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I was in elementary school in the late '60s so obviously I wouldn't have the first hand experience you would, but you'd probably know that the counterculture was a great deal more varied and diverse than the stereotypes that people have of it now.
I wanted to know how you arrived at your conclusion. I read a couple of reviews of the first source you quoted - they indicated that Gair interwove pertinent influences from all of the arts in his analysis of the hippie generation:
Quote:
Broken down into two main sections, The American Counterculture addresses the period from 1945-60 through a series of chapters dedicated to fiction, music, painting and film, before then moving on to repeat the same structure for the period 1961-1972. Each chapter interweaves its content with analyses and insightful commentary from throughout the book, providing an accessible and entertaining ‘overview (albeit selective)’ (p.121), to borrow Gair’s own terminology, which references Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, Abdul Mati Klarwein’s paintings used as album covers, poster art, Diane di Prima, Wally Hedrick (whose Flower Flag from around 1950 provides the cover image) and Jay Defeo, to name just a few, as well as more familiar figures such as Jackson Pollock, Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey and Hunter S. Thompson. Book Review The American Counterculture. by Christopher Gair
I think you pulled out a quote that supported your argument, but the quote was out of context.
I agree wholeheartedly with the bolded portion of your post.
More to the point, the spread of higher education to the middle and working classes of America (and Britain) and the increased educational level of young people was seen as a culprit for the spread of the counterculture by the US right. They claimed that the kids had been corrupted by "Marxist professors", (i.e. NYC socialist intellectuals or German emigres who'd fled Nazism and the Holocaust), who'd stirred them into "revolution". Hence the subsequent cutbacks in education by Reagan (as governor and president) and Prop 13 in California which destroyed that state's school system (previously excellent, subsequently pretty bad, although the effects took time to kick in). Not to mention that these policies were emulated on a federal level and on state levels by subsequent Republicans, to the point that we now have a "dumbed down right". The events of 1968 scared enough people in power that they realized that the public had to be kept dumber in order to be more easily manipulated.
Agree. As a public school teacher for 37 years, I watched it happen.
It is not in the best interests of those in power for America to have a voting populace with superior - or even average - critical thinking skills.
I think hippies were a bit superficial, especially in the personal realm. In German there is a hippie saying: wer zweimal mit derselben pennt, gehört schon zum Establishment, meaning, who sleeps with the same woman twice, already is part of the establishment. I guess most hippies confused sex with love.
I think you keep getting some and most confused.
But keep guessing, you will eventually get something right.
if you look at the tea party movement, and its substitution of rage, provocation, and political performance art for actual political discourse and action, you can see some links with the "political" wing of the hippies. Considering tea party demographics - dominated by white men born between 1945 and 1960, with a large early boomer representation (i.e. Those born before 1955 and thus actually old enough to have been hippies in the 1960s and early 1970s - late boomers were too young to have been real hippies although many adapted hippie trappings) - it would be no surprise if many of the tea party types were hippies. They've just traded grace slick for sarah palin....
any hippies who decide to love their country,the military,and a bar of soap is welcome at the tea party
If you look at the Tea Party movement, and its substitution of rage, provocation, and political performance art for actual political discourse and action, you can see some links with the "political" wing of the hippies. Considering Tea Party demographics - dominated by white men born between 1945 and 1960, with a large early boomer representation (i.e. those born before 1955 and thus actually old enough to have been hippies in the 1960s and early 1970s - late boomers were too young to have been real hippies although many adapted hippie trappings) - it would be no surprise if many of the Tea Party types WERE hippies. They've just traded Grace Slick for Sarah Palin....
If you look at the Tea Party movement, and its substitution of rage, provocation, and political performance art for actual political discourse and action, you can see some links with the "political" wing of the hippies. Considering Tea Party demographics - dominated by white men born between 1945 and 1960, with a large early boomer representation (i.e. those born before 1955 and thus actually old enough to have been hippies in the 1960s and early 1970s - late boomers were too young to have been real hippies although many adapted hippie trappings) - it would be no surprise if many of the Tea Party types WERE hippies. They've just traded Grace Slick for Sarah Palin....
There was a conservative streak inside the hippie subculture, whose heirs are today's Crunchy Cons.
"....there always was a strain in the counterculture that wanted to preserve the past and restore lost traditions. By 1970 or so, the paradigmatic hippies were not urban runaways eating acid at a lightshow but a troupe of would-be farmers heading to the countryside. On their soundtrack, instead of some endless psychedelic jam, you could hear a series of country-rock songs by Dylan, the Byrds, the Band..."
There was a conservative streak inside the hippie subculture, whose heirs are today's Crunchy Cons.
"....there always was a strain in the counterculture that wanted to preserve the past and restore lost traditions. By 1970 or so, the paradigmatic hippies were not urban runaways eating acid at a lightshow but a troupe of would-be farmers heading to the countryside. On their soundtrack, instead of some endless psychedelic jam, you could hear a series of country-rock songs by Dylan, the Byrds, the Band..."
1. Endorsement of illegal drug use
2. Contempt for the family and sex outside of the marriage
3. Lack of respect for the institution of marriage
4. Lack of embracing the work ethic of the previous generation
5. Bad manners
6. Sloppy dress
7. lack of respect for the US and contempt for thier own nation
8. contempt for US servicemen
Diversity of opinion is a huge part of what makes this country great. I'm not a hippie, but I'm sure glad they exist. I wouldn't want to live in a place where everyone thinks alike.
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