Conformism In The Hippie Counterculture

Their dissatisfaction with the consumerism values and goals, with the work ethic, and with the dependence on technology (Edgar and Sedwick, 2008) fuelled their belief to set themselves free from this mainstream culture using drugs such as LSD to open their minds and become spiritual and free. Their fashion consisted of floral headbands and clothing, flared jeans and bare feet. In January of 1967, a Human Be-in in Golden Gate Park San Francisco publicised the culture and this lead to the Summer of Love (The Naked Truth……….., 2014). According to Philippa(Toturhunt.com, 2015), this culture has since moved on and developed, in the sense of beliefs, to become what is now known as the rave culture. Which followed on from the hippie culture of listening to music in fields, with spiritual and honing on values that counter the popular culture whilst using recreational drugs to open the mind and push the beliefs of the hippie culture of their predecessors. Rather than psychedelics this new culture used amphetamines such as MDMA and brought together every different kind of person. Either way, drugs have played part in counterculture for a very long time, and it didn 't end at with the hippies.

Hippies are good representation of the counter culture movement, it usually involve drug abuse, sex and abortion. History professor Theodore Roszak points out the hippies and radical students have a same point, which is counter-culture. (Roszak, 1995) In his views, counter-cultural movement is all social protest movements in the United States, such as democracy movement, women's liberation movement, black civil rights movement, and anti-war movement.

Hippies represent the ideological, naive nature that children possess. They feel that with a little love and conectedness, peace and equality will abound. It is with this assumption that so many activists and reformers, inspired by the transformation that hippies cultivated, have found the will to persist in revolutionizing social and political policy. Their alternative lifestyles and radical beleifs were the shocking blow that American culture-- segregation, McCarthyism, unjust wars, censorship--needed to prove that some Americans still had the common sense to care for one another. The young people of the sixties counterculture movement were successful at awakening awareness on many causes that are being fought in modern

During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.

In this essay I will be discussing the ‘hippie’ culture and style, their impact on the 60s and their continued impact in modern life. In today 's world, hippies are known because of the distinct way in which they behave, dress and their overall lifestyles. There are also some who have come to believe that hippies are synonymous with drugs or that they have radical political views on environmentalism, capitalism, religion e.t.c. The dictionary defines a hippie as "one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle". What I am interested in is whether this definition is true. Polhemus (2007) says "who is real? Who is a replicant? Who cares? Life is a fancy-dress party, Enjoy”. I will be discussing this quote in more depth, relating it to the hippie culture as well as explaining how the hippie culture developed and what it means to be a hippie today.

The counterculture and hippies are becoming extremely popular in our society today. The hippie culture focused on outward signs of nonconformity. The counterculture promoted rock music, free love, and the use of psychedelic drugs. Haight-Ashbury is the place is if you want to be a part of the culture, and go to San Francisco and be a part of love. The counterculture is about new ideas, and going against the social norms. The bright colors, feathers, leather, and hair. There are pop art and rock music. Go have fun, and be a part of the

The whole hippie culture all together was totally against social norms, what society wanted to see, how everyone else lived, and what they believed in. The hippie culture’s main moto was “make love, not war”. They were strongly against war and the Vietnam War, which was going on during the same time the hippie culture was popular. They thought that everyone should have acceptance of the universe. They wanted to see change in the world, global

The rise of counterculture in the 1960s was caused in large part by the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, military conscription, and the teenagers of affluent middle-class parents. The teenagers of those families wanted more than anything else to experience life to its fullest, before it was too late. The irony was that “ behaviors by counterculture youth were and are an easy target for criticism, especially on the part of those eager to belittle the decade’s significance ( Morgan; 170). There were two waves of the counterculture (hippie) movement; the first dealt with the shock of JFK’s assassination, government aid to Vietnam, the student sit-ins and the militant stance of the Black Panthers. All of which caused a weariness to hippie-dome

