What Was The Role Of Hippies In The 1960's

An dispute which inflated hippie’s opinions was also the barbarities of the Vietnam War, which hippies powerfully opposed. Hippies particularly opposed the draft into the Vietnam War, believing that war was wrong and that blameless American men and even boys should not be required to combat if doing so was against their ethical values. The copious effort of campaigners such as Martin Luther King Junior also urged the hippie effort because it enthused people to offer their opinion in what they believed in and be welcome to express their ethical and moral values and be who they are. Furthermore, many say that the hippie movement was influenced by the murder of John F. Kennedy, a respected president whose passing powered the political and social turbulence of the

The second half of the 1960’s seen another upsurge of young adults; a subgroup opposed to the fundamental thoughts of others and their social and economic supports; mainly because they believed that dominant mainstream culture was crooked and flawed; and needed to believe as they did in a way(s) of life geared to protect something they could not earn, buy, or passed on. The something philosophy is compromised in a complex egotism based on criminality; with an ulterior (self-preservation) motive of exacting some form of Utopia for it and with others relative to its concept. These groups of tie dyed conformists are anti-establishment and commonly known as hippies. They first gained a reputation in the U.S and then England, and are the extent

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

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 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.

This is best described as a movement that included middle class, young college kids who were in a state of illusion due to the Vietnam War and all the violent protests breaking out during this time era.

Flower power was another name for hippies and their sense of style which was carefree, down to earth and colourful. The carefree attitude was because hippies cared about issues that were not materialistic unlike the

“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.

Police then labelled and persecuted hippies for their behaviour, excluding them from normal society. AS a result a deviant subculture emerged where hippies retreated into closed groups, grew hair out long, wore eccentric clothes and drug use became a central activity.

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.

During the 1960s, a new culture spread throughout the United States, stirring up the Flower Power movement as well as the aversion from the typical American lifestyle. These “Hippies” as they were known, didn’t want to fit in with the mainstream crowd. The name “hippie” was taken from the term “hipster”. It described how the Hippies believed that we should make love, not war, their vocal opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, and the increasingly rocky road to shared civil rights among all Americans led to this new, alternative form of activism. But the Hippie movement wasn’t just about experimentation. The concept of Flower Power also emerged as a passive resistance to the Vietnam War during the late 1960s.

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 beginnings over the expectations of war, and what would happen after the passage of the civil rights act. The second wave dealt more with the humbleness of counterculture youth and their followers and in general. On the one hand, a community with a vision of freedom; and on the other hand; a nuclear war and a world without vision. Also, the use of drugs to experience the feelings of self-gratification, and it’s opposite the loneliness of an obsession. “Of all the phenomenon of the Sixties few were widely feared and loathed by mainstream America than the counter culture (Morgan; 169). Although, the decade of the sixties was economically prosperous for the U.S., in its later years it became senselessly vain for

‘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 “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.

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.