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Old 09-26-2020, 09:26 AM
 
5,989 posts, read 6,733,345 times
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The baby boom generation was so enormous, and was raised in such privileged times (as compared to the generation before that was raised during the Depression, and then went to WWII), that the world has been made for them, at every step of the way.

1950s was very child-focused. Women, who had gone out to work out of necessity during the war, were unceremoniously thrown out of their jobs, and told to stay home and raise babies. It is natural for people in their teens to rebel against the values of their parents, and in late teens and early 20s to find a "cause", and throw themselves into it, just as it is natural for them to look more towards their own personal welfare, and start families, in their 30s (given the opportunity to avoid pregnancy until they're ready). Colleges expanded tremendously, to serve the baby boomers, whose families were in such a good financial position as to be able to send their kids to college.

For those who did it, it was fun, to have a sexual revolution, to spend one's days protesting, loafing, doing drugs, traveling around in groups. What really ended it was that the baby boomers got a bit older, and after having self-righteously proclaimed that they rejected all of their parents' generation's "materialism", became the Yuppy generation, the most materialistic generation that had yet been seen. When they finally had children, they were still such a large bulge in the population that they created an "echo boom", and they proceeded to address parenting as an intensely competitive sport, pouring such money, time, attention, and utterly total supervision into parenting, that their children were considered, as a generation, to be ridden with anxiety and self-doubt, because they'd never been allowed to do a single thing for themselves, or even play outside unsupervised.

Now the boomers are entering retirement age. The leading wave of them is approaching their mid-70's, and the bulk of them are approaching retirement age. They are such an enormous group that they will likely re-make retirement style, the retirement services offered to them, the elder-care industry, even the funeral industry.

It wasn't just a reaction to the JFK assassination, or to the Vietnam war. It was a reaction to the conservatism of the 50's (which benefited them as children, since all the women were essentially forced back into homemaker roles, whether they liked it or not), and an opportunity due to the enormity of their cohort, and the general prosperity of the country.
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Old 09-26-2020, 09:57 AM
 
Location: The Carolinas
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Pot
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:01 AM
 
Location: San Diego CA
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Counter culture is an ongoing movement noted throughout history of young people turning against the restraints and rigidity of adult authority figures. It permeates through every generation. Curiously once the youthful anti establishment crowd grows old they turn conservative and their children become the new counter culture perpetuating a never ending circle.
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:03 AM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,086 posts, read 107,163,173 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandstander View Post
The Beatnik era, late '50's - early '60's, was an anti-establishment movement. It ran concurrent and was outlasted by the Civil Rights movement which was concerned with social justice. What followed was a fusion of those two dynamics, excessively irreverent people calling for social justice. It was the righteousness of thinking oneself on the correct side of all issues that permitted the outlandish behavior.

And the Baby Boomer dynamics meant that young people were a greater percentage of the population than ever before or since. Consequently they had greater influence on society as a whole than is usual.

It might do to keep in mind that the counter culture practitioners were still a minority even among the young. While 400,000 gathered at Woodstock on an August weekend, that same weekend saw millions going to ball games, or movies, or drag strips or shopping malls etc.

And we should not confuse counter culture and "Mod" which was more or less the commercial exploitation of counter culture wannabees. Things like "Laugh In", "The Mod Squad", the word "groovy", Sammy Davis Jr. in a Nehru jacket...that was all "mod" and was a meaningless sideshow fad.
That's a good point. It was as outgrowth of the Beatnik ethos, which was a rebellion against the conservatism and conformism of the 50's into the 60's.

But why were the 40's and 50's conformist and conservative? Because after the Depression and WWII, everyone just wanted to have a stable life and try to get ahead? So some of their children had the luxury of being raised in middle-class homes with no worries, more or less, and this caused some of them to turn to a search for meaning in life. They felt there had to be more to life than materialism and stifling conformity.

That's why the Beatles' songs about "All you need is LOVE" struck such a chord. People were looking beyond empty lives of materialism to spirituality outside of organized religion, and searching for the authentic spiritual values they felt their family life lacked.
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:05 AM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,086 posts, read 107,163,173 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by msgsing View Post
Counter culture is an ongoing movement noted throughout history of young people turning against the restraints and rigidity of adult authority figures. It permeates through every generation. Curiously once the youthful anti establishment crowd grows old they turn conservative and their children become the new counter culture perpetuating a never ending circle.
Is this really true, though? Maybe it is of a few in that crowd, but has anyone taken a poll to see what percentage actually abandoned their ideals, and what percentage put them into practice in their everyday lives through adulthood?
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:22 AM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,086 posts, read 107,163,173 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by parentologist View Post
The baby boom generation was so enormous, and was raised in such privileged times (as compared to the generation before that was raised during the Depression, and then went to WWII), that the world has been made for them, at every step of the way.

