Abstract This paper examines hippie philosophy and counterculture in the 1960s, whose main catch words were, peace, love, drugs, sex, music and resistance. The paper points out that, although hippies often abused drugs, their main goal was to promote peace between all countries, cultures, and communities. The paper adds that the hippies' philosophy and lifestyle were greatly influenced by sex and drugs, in turn influencing many of the popular arts of this time period, especially music. The paper concludes that hippies were a determined group of young people with good intentions, trying to make a positive impact on the world.
From the Paper "1960 was a big year for hippies and was basically the beginning of the hippie movement, or at least when it became popular across the country. A large amount of racial tension built up with the lunch-counter sit-ins that were occurring around the southern states. Most hippies tried to calm the racial tension and create peace between all ethnic groups. They were advocates of peace and love for all people everywhere. Many civil rights activists and leaders were making progress on the movement in 1960 as well. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was signed by Eisenhower and put into effect that year."
Tags: Vietnam War, drugs peace protest prejudice politics
Abstract The paper explains that counterculture movements of the sixties radically questioned the pervading views pertaining to political, cultural and social conventions of American society. The paper focuses particularly on the anti-war movements, the human rights and liberties movements and the general youth cultural or 'hippie' movement that all rejected the conventional values of society.
From the Paper "The sixties were a time of change, and more importantly of changing perceptions within American and Western culture about the meaning of social as well as personal life. The common thread that runs through all the aspects, events and movements in this turbulent period is that of the interrogation and questioning of the status quo. If there is one common element that joins the various strands, ideas and movements of this period it is a feeling of dissatisfaction with the way that society was run. This led to the often outspoken and even violent expression of these feelings that characterized many of the events that we associate with society during this time."
Abstract The counterculture symbolism of the 1960s was co-opted by business, particularly ad industry in order to unleash creativity in the industry. Like the counterculture, the ad industry defied conformism and homogeneity, but only to promote new consumerism. The counterculture challenged capitalist social order whereas using the same ideas the ad industry reinforced capitalist order.
This paper examines the forgotten black roots of rock music in America, its influence on rebelling youth, and the evolution of new popular musical genres.
Abstract Rock and Roll music was both influenced by and influenced the youth movement of the 1960s. The beginnings of Rock music during the 1950s were actually quite rebellious and controversial. This paper puts the development of rock music into a cultural and historical context, drawing on examples such as Wynonnie Harris, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The paper also mentions beatniks and the psychadelic counterculture.
From the Paper "Rock and Roll music broke into the forefront of American culture as the baby boomer generation came of age. During the 1950s, the new musical style helped young people begin to rebel against their parents? generation in a stylistic, subtle, and symbolic way, generating more differences and encouraging a widening of the generation gap. Popular culture tends to disregard the 1950s as a sterile and orderly decade, however, the youth of the 1950s were beginning to rebel much more drastically and blatantly than we are led to believe, and more so than what remains as the lasting image in the historical memory of Americans who were alive at that time. While this music that we now call "oldies" seems so boring and unhip by today's standards, the earliest Rock and Roll music contained sexual implications and a gift of immediate gratification that spoke to the so-called juvenile delinquents of the time. By the early Sixties and the beginnings of the ?movement,? Rock and Roll music had already established itself as a successful form of cultural radicalism, that is, an individuality of spirit and expressive form of defiance against the norm. (The "movement" collectively refers a shift to the "New Left" which supported the Civil Rights Movement, was against the Vietnam War, and opposed the Old Left Liberal methods of working within the system to end poverty and racism by means of a technocracy.) The more the youth rebelled, the more the music changed to suit this rebellion. The lyrics became more overtly political and explicit, and Rock and Roll music began to ?evolve out of artistic necessity,? when new ways to rebel were necessary, in order to keep on rebelling, as it were. Folk musicians began to blend their lyrics and style with Rock music, and wrote songs that were true reflections and reactions to the times and responded to the changing world. By the mid 60s, a youth "counterculture" hit the scene, and Rock and Roll had split into two breeds of music: one which served an industry and popular culture, and another type of music for political activism, which eventually infused itself in the drug-laden hippie subculture."
From the Paper "While there is truth in the statements cited to the effect that the counterculture and the upheavals of the 1960s were often hedonistic in nature rather than politically directed or directed toward improving society, it is not fair to say that these tensions produced no significant alteration of the structures of American society. There were really two levels to the tensions of the 1960s, one politically and socially directed toward effecting major changes and toward improving American life according to the tenets of the movement, and the other an imitation of aspects of the counterculture, aspects directed more toward shocking the establishment than to effecting change, and based more on hedonistic and selfish desires than on any desire to make relevant and lasting change. The levels were not always distinguished from one another and indeed were not always ... "
Abstract This first part of this paper looks at Joplin's road from a small Texas town to the counter-culture center in San Francisco, California. In the second part, the paper examines her contributions to the counterculture of the 1960s, particularly towards ideas relating to race and gender.