From the 1960s to the 1970s, the Hippie Movement was apart of the counterculture era. This was an age of renewal and change amongst society. People known as Hippies focused on pursuing a life different from the one proposed by mainstream culture. Hippies followed transcendentalism, which influenced their idealism of their understanding of nature and society. They often used drugs such as psychedelics, amphetamines, methamphetamine, and marijuana to experience spiritual and artistic awareness as well as self-fulfillment. They created a new culture of teenagers and young adults who dressed and acted differently from those before them. Hippies focused on experimentation and redefining themselves. Hippies helped influenced music, television, film, literature, and the arts and changed the societal norms.

It is readily apparent that a willingness to enter into relationships with other people characterizes the respondents. Intellectual concerns, politics, drugs, and sexual permissiveness received much less support. Hippie counterculture, while affirming, albeit implicitly, the benefits of an industrial society, has no place either in its normative structure or in its social structure for their production. The hippie movement is countercultural rather than political. (Westhues) This movement wasn’t just in opposition to the war. It was a lifestyle that the Hippies started. It was a culture and a way to live kind of like a community. The drastic social change led by the Hippies provided for a very interesting time during the 1960s.

The 1960s Hippie movement was a major point in the American history. In the 1960s a certain class of young people associated their lifestyles with the ideas of freedom, peace, and love. Hippies acted against white upper middle class lifestyle because they thought it was based on the wrong ideology. Hippies were against consumerism and American suburban life of the late 1950s and early 1960s was embodied in itself the idea of consumerism. Hippies, on the other hand, felt better about communal life with equal distribution of social goods. Traditional “bigger share” and consumerist greed as concepts of American society were despised by Hippies.

The people that would become associated with the new teenage counter-culture movement were known as the hippies. The movement began in the mid-sixties in the United States. The hippies often believed in peace and pleasure. They even ushered in a new music genre of psychedelic rock. The Grateful Dead as well as the Beatles was famous artists coming from the movement and genre. The hippies created their own communities where they criticized the mainstream society and middle class. One thing they revolutionized was sex. The sexual revolution moved from traditional ways of behaving to more promiscuous activities and pleasures. The norms of American sexual culture would change greatly. Hippies were promoters of free love in the sexual revolution. They taught that the power of sex and love should be a part of everyday teenage life. In some colleges, they started to make dorms coed; in which the males and females could come together freely. “A

The Hippie Counter Culture began in 1960. The hippie era was influenced more by personal happiness in which books, music, and fashion followed as result of their personification of a blissful society. Hippies did not care what others thought of them and their motto was “if it feels good, do it”. Hippies were seeking a utopian society. They participated in street theater and listened to psychedelic rock. As part of their culture they embraced more open sexual encounters amongst each other in their community and believed in use of psychedelic drugs which consisted of marijuana and LSD. The fashion choice that hippies dressed in was due to set them apart from the mainstream society. They choose to buy their clothing from thrift shops and flea markets (Haddock, 2011). Clothing choices are described as “brightly colored, ragged clothes, tie-dyed t-shirts, beads, sandals (or barefoot), and jewelry” (Haddock, 2011, para 7). Hippies also referred

‘The hippie movement germinated in San Francisco, with the Vietnam War at its core. The movement eventually spread to the East Coast as well, centralized in New York's East Village in addition to the Haight-Asbury district of San Francisco and Sunset Strip of Los Angeles” (Buchholz 858). Many hippies were angry over the conformist lifestyle that Americans were living in, and wanted to live how they wanted to live not how their employer or television wanted them to live. Hippies also took a political

The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement beginning in the United States around the early 1960s and consisted of a group of people who opposed political and social orthodoxy, choosing an ideology that favored peace, love, and personal freedom. The hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, were usually eco-friendly and vegetarians, and promoted the use of psychedelic drugs. They created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs to explore alternative states of consciousness. They strived to liberate themselves from societal restrictions, choose their own way, and find new meaning in life.