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1960's Counterculture |
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In the 1960's, young people questioned America's materialism and cultural and political norms, much as they've always done. Seeking a better world, some used music, politics, and alternative lifestyles to create what came to be known as the counterculture. Americans in that era faced many controversial issues-from civil rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear arms, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity. The counterculture lifestyle integrated many of the ideals and indulgences of the time: peace, love, harmony, music, mysticism, and religions outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. Meditation, yoga, and psychedelic drugs were embraced as routes to expanding one's consciousness. The movement, greeted with enormous publicity and popular interest, contributed to changes in American culture. A willingness to challenge authority, greater social tolerance, the sense that politics is personal, environmental awareness, and changes in attitudes about gender roles, marriage, and child rearing are legacies of the era. Some children of the sixties counterculture dropped out and left the cities for the countryside to experiment with utopian lifestyles. Away from urban problems and suburban sameness, they built new lives structured around shared political goals, organic farming, community service, and the longing to live simply with one's peers.As part of a spiritual reawakening, some members of the counterculture rejected drug use in favor of mind and spiritual expansion through yoga, meditation, and chanting. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair made history. It was, depending on one's point of view, four days of generosity, peace, great music, liberation, and expanding consciousness, or four days of self-indulgence, noise, promiscuity, and illegal drug use. Woodstock enabled thousands of
middle-class young people to experience the communal spirit. For the
first time, these young people felt empowered by their numbers.
Politicians and manufacturers in the music and clothing industries took
note of the potential of a growing youth market.A |
| Americans were moved by the
Vietnam War, racial injustice, fear of nuclear annihilation, and
the rampant materialism of capitalist society. Many were
inspired by leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther
King Jr. Small groups staged sit-ins at schools, local lunch
counters, and other public facilities. Masses gathered in the
nation's cities to protest what they saw as America's
shortcomings.
Many members of the
counterculture saw their own lives as ways to express political
and social beliefs. Personal appearance, song lyrics, and the
arts were some of the methods used to make both individual and
communal statements. Though the specifics of the debates were
new, arguments for personal freedom, free speech, and political
reform go back to the foundations of American society "We are here to make a better world. No amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on this planet. The lesson of the 60's is that people who cared enough to do right could change history. We didn't end racism but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million soldiers around the world to fight a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. We made the environment an issue that couldn't be avoided. The big battles that we won cannot be reversed. We were young, self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave,silly, headstrong and scared half to death. And we were right." |
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