From the Paper The life of Janis Joplin is a study in contrasts. She cultivated a bad-girl image but was deeply hurt by her status as a social outcast. She fought for recognition in the male-dominated recording industry but eschewed the feminist movement. She was a white girl from a conservative family in Texas who embraced the civil rights movement and blues music. An icon of the 1960s counterculture movement, Joplin is also widely regarded as one of the movement's most tragic members."
Abstract This paper explains how the Beat Generation came about, tells how this generation got its name, explains why and in what way it was a counterculture movement that challenged the mechanical existence of the majority and talks about how it effects American society even to this day.
From the Paper "According to modern mythology, it has been said that the birth of the Beat Generation can be traced back to the year 1944. World War II raged throughout Europe. This was the year of the D-Day landing, and this was the year that the United Nations first came to power, and this was the year that "Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence was found to be obscene in the United States, and this was the year in which New York City was flooded by European Surrealists gathering together with American artists and writers, influencing the thoughts and works and direction of the art movements nationwide. This was also the year that Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Herbert Hunckle met in New York City among the artists gathered there, and this meeting around Columbia University and Times Square would lead to the writing of one of the great Beat Generation novels."
Abstract This essay explores the culture of culture jamming via Blackspot sneakers and how this sales campaign reveals that the self-identified socially conscious are possibly competitive consumers rather than social care-takers. This discussion focuses on the media coverage; promotion and marketing materials of the Blackspot sneakers recently deemed "one of the 12 hottest urban brands" as an example of a consumer product that represents the counterculture in the sum of its parts.
From the Paper "In an early publishing of an article in Forbes magazine, Adbusters' Blackspot sneakers were discussed in terms of their unrealistic ability to take on mega-brands such as Nike. Still, and as noted in the article, Adbusters has managed to sell 20,000 pairs since 2003 (Whelan, n.p.). Even with the cost of manufacturing, this sales figure can easily be worth up to a half million dollars in profit over three years; not bad for a small alternative magazine outfit in B.C. Interestingly, to even entering in this conversation, one must acknowledge that Adbusters has become part of the mainstream culture, where concerns of sales and marketing are central topics."
Discusses the events on the streets of Chicago during the historic 1968 Democratic National Convention as an example of America's counterculture versus the establishment.
Abstract This paper explains that, during the week of the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968, thousands of America's counterculture youth, who had dropped out of society and dedicated their existence to protesting the structure and administration of the U.S. government, took their protest to the streets of the windy city. The Chicago police overreacted with violent force, the author relates, because they had been trained to preserve order, enforce laws and control the city. However, the police lost control of the streets and of themselves. Ironically, the paper concludes, the vicious and well publicized overreaction of Mayor Daly, the Chicago police and the federal government to the protesters validated their message of peace.
From the Paper "At Daley's request to LBJ, 5600 National Guardsman were mobilized in and around the city, carrying high-powered weapons and tear gas. For street riot control, the guardsmen were supplied with twenty-five jeeps that had wire cage fronts to stop and push crowds of people back. These militant kinds of national security efforts were extreme for a presidential primary convention, but what was even more shocking was the covert preparations and spying done by government agencies like the FBI on protestors."
Tags: yippies, social chaos, pig guardsman brutality
From the Paper "A Civil Rights Movement leader Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider deal with the young who are truly aspired to have the freedom of being who they really were as well as establishing and keeping the true and new identity ? counterculture to the old generation ? which values individuality, because the traditional society did not recognize the individuality and uniqueness in individuals. In their texts, Moody and Hopper express their perspectives on the hostile reaction of the older generation towards the counterculture constructed by the young and the young's resistance by contrasting the young's open-minded ideology with the older generation's conservative, rigid, traditional philosophy. The traditional society was constructed and maintained by the older generation who obviously did not value and possess the ability to embrace the differences among people; they were afraid of the freedom vested in the new cultural ideology, because they feared that they would lose what they had built and established."
Examines public expectations raised by two presidents in domestic & foreign affairs & the accompanying rise of black movement, New Left & counterculture.
