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Another thought. The concept of "The teen-age years" was a whole new social concept. Prior to WWII it was common for teens to take on an adult role with adult responsibilities as soon as he had completed his education however early that may have been.
Suddenly there were young, inexperienced people with money and mobility whose like had never been studied before. What was their place in civilized society? Were they stuck in a place of youth with no personal authority? No wonder they got so whiny about people not understanding them. It was a set-up for narcissistic pursuits and the resultant feelings of discontent.
The Hippies took a look at that and tried to opt out. Guess they proved you can't live in a society and not be of that society.
I will weigh in, as a person who turned 20 in 1968...prime hippy time. I got married out of high school, so I missed the unrest and protesting, free love and drugs that I might have been a part of if I had gone straight to college.
I think the hippy movement was fueled by the Vietnam War. Men my age were exempted if they were in college, then that changed, but if you were married and had children, you were exempt. That’s how my first husband stayed out of the war. Meanwhile, the man who would become my second husband was sweating out the draft lottery and luckily wasn’t called up.
Men of draft age rebelled because the war seemed so unnecessary. There was no United cause like the previous wars. Along with the war thing was the fact that we were the first post WWII generation. We were spoiled and indulged, compared to our parents, yet we were raised to be good, polite children. I think we just started to feel we wanted to break the cycle of “children should be seen and not heard.”
.. the first post WWII generation. We were spoiled and indulged, compared to our parents, yet we were raised to be good, polite children. I think we just started to feel we wanted to break the cycle of “children should be seen and not heard.”
Good first hand insights, thanks.
I think two big factors played in to the schism you're describing.. Baby Boomers were basically the first generation of youth who all had cars. It created a new form of independence from parents (?) And the large scale attendance of colleges.. where Marxist professors were using (well intentioned) dissent against Vietnam, as a wedge/gateway against all traditional American patriotism & values. Now teens with mobility, & leftist values, are commonplace but it was just getting cranked up in the 60s. peace
Good first hand insights, thanks.
I think two big factors played in to the schism you're describing.. Baby Boomers were basically the first generation of youth who all had cars. It created a new form of independence from parents (?) And the large scale attendance of colleges.. where Marxist professors were using (well intentioned) dissent against Vietnam, as a wedge/gateway against all traditional American patriotism & values. Now teens with mobility, & leftist values, are commonplace but it was just getting cranked up in the 60s. peace
There may have been a few radical professors at UC Berkeley and a few other colleges, but not many. I attended UC Berkeley in 1963 and dropped out. I attended UCLA from 1964 to 1968. The professors and administration were all very establishment types. Governor Ronald Reagan's printed signature was on my diploma in 1968. I was a liberal arts student majoring in Political Science and English Literature. I never heard any teacher, professor or grad student teaching assistant, ever comment on the Vietnam war. In fact my History grad student teaching assistant tried her best to flunk me in my senior year, which would have meant a one year suspension from the college and an instant draft notice. I pulled that grade up to a B and graduated with exactly a 2.0 average, the minimum required for staying in school and graduating. There was more campus activism after 1968, but it was mainly the students versus the professors and administration, not the professors leading the revolt. The professors had good jobs, especially the tenured ones. None I ever came in contact with wanted to endanger their careers over politics.
Good first hand insights, thanks.
I think two big factors played in to the schism you're describing.. Baby Boomers were basically the first generation of youth who all had cars. It created a new form of independence from parents (?) And the large scale attendance of colleges.. where Marxist professors were using (well intentioned) dissent against Vietnam, as a wedge/gateway against all traditional American patriotism & values. Now teens with mobility, & leftist values, are commonplace but it was just getting cranked up in the 60s. peace
No, we did not all have cars. Most families still had one car. If a kid used THE car, it was with permission. Many of our mothers didn’t drive, so one car was enough.
First let me say that I'm young and this is before my time. But what exactly set it off? Was it the assassination of JFK? The Vietnam War? I noticed this was a time of self-indulgence, feelings, pleasure, etc. Is all this accurate? Anyone live during this era? What were your experiences? What do you remember most? What's the biggest pro and con of this movement?
I'm not sure. It did start soon after the assassination. That took our hopes and dreams away because JFK believed in the youth of America. He made us feel important and he said to not ask what our country could do for US, but what WE could do for our country. Maybe what he said was a catalyst for us to take a stand and not just sit back and do nothing when we saw things we didn't agree with.
Couple that with the Viet Nam War that was taking our guys away to be maimed and killed for nothing. We got angry then. That's when we protested. "Hell no, we won't go."
Yes, most of us had good lives, having been brought up in the '50s when times were simple. We may not have had a lot but life wasn't complicated like it is today. We knew what was expected of us, we didn't have violence on tv but we had family style shows instead. We still had to behave in school and at home. We played outside and felt safe.
I just remember hearing about an anti Viet Nam group forming on campus. My boyfriend and I joined it. It was for peace and some of the members were Quakers, pacifists. As we began to feel more free, we tried new things like marijuana. Then came the clothes! That was probably the best part for me--love beads, handmade sandals, unusual outfits.
We started to feel really free and we were spoiled, I will admit. We were in college, we had never really suffered or sacrificed. And we didn't want it wrecked by Viet Nam. Anyway, some of us actually thought things over and decided that wars were stupid and cruel. So we joined protests. I went to a big one on the New Haven Green. It was totally peaceful and pretty quiet. We felt proud to have made our beliefs public.
Last protest I attended was in NYC and it was for peace and to see Martin Luther King.
The pro was that together we were strong. We never knew that. (There are more pros but I'm not here to write a dissertation.) The cons were that the protests were hijacked by violent people and also that the protests turned from Viet Nam and peace into occupying university offices, hating the police and calling them pigs. That's when I left. I thought it had become too disrespectful, gone too far.
Spoiled, hedonistic young adults and young men who wanted others to fight to further the United States’ interests. I tried to avoid dopers, I married and prepared for military service while in college, I reported for military service shortly after graduation, I had a child, I finished two years of active duty in the Army and was discharged, after which I got a job. I remember most the joy derived from my infant daughter. I saw no pros coming out of this movement. The cons: lifes lost to drug addiction, poorly thought out relationships, time wasted in becoming a meaningful member of society.
I dated a few guys who opted for the service academies, rather than risk being sent to Vietnam. Of course, guys in my working class neighborhood, like the kid next door who was killed in 'Nam and my brother didn't have any choice. Don't pat yourself on the back too hard.
Those '50s kids with switchblade knives were called juvenile delinquents. They were the high school dropouts, maybe the future criminals. They didn't become hippies.
I think every generation has its misfits and troublemakers.
Right, those 50's kids with switchblades were the gang bangers of their day. They were the ones the musical, "West Side Story" was modeled after. And the had no relation to the hippies. The hippies had their roots in the Beat movement, the Beatniks of the 50's.
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