Hippie Movement Essay, Research Paper

The Politics and Culture of the 1960s Hippie Movement As the 19 1950ss turned into the early 1960ss, the United States remained the same loyal, harmonious society of the old decennary ; frequently a adolescent & # 8217 ; s most hard determination was taking what colour lip rouge to have on to the prom. Yet after 1963, a dramatic alteration easy developed in the cultural, societal, and political beliefs of America, peculiarly the young person. The decease of President Kennedy, the new music, the quest for civil rights, the popularity of mind-altering drugs, the inanity of the Vietnam War, and the innovation of the birth control pill reacted like an unbalanced chemical equation to explicate a new American counterculture: the hippy. Contrasting with ever-dominant mainstream society, the & # 8220 ; layed back & # 8221 ; hippy nobly tried to alter the universe non by force, but through peace and love. Though non wholly successful, the hippy motion clearly marked the mid- to late-nineteen 1960ss and early 1970ss as a mixture of peace and brotherly love with & # 8220 ; sex, drugs, and stone and roll. & # 8221 ; The formal definition of a hippy is & # 8220 ; one who does non conform to societal criterions, recommending a broad attitude and lifestyle. & # 8221 ; However, the true definition of a & # 8220 ; hippy & # 8221 ; in ill-defined ; no reading could categorise every individual who fits into the equivocal class of a hippy. Harmonizing to Phoebe Thompson & # 8217 ; s definition, being a hippy is & # 8220 ; a pick of philosophy. & # 8221 ; Flower peoples are by and large & # 8220 ; antithetical & # 8221 ; to structured hierarchies, such as church, authorities, and societal castes. The ultimate end of the hippy motion is peace, come-at-able merely through love and acceptance of the Earth and each other. Finally, a hippy needs freedom, both physical freedom to see life and mental freeness to stay open-minded ( 12-13 ) . In the position of some historiographers, therefore, Thoreau and Ghandi were flower peoples, and flower peoples continue to be today ( 25 ) . Yet what alone qualities characterized the American flower peoples of the 19 1960ss, and how did this motion addition adequate power to act upon 1000000s of adolescents? The 19 1950ss was one of America & # 8217 ; s most comfortable ( and dull ) decennaries. Conformity and patriotism swept the state ; telecasting situation comedies reinforced antique household values ; the typical adolescent aspired for the & # 8220 ; all-American & # 8221 ; expression and personality. Yet music had already planted the seeds of rebellion ; Rock and Roll began to brush the state. Kids wore leather jackets, violated curfews, and considered themselves Rebels, though curiously with no cause. The rebellion fad was epitomized by Marlon Brado & # 8217 ; s function in the movie The Wild One. When asked: & # 8220 ; What are you arising against, & # 8221 ; he responded: & # 8220 ; Whatta you got? & # 8221 ; The music of Elvis and other stone sets caused the rebellion ; all the teens needed was a cause ( Manning 32-34 ) . The Vietnam War began as President Kennedy & # 8217 ; s attempt to protect the & # 8220 ; free universe & # 8221 ; from Communism. Kennedy, a well-liked president, received small war resistance from the people. He was immature and supported free-spiritedness, open-mindedness, and equality ; at his blackwash in 1963 merely 15,000 military personnels were in Vietnam. Under Lyndon Johnson the figure of soldiers skyrocketed, nevertheless, making 500,000 in 1966. Television broadcasts from abroad became more ghastly and the deceases more tragic. The every night intelligence counted the dead and described roll uping devastation, and many political and literary figures began to talk out publically against maintaining US military personnels in Vietnam ( Harding 56-9 ) . Though Johnson continually promised a fleet terminal to the war, the Tet Offensive of 1968 eventually proved otherwise. A surprise onslaught on American soldiers caused a important loss of land and life ; the Communists were seemingly nowhere near licking ( Buchholz 861 ) ! Shiploads of American male childs came excessively and from Vietnam, merely excessively many of those returning place were siting in a casket. The hippie motion germinated in San Francisco, with the Vietnam War at its nucleus. The motion finally spread to the East Coast as good, centralized in New York & # 8217 ; s East Village in add-on to the Haight-Asbury territory of San Francisco and Sunset Strip of Los Angeles ( Buchholz 858 ) . Disgusted by conformance, civilization, and political relations, some flower peoples abandoned society to populate in stray communes ; by 1970 over 200 communes existed, keeping 40,000 young persons. However, many flower peoples besides took a political stance against the war. The Vietnam War conflicted straight with the hippy belief in peace and love, so the counterculture protested the war throughout the state. The & # 8220 ; flower kids & # 8221 ; held & # 8220 ; love-ins & # 8221 ; to observe their rights, spoke out publically, formed protest groups with the motto: & # 8220 ; Hell no, we won & # 8217 ; t travel! & # 8221 ; , burned flags, and tore up bill of exchange faux pass ( 858 ) . To avoid the Vietnam bill of exchange, some pacificists took extraordinary steps. Many claimed insanity, lied about homosexualism, pretended to be physically unfit, or fled to Canada ( 19 ) . Yet far excessively many peaceable flower peoples were sent to imprison for declining the bill of exchange call, keeping their rules and unity ( Gottlieb 55 ) . & # 8220 ; Faced with household dejection, expatriate, apprehension, and imprisonment, they however continued to remain steadfast to the resistance to that war & # 8221 ; ( Tollefson 4 ) . While the authorities drafted their & # 8220 ; brothers, & # 8221 ; the staying flower peoples protest the war at place. Sing most flower peoples were under 30, the greatest concentration of them was in colleges throughout America. Protests began in Columbia University and Berkley University, California. A presentation against Nixon & # 8217 ; s determination to occupy Cambodia led to force at Kent State University ; the National Guard killed four pupils. Finally, the University of Virginia, founded by America & # 8217 ; s sire of freedom Thomas Jefferson, was raided by two hundred baton-waving police officers who arrested 68 pupils ( Thompson 66-8 ) . The greatest look of the hippy belief, whether pro-peace or pro-pot, was their music. Rock and axial rotation was their voice. Led by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and the Beatles, stone and common people music overtook the airwaves. ( Maning 102 ) Bob Dylan used the wordss of common people music to convey a societal commentary and protest. In a civil rights March in 1963, he sang the undermentioned wordss: How many old ages can some people exist Before their allowed to be free? The reply, my friend, is blowin & # 8217 ; in the air current The reply is blowin & # 8217 ; in the air current ( 102 ) Folk creative persons did non sing merely to sound pleasant, but more significantly to convey a message. Most song wordss addressed the wart or the civil rights motion, and the crowd would sing along in a chorus. Existing in harmoniousness with common people music was stone, which adopted a manner known as psychedelia, or & # 8220 ; mind expansion. & # 8221 ; Rock & # 8217 ; s wordss were less of import, with the overall sound dominating as an look of the psyche. And with many band members high on marihuanas or LSD, hardcore & # 8220 ; acid sway & # 8221 ; became a agency of get awaying the world-for both the set and the audience ( 102-103 ) . The & # 8220 ; ultimate binge & # 8221 ; of stone and common people music occurred at & # 8220 ; Woodstock & # 8221 ; in August of 1969. Located in New York State, Woodstock the concert was a three-day long event in which 400,000 people got high, had sex, and listened to some really beautiful and psychedelic music. Th

vitamin E roll included some of the most celebrated stone sets on Earth, every bit good gifted amateurs looking for a start. An attendant described it as: “Three yearss of love, peace, and stone! ” ( Thompson 89 ) . The concert epitomized the music and, indirectly, the hippy life style of the 1960ss, and paved the manner for the more diverse, “drugged-up” musical manner of the early 1970ss. Illicit drugs were a outstanding influence on hippy life style and civilization. By the sixtiess, LSD and marihuana had overtaken America overnight. These psychedelic drugs were a societal activity at least experimented with by virtually every “groovy” adolescent in America. Numerous books were written both reprobating and warranting the new drug phenomena. Drug advocates referred to Native Americans spiritual ceremonial, religious and medical mentions in ancient texts, and Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception to support their drug usage. Finally more toxic drugs such as cocaine, diacetylmorphine, barbiturates, and pep pills followed, used for diversion and frequently prima to fatal effects. Drugs became incorporated into the music industry every bit good ; most musical creative persons used narcotics, frequently composing and executing vocals while “high” ( Harding 29, 31 ) . The hippies’ societal position as Nonconformist, doped-up castawaies was paralleled by their manner and life style. Devout hippies lived modestly in communes and were rigorous vegetarians, esteeming non merely human but besides carnal rights. Modest life besides applied to vesture. Flower peoples in the 1960ss did non see manner of import plenty to pass much clip on, and on the contrary tried to look “bad” harmonizing to society’s criterions. Womans dressed like “peasants and wore psychedelic colourss ; ” make-up and aroma were about iniquitous, and vesture was loose, comfy, and alone ( Michaels 328 ) . Bright, twirling forms for both sexes paralleled the “acid rock” manner of their music. Both work forces and adult females grew long, unkempt hair