Politics Of 1960s
As the nineteen fifties turned into the early sixties, the United
States
remained the same patriotic, harmonious society of the previous
decade; often a
teen's most difficult decision was choosing what color
lipstick to wear to the
prom. Yet after 1963, a dramatic change slowly
developed in the cultural,
social, and political beliefs of America,
particularly the youth. The death of
President Kennedy, the new music,
the quest for civil rights, the popularity of
mind-altering drugs, the
senselessness of the Vietnam War, and the invention of
the birth control pill
reacted like an imbalanced chemical equation to formulate
a new American
counterculture: the hippie. Contrasting with ever-dominant
mainstream
society, the "layed back" hippie nobly tried to change the
world not by
force, but through peace and love. Though not entirely successful,
the hippie
movement clearly marked the mid- to late-nineteen sixties and early
seventies
as a mixture of peace and brotherly love with "sex, drugs, and
rock and
roll." The formal definition of a hippie is "one who does not
conform to
social standards, advocating a liberal attitude and lifestyle."
However,
the true definition of a "hippie" in unclear; no
interpretation could
categorize every person who fits into the ambiguous
category of a hippie.
According to Phoebe Thompson's definition, being a hippie
is "a choice of
philosophy." Hippies are generally
"antithetical" to structured hierarchies,
such as church, government,
and social castes. The ultimate goal of the
hippie movement is peace, attainable
only through love and toleration of the
earth and each other. Finally, a hippie
needs freedom, both physical freedom
to experience life and mental freeness to
remain open-minded (12-13). In the
view of some historians, thus, Thoreau and
Ghandi were hippies, and
hippies continue to exist today (25). Yet what unique
qualities characterized
the American hippies of the nineteen sixties, and how
did this movement gain
enough power to influence millions of teenagers? The
nineteen fifties was one
of America's most prosperous (and dull) decades.
Conformity and
nationalism swept the nation; television sitcoms reinforced
old-fashioned
family values; the typical teenager aspired for the
"all-American" look and
personality. Yet music had already planted the
seeds of rebellion; Rock and
Roll began to sweep the nation. Kids wore leather
jackets, violated curfews,
and considered themselves rebels, though oddly with
no cause. The rebellion
craze was epitomized by Marlon Brado's role in the film
The Wild One.
When asked: "What are you rebelling against," he
responded: "Whatta you got?"
The music of Elvis and other rock bands
caused the rebellion; all the teens
needed was a cause (Manning 32-34). The
Vietnam War began as President
Kennedy's effort to protect the "free
world" from Communism. Kennedy, a
well-liked president, received little war
opposition from the people. He was
young and supported free-spiritedness,
open-mindedness, and equality; at his
assassination in 1963 only 15,000 troops
were in Vietnam. Under Lyndon
Johnson the number of soldiers skyrocketed,
however, reaching 500,000 in
1966. Television broadcasts from overseas became
more gruesome and the deaths
more tragic. The nightly news counted the dead and
described compiling
destruction, and many political and literary figures began
to speak out
publicly against keeping US troops in Vietnam (Harding 56-9).
Though
Johnson continually promised a swift end to the war, the Tet Offensive
of
1968 finally proved otherwise. A surprise attack on American soldiers
caused a
significant loss of land and life; the Communists were apparently
nowhere near
defeat (Buchholz 861)! Shiploads of American boys came too and
from Vietnam,
only too many of those returning home were riding in a coffin.
