Ken Kesey wasn’t a hippie. He was a merry prankster. His second book was about a guy who crosses a union picket line.
The hippies were America’s youth who saw media presentations of the lifestyle of the post-beats in California and headed westward subscribing to whatever fashion and drug trends were being sold to them.
They weren’t as active in contributing to the culture. They took from the free store without offering things in return. They overloaded the free food distribution systems. They joined communes but didn’t want to work the land.
Ken Kesey was to the Left of Jack Kerouac (who supported the war in Vietnam) but he wasn’t full onboard the liberalism train (some of his take seems more libertarian).
The real “Hippies” were only in existence until 1966, after that, came all of the copycats and posers.