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Someone please explain how hippies can turn into yuppies?
The Viet Nam War protest , the pill, music, a proliferation of drugs and to a certain extent, the influence of the Civil Rights Movement were the core of the Hippy culture.
Yuppie was a term used to describe young urban professionals who trended towards conspicuous consumption in the 80's. Most would have been children during the peak of hippy time, in the mid 60's- very early 70's. Their moms may have dressed them in cute flowered bell bottoms and ignored their hair in the 70's.
Most people were not hippies or yuppies, despite fitting the age demographic.
Between 1943- 1969, the draft was conducted based on age with the oldest being drafted first.
A few religions, Amish and Quakers, were deemed exempt from the draft.
Some were able to avoid the draft with student deferments, including grad school. Most grad school exemptions were eliminated in 1968.
Some young men used a combination of college and missionary work, like door knocking for converts in Paris to avoid the draft.
Others feigned homosexuality, physical or mental conditions to avoid being drafted. Others were relocated to Canada, often by their families.
And then there were those with connections who were able to avoid the draft by gaining safe positions within the National Guard or exemptions for grad school.
Those who could qualify enlisted in the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force to avoid ground combat.
More young men managed to dodge the draft than were drafted.
The draft went to a lottery system in 1970 and ended in 1973.
One of the more profound difference is that unlike returning service people after WW2 and today, Viet Nam Vets were not particularly respected. Their benefits were a fraction of those enjoyed by returning vets after WW2.
Mormons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LauraC
No, hippies were filthy.
That's why my mom kept threatening to wash my mouth out with soap!
Her criticism didn't help though, I still swear like a sailor.
What do you mean, "it's very trivial?" I was part of that generation, and I have family and friends who went to Vietnam. I lived through it. My husband had a high draft lottery number (and he had a college deferment before that) so fortunately they ended the war before he had to go. It wasn't trivial to the kids who were dragged to fight in a war that made no sense, that they didn't support, that it became more obvious by the day that we would never win, and where they saw their friends go home in body bags or crippled for life. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Kids today serve BY CHOICE. There are no protests because if you go, its because you signed up. People in the 60s and 70s protested our involvement in Vietnam because they didn't want to die (or see their friends and family die) for something they didn't support or believe in.
While I totally agree with you about the other stuff you mention, The "choice' part is a grey area. The system is rigged to exploit races and privilege. These kids only 'sign-up' because after a life of poverty, a carrot is dangled in front of their face. Im pretty sure based on return statistics of PTSD and the current suicide rate among the enlisted, most of them didnt sign-on to what they were given in reality. They didnt sign-on to have their commitment terms negated and forced to do endless tours for Exxon, Boeing and other warmongering corps. My Wife in her position as a child advocate has had this conversation with military recruiters before--Why do they only target inner-city and low-income rural schools to spread their propaganda, and not lets say, a private school in Connecticut or Massachusetts? Yes, its their 'choice', but the current stats show that most of them would re-think that 'choice' if given an opportunity.
And again, Im shocked at the apathy among young people in regards to watching the gov slaughter their own while they stand by idly. We joined a protest group in the Philly area when the Bush/Cheney annexations/Kill-em-All tour started, and even back then I was taken by the fact that most of the people were older people who our current society would label as outcasts, counterculture, crazy cat ladies, etc . . . Where were the young people??
How did yuppies turn into hippies? Hippies were a phenomena of the 1960s and early 1970s. Yuppies--YOUNG URBAN PROFESSIONALS were a phenomena of the 1980s, right along with the election of Ronald Reagan. After the war ended in 1975, the country slipped into what I can only call decadence and struggle--lots of drugs (not for experimentation like earlier, but for abuse), mindless disco music, plus a recession. Hippies weren't part of the late 1970s. The election of Reagan and the Yuppie movement were a backlash to the end of the counter culture movement. Everything goes in cycles.
The crack epidemic hit urban areas in the 80's.
This was followed by heroin chic in the 90's. Fear of HIV made inhalation fashionable.
A hippie was any dude with long hair and cut off Levis.
I don't think most hippies were political in the 70s.
I knew hippies.
Hippies were friends of mine.
Saying any dude with long hair and cut off Levis was a hippie is just flat-out wrong. Hippies were counter-culture who lived a philosophy. Cut off Levis? Oh, please.
While I totally agree with you about the other stuff you mention, The "choice' part is a grey area. The system is rigged to exploit races and privilege. These kids only 'sign-up' because after a life of poverty, a carrot is dangled in front of their face. Im pretty sure based on return statistics of PTSD and the current suicide rate among the enlisted, most of them didnt sign-on to what they were given in reality. They didnt sign-on to have their commitment terms negated and forced to do endless tours for Exxon, Boeing and other warmongering corps. My Wife in her position as a child advocate has had this conversation with military recruiters before--Why do they only target inner-city and low-income rural schools to spread their propaganda, and not lets say, a private school in Connecticut or Massachusetts? Yes, its their 'choice', but the current stats show that most of them would re-think that 'choice' if given an opportunity.
And again, Im shocked at the apathy among young people in regards to watching the gov slaughter their own while they stand by idly. We joined a protest group in the Philly area when the Bush/Cheney annexations/Kill-em-All tour started, and even back then I was taken by the fact that most of the people were older people who our current society would label as outcasts, counterculture, crazy cat ladies, etc . . . Where were the young people??
I think that's fair--that the wars are still being fought by poor kids. That was my point--when the draft forced kids with other options into the war (especially when they eliminated the college deferment) they fought back. Most of the anti-war organizing happened on college campuses. Poor kids were drafted then because they didn't have other options, and now they sign up for the service because it's a way out of their current circumstances. Without the draft, college students and middle class kids weren't impacted by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and as long as they weren't impacted, most of them looked the other way.
The other issue is that, at least initially, a good chunk of the population strongly supported the more recent wars because of the 911 attacks. During Vietnam it wasn't as personal--most people had never even heard of Vietnam, and didn't know what it had to do with us except for some vague cold war fight against communists.
I think that's fair--that the wars are still being fought by poor kids. That was my point--when the draft forced kids with other options into the war (especially when they eliminated the college deferment) they fought back. Most of the anti-war organizing happened on college campuses. Poor kids were drafted then because they didn't have other options, and now they sign up for the service because it's a way out of their current circumstances. College students and middle class kids weren't impacted by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and as long as they weren't impacted, most of them looked the other way.
To diverge a little, and keep my boring rants going (switch to decaf??)~
I spent my grade school years in Pittsburgh PA. IT had its issues, of course, but overall it was strictly mid-western, Leave it to Beaver as far as the society was at that time, overall. Conservative -- and kids still said "Sir" and "Ma'am", etc . . . Every friday, our high school (my Sisters school)would have a walk-out to protest the war. The admin would just let it go. They agreed. Peaceful demonstration. I cant see a high school today--anywhere-- staging walk-outs or having POW Bracelet drives. I can see X-Box and FaceBook time, but not civil protest.
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Hippies were a phenomena of the 1960s and early 1970s. Yuppies--YOUNG URBAN PROFESSIONALS were a phenomena of the 1980s, right along with the election of Ronald Reagan. After the war ended in 1975, the country slipped into what I can only call decadence and struggle--lots of drugs (not for experimentation like earlier, but for abuse), mindless disco music, plus a recession. Hippies weren't part of the late 1970s. The election of Reagan and the Yuppie movement were a backlash to the end of the counter culture movement. Everything goes in cycles.