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). Disgusted
by conformity, culture,
and politics, some hippies abandoned society to live
in isolated communes; by
1970 over 200 communes existed, maintaining
40,000 youths. However, many hippies
also took a political stance against the
war. The Vietnam War conflicted
directly with the hippie belief in peace and
love, so the counterculture
protested the war throughout the nation. The
"flower children" held
"love-ins" to celebrate their rights, spoke out
publicly, formed
protest groups with the slogan: "Hell no, we won't go!",
burned flags,
and tore up draft slips (858). To avoid the Vietnam draft, some
pacifists took
extraordinary measures. Many claimed insanity, lied about
homosexuality,
pretended to be physically unfit, or fled to Canada (19). Yet
far too many
peace-loving hippies were sent to jail for refusing the draft
call, maintaining
their principles and integrity (Gottlieb 55). "Faced with
family dejection,
exile, arrest, and imprisonment, they nevertheless
continued to stay firm to the
opposition to that war" (Tollefson 4). While
the government drafted their
"brothers," the remaining hippies protest the
war at home. Considering
most hippies were under thirty, the greatest
concentration of them was in
colleges throughout America. Protests began in
Columbia University and Berkley
University, California. A demonstration
against Nixon's decision to invade
Cambodia led to violence at Kent State
University; the National Guard killed
four students. Finally, the University
of Virginia, founded by America's
forefather of freedom Thomas Jefferson, was
raided by two hundred baton-waving
policemen who arrested sixty-eight
students (Thompson 66-8). The greatest
expression of the hippie belief,
whether pro-peace or pro-pot, was their music.
Rock and roll was their
voice. Led by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson
Airplane, and the
Beatles, rock and folk music overtook the airwaves. (Manning
102) Bob
Dylan used the lyrics of folk music to convey a social commentary
and
protest. In a civil rights march in 1963, he sang the following lyrics:
How many
years can some people exist Before their allowed to be free? The
answer, my
friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind
(102) Folk
artists did not sing simply to sound pleasant, but more
importantly to convey a
message. Most song lyrics addressed the wart or the
civil rights movement, and
the crowd would sing along in a chorus. Existing
in harmony with folk music was
rock, which adopted a style known as
psychedelia, or "mind expansion."
Rock's lyrics were less important, with
the overall sound dominating as an
expression of the soul. And with many band
members high on marijuana or LSD,
hardcore "acid rock" became a means of
escaping the world-for both the
band and the audience (102-103). The
"ultimate orgy" of rock and folk
music occurred at "Woodstock" 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
very beautiful and psychedelic music.
The roster included some of the
most famous rock bands on earth, as well
talented amateurs looking for a
start. An attendee described it as: "Three
days of love, peace, and rock!"
(Thompson 89). The concert epitomized the
music and, indirectly, the hippie
lifestyle of the sixties, and paved the way
for the more diverse,
"drugged-up" musical style of the early
seventies. Illicit drugs were a
prominent influence on hippie lifestyle and
culture. By the mid-sixties, LSD
and marijuana had overtaken America overnight.
These hallucinogens were a
social activity at least experimented with by
virtually every "groovy"
teenager in America. Numerous books were
written both condemning and
justifying the new drug phenomena. Drug proponents
referred to Native
Americans religious ceremony, spiritual and medical
references in ancient
texts, and Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception to
defend their drug
use. Eventually more toxic drugs such as cocaine, heroin,
barbiturates, and
amphetamines followed, used for recreation and often leading
to fatal
consequences. Drugs became incorporated into the music industry as
well; most
musical artists used narcotics, often writing and performing songs
while
"high" (Harding 29, 31). The hippies' social status as
nonconformist,
doped-up outcasts was paralleled by their fashion and lifestyle.
Devout
hippies lived modestly in communes and were strict vegetarians,
respecting
not only human but also animal rights. Modest living also applied
to
clothing. Hippies in the sixties did not consider fashion important enough
to
spend much time on, and on the contrary tried to look "bad"
according
to society's standards. Women dressed like "peasants and wore
psychedelic
colors;" makeup and perfume were almost sinful, and clothing was
loose,
comfortable, and unique (Michaels 328). Bright, swirling patterns for
both sexes
paralleled the "acid rock" style of their music. Both men and
women
grew long, unkempt hair and the men often grew beards as well. To
outsiders, the
hippies seemed "dirty, drugged, and disrespectful to their
elders;" it
was exactly what they wanted (329). The hippie philosophy
preached peace and
toleration. Thus, they were supportive of all civil rights
movements, supporting
females, blacks, homosexuals, and foreigners on
attaining rights and equal
treatment. Hippie women wanted to be free. To
relieve themselves of society's
burdens, many stopped shaving their arm and
leg hairs. Further women's
liberation came with the invention of the birth
control pill in 1960 and its
perfection in 1963; women were finally sexually
free. Female philosophy changed
overnight; instead of waiting till marriage
for intercourse, many women now
making love to the first guy she saw. Dating
virtually vanished; hippies had sex
first and got to know each other
afterwards. With increased sexual freedom and
the lack of widespread sexually
transmitted diseases, promiscuous sex flourished
during the 1960s (Thompson
44). Having gained sexual freedom, women were now
fighting for rights outside
the bedroom. Betty Friedan forms The National
Organization for Women
(NOW) in 1966 to gain women the same rights as men.
