And then out of the blue, I moved to Poland to witness the Solidarity Movement, another hippie type revolution but without
hippies. Later, I found that hippies in Poland (spelled "hipis" in Polish) were different from other hippies elsewhere in
Europe. So, I didn't get to know too many hippies in Poland. Even today, Polish hippies are strongly tied to the Roman
Catholic Church and right wing political parties. Hippies in Poland took the worst hard drugs, shared nationalist worldviews
and supported G.W. Bush in the 21st century. During the Cold War era, Communists feared that the hippie revolutionary
movement would spread in the Soviet Block; esp. in Poland. So, they tried to have control over it before it reached their
part of the world in the mid 1960s.
Between the Winter of 1989 and the Summer of 1990, Poland abolished Communism and the Berlin Wall fell. That was the
end of Communism and Soviet rule over many parts of Central and Eastern Europe. It was a wonderful time of great
expectations and joy. After that, Poland and former East Germany joined the European Union. In the 21st century, At the turn
of the 21st century, Poles gave their full support to G.W. Bush and took folks like me for some kind of black sheep. So, I
turned to Yoga, did a lot of meditating and studied of the Hindu Veda (scriptures) at that time.
During the campaign for the 2004 Presidential election, I organized the one and only official John Kerry for President
meetups in Poland and found that Democrats had absolutely no supporters in the country at that time. Everyone, including
hippies in Poland supported G.W. Bush. That was a truly odd experience. Yes, it was bad! So, Polish hippies in Poland are
a totally different bread, if you know what I mean. That's also why I don't like being confused with hippies in Poland or
hippies from Poland; though now I live in Poland. But that's another story...
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