I'm old enough to have known a number of "hippies" in college (and no, I wasn't one myself, though I looked ragged)
They were not all alike - neither all wonderful nor all disgusting.
They started out with the decent idea that mindless materialism was not a good lifestyle. From there,they split into several groups.
Some started self-sufficient farming communes and led fulfilling lives, for the most part.
Some went to begging, which made them dependent on the system they said they hated.
Some descended into drugs and never came back.
Most went on to lead mainstream lives, with normal careers and now laugh at those days, especially when they see pictures of themselves back then.
[Joke: If you can remember the sixties, you weren't a part of it.]