Courses in women
studies were instated at universities, men realized (as part of
the hippie
movement) that women should be treated more fairly, and efforts were
made,
unsuccessfully, to add an amendment to the Constitution to guarantee
women's
equality. Though mainstream women also participated in these protests,
both
hippie men and women took an active role in ensuring equality for
all
(Buchholz 851-3). Another significant group, the black community, sought
after
its civil rights during the 1960s. Numerous protests, both peaceful and
violent,
were held by black Americans to end centuries of discrimination,
branded upon
them since their ancestors arrived four hundred years earlier.
Martin Luther
King Jr. and Malcolm X eloquently led the black protests,
and most hippies
enthusiastically participating in peaceful demonstrations
for black civil rights
(854-7). The Age of the Hippies, fortunately or
unfortunately, did not last
forever. In the early 1970s, somewhere between
'70 and '74, the entire movement
died almost as abruptly as it had begun. To
many the entire hippie movement was
just a fad that was no longer "in." The
Vietnam War, the main force
driving the social revolution, was concluding; an
anti-war march on Washington
and San Francisco in 1971, accumulating over one
million participants
collectively, finally persuaded the government to end
the bloodshed. A protest
sign read: "The Majority is Not Silent. The
Government is Deaf"
(Manning, 177-9). Yet there were other factors. The
hippies were getting too old
to be hippies; almost all of the counterculture
started with participants under
thirty, yet those who began the movement had
been in involved for ten years.
These were the baby boomers, and the next
generation was no nearly as large to
form its own "youth society."
Furthermore, the music had gotten
"drugged-out;" the performers were so
"stoned" that their
songs quickly became meaningless garble with no message.
And what message was
there to preach without the War? Drugs had destroyed the
lives of many, and
after realizing the negative effects many hippies no
longer admired drugs, but
feared them. Worst of all, little had been
accomplished-dreams of world peace
had failed. The Hippie Revolution lasted
ten years with participation around the
world, from the USSR to Great
Britain. Yet they accomplished so little. The
teens were tired of waiting
(Thompson 99-107). Women shaved their legs and piled
on makeup. Men traded in
their long hair and love beads for a business suit.
There were those who
remained hippies and moved to isolated communes, but they
were relatively
few. Life essentially returned to the days before the Hippie
Revolution.
In actuality, only a minority of the youth of the sixties actually
entered
the counterculture, but those who did left a lasting impression upon
society,
and most of all themselves (108). The hippie movement of the mid-
and
late-nineteen sixties and the early nineteen seventies attempted to
create a
global society founded upon love and peace. Through nonviolent
protests the
hippies helped end the Vietnam War, gain black, women's,
minority, and
homosexual civil rights, and spread friendship and harmony
around the globe. Not
in vain, the era lives on through their music, their
peace sign, and their
memories; Woodstock was even recreated in 1994. The
hippie influence is even
prevalent in America's society of 1998, which still
possesses a youthful
counterculture of "sex, drugs, and rock and
roll."
Bibliography
Buchholz, Ted, ed. The National Experience: A
History of the United States.
New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College
Publishers: 1993 Gottlieb, Sherry
Gershon. Hell No, We Won't Go! New
York, Viking: 1991. Harding, Ryan. The 1960s:
Politics and Pot. New York,
Anchor Book: 1992. Manning, Robert. The Vietnam
Experience: A Nation
Divided. Boston, Boston Publishing Company: 1984. Michaels,
Lisa. "Making
a fashion statement." Glamour Magazine (May 1998).
Thompson, Phoebe. The
Flower Childern. New York, Prentice Hall: 1989 Tollefson,
James W. The
Strength Not to Fight. Boston, Little, Brown and Company: 1993