Kairos in "The Flowering of Hippies"

The article "The Flowering of Hippies" published in September 1967 by Mark Harris details the mass migration of hippies to Haight Street in San Fransisco. Harris outlines the lifestyle of a hippie as well as the motivation behind their use of psychedelics. A psychedelic head shop was opened in January 1966, which was a large factor in the surge of hippies in the area. The article has an overall investigative tone, where Harris delves into the mind of the hippie at the time. He depicts the typical hippie on Haight St.: shaggy clothing, dirty, hair unwashed. He questions the reliability of the hippies and their ideals due to their demographics. He ignores the visual appearance of the hippies and dives deeper to realize that many of the hippies were middle-class American children. By providing this background, he is able to give insight to his audience which was anyone who was reading the article. He provides these observations in order to answer the questions that many people in the area as well as parents had. Many were intrigued by the drawing factor of hippies to Haight Street however they did not all understand the demographics and habits of the hippies other than their visual appearance. This article was published at the time that many people were beginning to question the massive surge of hippies in the area, and allows for them to have a new insight on who and why.