He appears to have realized the all-powerful secret that to succeed in life he must say 'yes' to everything.
The hippie on the other hand believes that if all the time we go on saying 'yes' to everything the society tries to impose upon us, there can be no evolution of our individuality. Evolution of personality starts only when we can muster up the courage to say 'no.' As a matter of fact man's soul asserts itself only when he is capable of saying 'no.' When one can say 'no' even though one's very life may be at stake in such a denial, and when once an individual starts saying 'no' and learns this art, then for the first time, due to such denial, his individuality begins its evolution. This dividing line to say 'no' invests a person with his individuality. The tendency to say 'yes' to everything makes him an indistinguishable part of the whole. That is why the society has always been so much insistent about obedience.
A father may very well take pride at the obedience of his idiotic son because he is unaware that such a person as his son is cannot have the mettle to say 'no.' Some intelligence is necessary to say 'no.' As far as saying 'yes' is concerned, it needs no intelligence. 'Yes' is computerized; the less the intelligence, the sooner it emerges. Saying 'no' requires some scrutiny of the matter. It demands argument. One has to weigh the pros and cons in one's mind before one can utter 'no,' because with the saying of 'no' the matter does not end; rather, it starts from there. Saying 'yes' implies a closing of the subject rather than the starting of it. So if the son is intelligent, the father may not like him because his incontrovertible arguments may leave him (the father) dumbfounded on many an occasion. He may be cornered many a time to realize the absurdity of his own stand.
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