and the work forces frequently grew face funguss as good. To foreigners, the flower peoples seemed “dirty, drugged, and disrespectful to their seniors ; ” it was precisely what they wanted ( 329 ) . The hippy doctrine preached peace and acceptance. Therefore, they were supportive of all civil rights motions, back uping females, inkinesss, homophiles, and aliens on achieving rights and equal intervention. Hippie adult females wanted to be free. To alleviate themselves of society’s loads, many stopped shaving their arm and leg hairs. Further women’s release came with the innovation of the birth control pill in 1960 and its flawlessness in 1963 ; adult females were eventually sexually free. Female doctrine changed overnight ; alternatively of waiting till matrimony for intercourse, many adult females now doing love to the first cat she saw. Dating virtually vanished ; flower peoples had sex foremost and got to cognize each other afterwards. With increased sexual freedom and the deficiency of widespread sexually familial diseases, promiscuous sex flourished during the sixtiess ( Thompson 44 ) . Having gained sexual freedom, adult females were now contending for rights outside the sleeping room. Betty Friedan forms The National Organization for Women ( NOW ) in 1966 to derive adult females the same rights as work forces. Courses in adult females surveies were instated at universities, work forces realized ( as portion of the hippie motion ) that adult females should be treated more reasonably, and attempts were made, unsuccessfully, to add an amendment to the Constitution to vouch women’s equality. Though mainstream adult females besides participated in these protests, both hippie work forces and adult females took an active function in guaranting equality for all ( Buchholz 851-3 ) . Another important group, the black community, sought after its civil rights during the sixtiess. Numerous protests, both peaceable and violent, were held by black Americans to stop centuries of favoritism, branded upon them since their ascendants arrived four hundred old ages earlier. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X articulately led the black protests, and most flower peoples enthusiastically take parting in peaceable presentations for black civil rights ( 854-7 ) . The Age of the Hippies, fortuitously or unluckily, did non last everlastingly. In the early 1970s, someplace between ‘70 and ‘74, the full motion died about every bit suddenly as it had begun. To many the full hippy motion was merely a craze that was no longer “in.” The Vietnam War, the chief force driving the societal revolution, was reasoning ; an anti-war March on Washington and San Francisco in 1971, roll uping over one million participants jointly, eventually persuaded the authorities to stop the gore. A protest mark read: “The Majority is Not Silent. The Government is Deaf” ( Manning, 177-9 ) . Yet there were other factors. The flower peoples were acquiring excessively old to be flower peoples ; about all of the counterculture started with participants under 30, yet those who began the motion had been in involved for ten old ages. These were the babe boomers, and the following coevals was no about every bit big to organize its ain “youth society.” Furthermore, the music had gotten “drugged-out ; ” the performing artists were so “stoned” that their vocals rapidly became meaningless garble with no message. And what message was at that place to prophesy without the War? Drugs had destroyed the lives of many, and after recognizing the negative effects many flower peoples no longer admired drugs, but feared them. Worst of all, small had been accomplished-dreams of universe peace had failed. The Hippie Revolution lasted ten old ages with engagement around the universe, from the USSR to Great Britain. Yet they accomplished so small. The teens were tired of waiting ( Thompson 99-107 ) . Women shaved their legs and piled on make-up. Work force traded in their long hair and love beads for a concern suit. There were those who remained flower peoples and moved to stray communes, but they were comparatively few. Life basically returned to the yearss before the Hippie Revolution. In actuality, merely a minority of the young person of the 1960ss really entered the counterculture, but those who did left a permanent feeling upon society, and most of all themselves ( 108 ) . The hippie motion of the mid- and late-nineteen 1960ss and the early 19 1970ss attempted to make a planetary society founded upon love and peace. Through nonviolent protests the flower peoples helped stop the Vietnam War, addition black, women’s, minority, and homosexual civil rights, and spread friendly relationship and harmoniousness around the Earth. Not in vain, the epoch lives on through their music, their peace mark, and their memories ; Woodstock was even recreated in 1994. The hippie influence is even prevailing in America’s society of 1998, which still possesses a vernal counterculture of “sex, drugs, and stone and roll.”

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