Counterculture In The 1960s

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

The hippie movements of the sixties were driven by a plethora of factors. There were many new technologies that were being introduced in this period, a war against Communism around the globe, internal struggles against several types of injustices, a growing drug culture, and several other important developments. To say the least, it was a volatile period in American history and many sub-cultures were actively seeking to carve out new paths that were starkly different than the traditional norms. These generations who rejected traditional culture helped carve out a new trajectory for the United States and the movements influences can still be felt to this day.

He traces the baby-boom generation's involvement with the civil-rights, Vietnam War, and countercultural movements in stunning detail and evidence. Anderson entails insight of how the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, where driving forces and very nearly launched a civil war. The author skewers a system that sent so many impoverished minority youngsters and white American males to Southeast Asia while condemning a national ethos of the communism. Clearly, for him the '60s are very much alive, and his passionate remembrance galvanizes the book. However, it does suffer from some

Around the same time within the late 1960’s, a new hippie movement was forming, which was often described as a counterculture.

“Hippies were called Flower Children because they gave flowers to communicate gentleness and love” (Salge). The Hippie Movement was a popular counter culture during the 60’s-70’s. Hippies are best known for their practice of psychedelic drug use, interesting political views, where they took up living quarters, and their unique fashion sense.

With the overwhelming amount of Levittown houses, the obsession to obtain the perfect American “ideal family” as seen on TV and the unspoken agreement to fear any and all foreign ideas and values, the 1950s were revealed to be a decade of prosperity, conformity and consensus. Just ten years later the atmosphere in America was shockingly different; the 1960s were a decade of turbulence, protest and disillusionment due to the ongoing struggle for civil rights, arising feminism, and the Vietnam War.

The sixties was an age of the youth. A movement away from the conservative fifties

American life was transformed in the 1960s from the start of the decade. The 1960s consisted of new rights and new understandings of freedom. The sixties consisted of rights for racial minorities to be involved in the mainstream of the American lifestyle. However, unsolved issues of urban poverty still existed. Women in the 1960s established a conversion in women’s status, for instance, women entered the paid workforce. America experienced a growth of conservative movements, consequently, the 1960s would confront judgment for social ill, crime and drug abuse and drug abuse as well as decline respect towards authority. In despite of crisis, America became a tolerant nation. The sixties are known as a decade of drastic change, rebellion, and backlash. Also, for the American individuals that came of age during the sixties, the generation known as the “Baby Boomers,” wanted to change the culture of their parents. Terry Anderson and Peter Clecak both present different judgment of the social activism of the 1960s. Terry H. Anderson, from the The Sea Change, implied that the sixties achieved a positive transformation within politics, society culture, and foreign power. Anderson believed that America became more democratic as well as comprehensive. (361) On the contrary, Peter Clecak, from The New Left, argued that radicals failed to revolutionize in the sixties and additionally became powerless against the dominant social order. (361) Although certain Americans opposed and judged

The counterculture movement started in the 1960s causing California to start another trend. The countercultural movement rejected the “Establishment’s” business-world values, and urged a mix of non-materialism, Asian religions, “free love,” and experimentation

One of the largest events for promoting drug use, music and alternative ways of thinking occurred in 1967 at the Human Be-In at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Hippies went against the values of the middle class society as they encouraged the experimental use of psychedelic drugs at a time when drugs were illegal.

The Rock-n-Roll movement in the nineteen fifties planted the seeds of the Hippie Movement, but Kennedy’s assassination, and the Vietnam War really is what sparked this social change in America.

During the 1960s Music was heavily influenced by the political and social events happening at the time. At this time civil rights movements were common as many people were trying to spread the emancipation of racism and segregation. As a result the music of the time tended to reflect this counterculture of peace. This “culture” encompassed civil rights, anti-establishment and, inciting revolution. This was a vital time in history for civil rights activists as well as anti-war revolutionaries and the music industry. From folk music to rock music, everyone was affected by the war and chose to express it through the most international form of art, music. Anti-war activists and counterculture enthusiast craved the music that truly expressed

The “hippies” of the 1960s had many effects on the American society. The visual appearance and lifestyle of the hippies were in sharp contrast to the conservative nature of the older generation, which defined them as a counterculture. The hippie lifestyle was based on free love, rock music, shared property, and drug experimentation. They introduced a new perspective on drugs, freedom of expression, appearance, music, attitudes toward work, and held a much more liberal political view than mainstream society.

For the first time in American history, a large population of people of all ages, classes, and races came together to challenge the traditional institutions, traditional values in society, and "the establishment" in general. Youth, women, ethnic minorities, environmentalists, migrant workers and others caused the emergence of the counter culture. This cultural movement from 1960 to 1973 was caused by many factors. This era was one that was filled with many important events that shaped the way that Americans viewed life. Those who were unhappy with what was going on around them and took part in this social phenomenon reflected and demonstrated their attitudes, values, and ideals in many ways. Various things from

The 1950’s and early 1960’s was a time of consensus in the US. By the middle of the 60’s the US experienced a series of shocks which undermined consensus. The assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. The differences in the civil rights movement. The escalation of the Vietnam War. All of these factors undermined American confidence to change the world and improve the country. By the late 60’s, US society was polarised: divided between different viewpoints: Youth culture; counter-culture, and multiculturism.