Luis Lopez
English 11 // 2nd Period
Ms. Overson
Friday, April 8, 2017
The Hippie Movement
The Hippie movement was established in the 1960’s and people that were a part of this faction were members of a countercultural movement fought to improve equal rights for women, race relations, and freeing themselves from societal restrictions through protests, music, and peaceful marches. The hippies rejected the norms of a standard American life and were more open to ideas than average American during that time period. It’s legacy continues to exist and make changes today because of the modern changes we see today, which are the endorsement of freedom of speech and more doors open for social and ethnic groups.
The Hippie movement began during the
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By 1968, there were massive anti-Vietnam war marches, protests, sit-ins and student strikes in major cities and on college and university campuses across the nation. There wasn't really a in between when choosing a side, you either understood the reasoning and became a hippie or you just thought being a hippie is something you truly cannot be apart of, this from a point of view from a conservative. In fact, people who were outside the movement, mostly members of the white middle and upper middle class supported this development. “Most people who joined the counterculture came from families who had money; the hippies were not members of minority groups who suffered from discrimination” (Encyclopedia) . The reaction from the conservatives to the counterculture was tentative. They didn't really do much other than the fact of judging them in general. From pointing out the unnecessary drug abuse to disfavoring the wardrobe and long hair. They sort of predicted things would turn back the way it was before, to a return of family and values. The hippie movement was a direct effect on the laws that were created to prevent drug use that still exist today. The hippie movement also affected the Civil Rights Movement, which eventually resulted in several laws giving African Americans and women the same rights and white men, including the equal rights to vote and to an …show more content…
Because of the hippie movement, laws have been created banning illicit drugs and discrimination and more races, ethnicities and lifestyles are accepted. I will be mentioning following dates with certain bills that have been passed here in the U.S due to the Hippie movement. On July 23, 1964 the Senate passes $947 million antipoverty bill. The overall strategy was to help people to "climb out of poverty and stay out" On August 31, 1964, LBJ signs food stamp bill. “The goal of this initiative was to achieve a more effective use of agricultural overproduction, improve levels of nutrition among individuals with low-incomes and strengthen the agricultural economy” said Hip Inc. On July 30, 1965 LBJ signs Medicare bill. The Medicare program, is a program where they provide hospital and medical insurance for Americans age 65 or older, was signed into law as an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935. On October 1, 1965 a Anti-pollution bill sets emission standards for cars. Congress was setting deadlines for the production of low pollution car engines. On March 3, 1966 the GI Bill grants veterans rights to education, housing, health and jobs. It created hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted pay covering tuition and costs for veterans attending college or trade schools said
The “counterculture” developed during the 1960’s into the 1970’s and during this time period the American mindset questioned normal values and institutions. Over half the population was under 25, many of whom associated themselves with the Hippie Movement. Hippies were all about rejecting and rebelling against monumental societal institutions and were the focus group in the counterculture. The hippies set themselves apart from the “stereotypical man” and wanted to be untamed and wild. They valued the beauty in naturalness and stripping away “the securities of civilization that normally intervene between humans and elemental challenges (Nash, p. 267). They wanted independence and felt that the GNP was not the best indicator of American success.
Around the same time within the late 1960’s, a new hippie movement was forming, which was often described as a counterculture.
Hippies are good representation of the counter culture movement, it usually involve drug abuse, sex and abortion. History professor Theodore Roszak points out the hippies and radical students have a same point, which is counter-culture. (Roszak, 1995) In his views, counter-cultural movement is all social protest movements in the United States, such as democracy movement, women's liberation movement, black civil rights movement, and anti-war movement.