1950s was very child-focused. Women, who had gone out to work out of necessity during the war, were unceremoniously thrown out of their jobs, and told to stay home and raise babies. It is natural for people in their teens to rebel against the values of their parents, and in late teens and early 20s to find a "cause", and throw themselves into it, just as it is natural for them to look more towards their own personal welfare, and start families, in their 30s (given the opportunity to avoid pregnancy until they're ready). Colleges expanded tremendously, to serve the baby boomers, whose families were in such a good financial position as to be able to send their kids to college.

For those who did it, it was fun, to have a sexual revolution, to spend one's days protesting, loafing, doing drugs, traveling around in groups. What really ended it was that the baby boomers got a bit older, and after having self-righteously proclaimed that they rejected all of their parents' generation's "materialism", became the Yuppy generation, the most materialistic generation that had yet been seen. When they finally had children, they were still such a large bulge in the population that they created an "echo boom", and they proceeded to address parenting as an intensely competitive sport, pouring such money, time, attention, and utterly total supervision into parenting, that their children were considered, as a generation, to be ridden with anxiety and self-doubt, because they'd never been allowed to do a single thing for themselves, or even play outside unsupervised.

Now the boomers are entering retirement age. The leading wave of them is approaching their mid-70's, and the bulk of them are approaching retirement age. They are such an enormous group that they will likely re-make retirement style, the retirement services offered to them, the elder-care industry, even the funeral industry.

It wasn't just a reaction to the JFK assassination, or to the Vietnam war. It was a reaction to the conservatism of the 50's (which benefited them as children, since all the women were essentially forced back into homemaker roles, whether they liked it or not), and an opportunity due to the enormity of their cohort, and the general prosperity of the country.
I've read, that the "Me Generation", which was the Yuppie phenomenon, was the second cohort of Boomers, not the early one, that was out protesting the Vietnam War or getting drafted, and out participating in the Civil Rights movement. Those events occurred before the second Boomer cohort was old enough to be involved.

Some of the older Boomers went on to careers that facilitated their urge to bring about social change, whether through charitable non-profit work, fields like Civil Rights law, International Human Rights law, alternative energy development or other environmental work, and so on. The "Me Generation" cohort tended not to choose those types of careers. My observation is, that Me Generation kids tended more to choose "establishment" careers that promised to provide lucrative returns on their efforts. They tend to mimic the conservative values of their parents. That's what I've seen in my West Coast environment. YMMV.
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:30 AM
 
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What started the Hippie/Counterculture movement during the 60s?


The dope smoking, free loving, grandparents of the protesting/rioting kids today.
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Old 09-26-2020, 10:55 AM
 
Location: NYC
5,236 posts, read 3,575,698 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
I've read, that the "Me Generation", which was the Yuppie phenomenon, was the second cohort of Boomers, not the early one, that was out protesting the Vietnam War or getting drafted, and out participating in the Civil Rights movement. Those events occurred before the second Boomer cohort was old enough to be involved.

.....
Yes I noted that as well. The hippies were entirely separate from the Yuppies (but not the yippies). They also weren't part of the 1970's Punk movement, which may have been a reaction to both the current yuppies & the older hippies.
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Old 09-26-2020, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Parts Unknown, Northern California
48,564 posts, read 24,008,007 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
So some of their children had the luxury of being raised in middle-class homes with no worries, more or less, and this caused some of them to turn to a search for meaning in life. They felt there had to be more to life than materialism and stifling conformity.
The Monkees, the pre-fab Four of all people, may have offered the clearest illustration of the phenomena you reference above. Their song "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was a complaint against prosperity, a notion that would never have occurred to the Depression/WW II generation. (Although the songwriter may have been inspired by Malvina Reynold's earlier "Little Boxes")

Another manifestation may be found in "The Graduate" when Ben is informed by a representative of the preceding generation that one word is the key to the future......"plastics."
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Old 09-26-2020, 11:27 AM
 
6,219 posts, read 3,550,564 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Babe_Ruth View Post
My opinion, it was when young Baby Boomers started getting drafted to go to Vietnam.. it caused a catastrophic schism between them and the older generations (who expected them to stoically comply ?). Everything else/subsequent.. the rampant drug use, free love, repudiation of traditional patriotism, unprecedented divorce rates etc all stemmed from the trauma of a generation being conscripted in to an unpopular war. But it was before my time, so I'm just conjecturing from my study of American history.. (and personal experiences with some twisted Baby Boomers).
Baby boomers did not start the hippie movement. Most of the early counterculture figures (not even counting the Beatniks) were born in the early to mid 40s.
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