Counterculture Of The 1960s

Recently Ralph Nader spoke to an enthusiastic and supportive audience at Columbia College. Nader spoke about the very same issues he lectured about in 1968--corporate rule, environmental protections, military-industrial complex and unjust wars, equality and access to education, women's rights. It was an increased awareness that overtook the young people of the sixties counterculture movement. This awareness led to a social outcry against injustices in politics.

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 Black Panther Party was a militant group that believed in protecting minorities by using their 2nd amendment right. The fear of the party began when a group of activists stormed the California State Legislature armed. The reason for the sit in on the building was in retaliation for a gun control bill. The bill was thought to be a way that the government could take rights away from minorities. The party had multiple gun related shootouts with local cops and the FBI, which lead to the leader, Huey Newton, to be arrested. The arrest was for killing an officer. This started the decline of the cohesiveness of the party as new leaders were appointed.

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

The Black Panther Party became noticed in the nation May 1967 when a small group of its followers, led by Bobby Seale, marched fully armed into the California state legislature in Sacramento. Encouraged by the view that African Americans had a right to bear arms based on the second amendment. The images of The Black Panthers entering the Capitol armed were enhanced. With this newborn publicity, the Black Panther Party grew from an Oakland-based organization into an international one with divisions in 48 states in North America and support groups in Japan, China, France, England, Germany, Sweden, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uruguay, and many more places.

In the year 1966 in Oakland, California an Africa American revolutionary party name the Black Panther Party also known as Black Panther Party for Self- Defense was established by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The original intention of the party was to protect and patrol African American neighborhood residents from acts of police brutality. There were over 2,000 Panther memberships, and the organization operated chapters in various major American cities.

In today’s society, the 1960s are most commonly remembered for the counterculture, a period of social revolution and self-liberation. However, in addition to the commonly discussed social effects of the counterculture, there were also several notable effects of the movement on the medical field. While some of these new medical developments, such as the growth of recreational drug use and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, proved to be a setback for society, others would end up paving the way for further developments in modern medicine. The 1960s advancements in transplants, vaccinations, cancer treatments, and emergency procedure have proven to be timeless to the medical community; they are as relevant today as they were half a century ago.

A.Definitions of the CountercultureIn its most common and initial sense, the counterculture refers to the culture, especially of young people, with values or lifestyles in opposition to those of the established culture in the dictionary. Until its appearance in 1969 in Theodore Roszak's influential book, The Making of a Counter Culture, "counterculture", written as one word or two, has become the standard term to describe the cultural revolt of the young. Although distinct countercultural undercurrents exist in all societies, here the term counterculture refers to a more significant, visible phenomenon that reaches critical mass and persists for a period of time. According to Roszak's definition, the counterculture movement refers to all

War raged on in Vietnam as the American youth formed a counterculture that would forever shape the generation and the ones to follow. The youth in the 1960s was endlessly frustrated with the federal government, civil rights struggles, and the war. The counterculture “emphasized living in the present, immediate gratification, authenticity of feelings, and reaching a higher consciousness through mind altering drugs like marijuana and LSD” (Hewitt, 2012 ). The college students at the time made up a the counterculture and they fought for what they believed in by organizing strikes and demonstrations. However it was the power of music that brought the youth together.

In the 1950’s people were looked on as normal when they fit into a specific mold of how an American family should look and act. This was a white man, who worked and provided all the money for the family, the white wife, who stayed at home and cooked and clean, and two to three kids who went to school. Families who did not look like this were seen as lower. This includes minority’s who were forced into their own expectations by following segregation laws and living in the areas only where the other minorities lived. Anyone who tried to stand up to living under white rule, were immediately arrested. This led to groups of people fighting to be able to live under their own rule and choose for themselves where to live and work. The youth fought against conforming to the suburban view of life by creating a new rebellious attitude that would later cause the counterculture in the 1960’s. The civil right activists fought against conforming to unjust laws by a

The Black Panther party was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. Although they were many times only seen as a gang or criminal group they have proven to be much more than that. The Panthers operated schools, opened medical clinics, and instituted a variety of other social programs, perhaps most extensively the free breakfast for children program in which they provided free food to kids in ghetto neighborhoods. The organization got its start out of necessity by trying to defend the community against long standing and racially motivated police brutality, a noble and just cause, and government repression contributed to its growth and expansion with every panther killing or arrest. The aggressive stance of the party and liberal use of weapons and violence, as well as their clear racial motivations, scared a lot of a predominantly white America.The government took steps to "neutralize" what the FBI called "black nationalist hate groups" and other dissident groups. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Black Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” Many believe their public image as thugs was unfairly given to them by the largely racist public of the 1960s that had not yet gone through the civil rights movement. A former leader of the party recently spoke out against this public

Popular Culture Essay Music has long been an expression of cultures and an indicator of the multi-cultural nature around the world. It’s common purpose to bring people together and affecting society by the type of music people listen to and which emotions they are feeling at that time. Music was a powerful cultural force in the 1960’s. It is evident that the social climate of this time period shaped music. It was no surprise that there were important generational, racial, gender, class, regional and ideological differences, and these included bands and their audiences and within the entertainment industry it’s self-deep social tensions were shared by all.

The 1960s are frequently referred to as a period of social protest and dissent. Antiwar demonstrators, civil-rights activists, feminists, and members of various other social groups demanded what they considered to be justice and sought reparation for the wrongs they believed they had suffered. The decade marked a shift from a collective view on politics, to a much more individualistic viewpoint. The 1960s could easily be characterized as a period during which political, ideological, and social tensions among radicals, liberals, and conservatives in American society are seen to have rapidly unfolded. Due to this, the decade has had an overwhelming effect on the decades that have followed. The sixties have had the greatest impact on American society out of any decade in recent history. Whether for better or for worse, the decade has had a profound influence on politics, society, foreign policy, and culture.

"Flower child," a name that forms in the mind an image of an innocent child, denoted the youth of the mid-1960s. These youth, otherwise called the hippies, relied not so much on innocence, but instead sought freedom to distinguish the conformity the past generations held. Before these youth, the Beats or Beatniks from the Beat Generation spread throughout the Western Worlds around the 1950s. The Beats’ philosophy paralleled that of the hippies, however, their focus centered in the literature, music, and art. These artists asserted their disappointment with the mainstream society through such art forms (Counterculture).Through the Beatniks’ art forms the roots of the hippies’ struggles and concerns seem

Economic changes were happening in Britain; the economy had changed from heavy to light industry. Light industry meant that jobs were created for unskilled individuals. The unskilled workers tended to be the younger population, “In Britain the labour markets had buoyed up levels of youth employment during the 1950s and 60s” (Osgerby, 2004, p. 25) and were also inexpensive to employ. “With new found economic independence young urban workers began to take advantage of the growing leisure opportunities that were becoming available to them” (Davis, 1990; Newburn, 2002) some considered this as the formation of youth subcultures. With the younger generation in jobs this meant that they had extra money to spend on leisure. “such developments gave