The 1960’s experience multiple social revolutions throughout the decade, whether it be the New Left, Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War Movement and the Hippie Revolution. Many of the movements were focused on many different political issues in society and were solely focused on resolving the issue; however, the Hippie Revolution did not. They were different from the New Left. While in Port Huron Statement (Document B), the term New Left is coined and they pleaded that they would do everything in their power to permeate society and reform the issues needed to be reform. The Hippie Revolution was primarily uninspired youth who were only worried with pleasuring themselves through recreational sex, peace, and love, rather actively participating
Hippies are the real activists of freedom who love each other in a positive way. The word hippies generally invoke sterotypes that involves drugs, sex and bare feet. Though it is true that many hippies did practice these sterotypes, they were people who fought for rights and freedom without violence. They gave up the traditional morals and values to promote new values that were about freedom of experssion and loving each other. After getting the attention, they expressed their needs, hopes and wants in a piercing yet nonviolent way. The hippies made great, positive changes to the Canadian society through their
Hippies represent the ideological, naive nature that children possess. They feel that with a little love and conectedness, peace and equality will abound. It is with this assumption that so many activists and reformers, inspired by the transformation that hippies cultivated, have found the will to persist in revolutionizing social and political policy. Their alternative lifestyles and radical beleifs were the shocking blow that American culture-- segregation, McCarthyism, unjust wars, censorship--needed to prove that some Americans still had the common sense to care for one another. The young people of the sixties counterculture movement were successful at awakening awareness on many causes that are being fought in modern
The whole hippie culture all together was totally against social norms, what society wanted to see, how everyone else lived, and what they believed in. The hippie culture’s main moto was “make love, not war”. They were strongly against war and the Vietnam War, which was going on during the same time the hippie culture was popular. They thought that everyone should have acceptance of the universe. They wanted to see change in the world, global
The Hippie Counter Culture began in 1960. The hippie era was influenced more by personal happiness in which books, music, and fashion followed as result of their personification of a blissful society. Hippies did not care what others thought of them and their motto was “if it feels good, do it”. Hippies were seeking a utopian society. They participated in street theater and listened to psychedelic rock. As part of their culture they embraced more open sexual encounters amongst each other in their community and believed in use of psychedelic drugs which consisted of marijuana and LSD. The fashion choice that hippies dressed in was due to set them apart from the mainstream society. They choose to buy their clothing from thrift shops and flea markets (Haddock, 2011). Clothing choices are described as “brightly colored, ragged clothes, tie-dyed t-shirts, beads, sandals (or barefoot), and jewelry” (Haddock, 2011, para 7). Hippies also referred
The American hippie movement of the 1960s was strengthened by the increase of youth population. Many believe the official beginning of this cultural event started with the youth of the 1960's but it really started with their parents. In the late 1930s and early 1940s America was just coming out of a disheartening depression.(About the Great Depression.) America's unfortunate fate led them into another unlucky situation, World War II. Many youthful men and women joined the service, in fact over an estimated sixteen million total were sent into the war.( GI Bill History - U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs. ) In the late 1940s soldiers coming back at the end of the war were now onto the next stage of their lives and made families. This is what started the baby boomers. After so many hardships and losses the last thing anyone expected was an approximately seventy-six million babies born between baby boomer era of about ten to fifteen years. (BBHQ: Boomer Statistics. ) Many of these children had strict parents who had become disheartened from losing childhood
The Hippie Movement changed the politics and the culture in America in the 1960s. When the nineteen fifties turned into the nineteen sixties, not much had changed, people were still extremely patriotic, the society of America seemed to work together, and the youth of America did not have much to worry about, except for how fast their car went or what kind of outfit they should wear to the Prom. After 1963, things started to slowly change in how America viewed its politics, culture, and social beliefs, and the group that was in charge of this change seemed to be the youth of America. The Civil Rights Movement, President Kennedy’s death, new music, the birth control pill, the growing illegal drug market, and
Young people known as “hippies” started protesting through long hair, music, sex and drugs. During the movement the famous Woodstock Music Festival emerged. During Woodstock it was believed personal rebellion reigned over political rebellion. Open sex and drugs swept America.
The 1960s Hippie movement was a major point in the American history. In the 1960s a certain class of young people associated their lifestyles with the ideas of freedom, peace, and love. Hippies acted against white upper middle class lifestyle because they thought it was based on the wrong ideology. Hippies were against consumerism and American suburban life of the late 1950s and early 1960s was embodied in itself the idea of consumerism. Hippies, on the other hand, felt better about communal life with equal distribution of social goods. Traditional “bigger share” and consumerist greed as concepts of American society were despised by Hippies.
The stereotypical hippie that most people think of: blue jeans, flower crowns, drugs, peace and love. In the 1960s, thousands of mostly white, middle-class young people "dropped out" of mainstream society to live in hippie communities throughout the U.S(1946-1971: Postwar and Civil Rights Era). Among the youth of the ‘60s (18-mid-twenty-year old’s) made tension against the government and the country. Disapproval from many about the war in Vietnam and the draft that sent hundreds of thousands of 18 and 19-year-old men into battle was growing. Was it successful enough, not exactly, but it did change the view of our society in a way no one realized.
They wanted to change the way that women were represented and treated in American culture. Consciousness of what they could accomplish eventually led to the organization of huge public feminist protests for abortion rights, equal pay, and, eventually, the Equal Rights Amendment. There were many things that influenced people to fight for civil rights dating all the way back to slavery, but in the sixties people realized that they could actually make changes for the better. The Vietnam War was another major factor that caused the emergence of the counter culture. The horrifying images of the Tet Offensive and other atrocious pictures from the war caused many anti-war groups and leaders to emerge. Groups such as the Doves and Students for a Democratic Society rebelled against the war and fought for peace. One specific incident would be when Richard Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia and the need to draft 150,000 more U.S. soldiers. At Kent State University protestors launched a riot, which included fires, injuries, and even death. The environmentalists also reacted to the war in Vietnam. The use of napalm and Agent Orange outraged many people who saw forests and jungles be destroyed almost instantly. Environmentalists strived to end the war in hopes of saving the earth as well. The media was one of the main elements in the sixties that also influenced this counter culture. Media was still a rather new and growing concept in the
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement beginning in the United States around the early 1960s and consisted of a group of people who opposed political and social orthodoxy, choosing an ideology that favored peace, love, and personal freedom. The hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, were usually eco-friendly and vegetarians, and promoted the use of psychedelic drugs. They created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs to explore alternative states of consciousness. They strived to liberate themselves from societal restrictions, choose their own way, and find new meaning in life.