1,125 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 4 sources, 1999, $ 39.95
From the Paper "Both President Kennedy and President Johnson raised public expectations to unreasonable levels with respect to their domestic policies and programs, which contributed to the rise of the radical black movement, the New Left, and the counterculture. However, the assassination of Kennedy cut short his efforts, and the escalation of the Vietnam war under Johnson undermined his successes on the domestic front. In addition, the unreasonable expectations raised by both presidents were as much a product of the times as they were a product of the actions of the presidents themselves.
Judging Kennedy's programs and policies on the domestic front is difficult because his presidency was cut short by his murder just over three years into his presidency. However, he did.."
Abstract This paper dicsusses how America today would undoubtedly be more racist, sexist and environmentally damaged had it not been for the efforts of Sixties radicals and radical groups. It reviews the collection of essays "Reassessing the Sixties: Debating the Political and Cultural Legacy" which encompasses differing points of view about what the Sixties Movement has left us with, where the Sixties Movement went wrong ,and where the Sixties Movement made, if any, beneficial advancements in America. It shows how these authors emphasize the importance of the civil rights movement, environmentalism and feminism and analyzes some of the essays portray the most convincing arguments about the legacies of the 60s.
From the Paper "Integration was started with the intention of fighting racism and giving blacks a fair shot at opportunity in America, but it was inherently problematic from the get go. To throw blacks and whites together practically overnight, especially in the racist South, where a majority of whites hated blacks and believed blacks to be truly inferior, automatically placed blacks in a stressful and dangerous situation. Allen tells of her experiences as a black student in a newly integrated, formerly all-white high school, giving the crucially important point of view that was largely ignored by good-intentioned white northerners wishing for a non-apartheid American south."
Tags: civil, conservative, counterculture, feminism, liberal
Abstract Roszak's essay "From Satori to Silicon Valley" is as much homage to a bygone era as it is homage to the technological future. The first few sections are a nostalgic look back at the sixties, a simpler time of "whole earth" hippies who wanted to live and love off the land. However, Roszak's point in looking back is not so much a longing for a simpler time, it is to give context to our technological advances today, which he believes had their very roots in the simplicity of the sixties. This paper includes a brief characterization of the essay as a whole, followed by a more detailed discussion of selected issues, topics, or themes that are of interest. From hippie to hacker, the Bay Area of San Francisco has always been a hotbed of change, mysticism, and technology. The paper shows how Roszak's essay blends counterculture with cyberculture in an insightful look at how technology got a boost in the Bay Area.
From the Paper "Roszak's ideas are at once interesting and compelling. There is much to be said for his thoughts that the technology movement had its roots in the hippie, counterculture movement of the sixties. It is his opinion while they were getting back to the land, they were also thinking up new ways to do things, which eventually led to the techno craze we live today. His belief that some of the great minds of the day conscribed to a Zen-like philosophy still prevalent in the Bay Area today is another reason his theories make sense."
Tags: Star, Wars, George, Lucas, Bill, Gates, Stephen, Wozniak, Apple
Abstract This paper explains the equation that caused the explosion of the 1960s was a simple one. "Consumerism + cold war + denial = conformity". The paper gives details about two leaders of the 1960s movement for change, Abbie Hoffman and Janis Joplin, each of whom contributed to the social protest mindset of the 1960s in a different way and became symbols of importance to the counterculture. The paper states that, if it were not for the 1960s, blacks might still be forced to the back of the bus, women would still be expected to stay home and not have career ambitions, and Viet Nam might still be going on.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What Came before the Storm
Social Protests
Compliments and Contrary Effects
Abbie Hoffman and Janis Joplin
Conclusion
From the Paper "The social protests began at various stages. The south had them erupting because of the segregation that was still an accepted practice in that area. Other parts of the nation had them because of the Viet Nam conflict and all that it represented by way of government lies and the loss of innocent lives. Innocence was destroyed during this era, as the younger generation pulled back the curtain of the Wizard and saw that it was only a man dressed as the American government. Once the untruths became evident, the grass root movement to change the nation took hold and social protest became a way of life for the American people."
Abstract This paper tidentifies and analyzes the important contributions made by Noam Chomsky to the field of lingusitics. It looks at important concepts such as generative grammar, I-language and universal grammar. The resistance to the behaviorist approach to understanding language is ultimately linked to his anti-establishment politics.
From the Paper "The idea of universal grammar is a central one to Chomsky's linguistic theory. Inherent to this idea is the concept that human beings are equipped with a distinct language faculty in our minds; this faculty is governed by an innate understanding of universal grammar, "All the minds of human beings include the principles that movement is structure-dependent and that heads are on certain sides of phrases; they are part of the common Universal Grammar. It is not relevant to UG theory that English has a particular set of properties, French another, German another; what matters is what they have in common" (Cook & Newson, 1996, p. 32)."
