"We create revolution by living it." - Jerry Rubin
Has your American Dream taken a nightmarish turn?
"What does Yippie! mean? Energy – fun – fierceness – exclamation point!"
- Abbie Hoffman
Do folks focus more upon your choice of words than upon your ideas?
When did Let freedom ring get replaced by Shut the fuck up?
To climb Their ladder, you must successfully parrot Their groüpspeak. Fail, and They send you back to work, with a reminder to be grateful.
Frustrated with the Status Quo? You're not alone.
Systems of Control (Governments, Religions, Industries, etc.) turn free-spirited, fun-loving people into death-dealing warriors or fleshy, little cogs for Their machines. Who benefits from these Systems of Control?
When Systems of Control collaborate, as They did to defeat the Nazis, life gets better for everyone. C'ept the Nazis. After splitting the spoils of war amongst Themselves, They ask us to get back to work.
But when Systems of Control compete, We pay for Their gains with Our money and/or Our lives. We, the People must question the Status Quo.
No one is coming to lead the revolution, but since each of us is a leader, now is the time for us to rise up!
The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on December 31, 1967 by Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Nancy Kurshan, and Paul Krassner, at a meeting in the Hoffmans' New York apartment. The term Yippie was invented by Krassner, as well Abbie and Anita Hoffman, on New Year's Eve 1967.
“We needed a name to signify the radicalization of hippies, and I came up with Yippie as a label for a phenomenon that already existed, an organic coalition of psychedelic hippies and political activists. In the process of cross-fertilization at antiwar demonstrations, we had come to share an awareness that there was a linear connection between putting kids in prison for smoking pot in this country and burning them to death with napalm on the other side of the planet.”
- Paul Krassner
Anita Hoffman liked the word, but felt that The New York Times and other "strait-laced types" needed a more formal name to take the movement seriously. That same night she came up with Youth International Party, because it symbolized the movement and made for a good play on words.
Along with the name Youth International Party, the organization was also simply called Yippie!, as in a shout for joy (with an exclamation mark to express exhilaration).
