I was reading Debate and Discussion and came upon a brilliant bit of writing that I wanted to repost. If you've ever been interested in counter-culture, I'm sure you'll find this interesting:
... Samuel Huntington's work for the 1975 Trilateral commission ... a good critique of what the counter culture did to American society. In a nutshell the hippies and yippies adopted a Diogenes view on society. That is the entire thing was corrupt, so they refused to be part of it. This rebellion was not understood by all, and it was hijacked by marketing firms later on and turned into pop culture. As my professors have said, they sold their VWs and cut their hair when all their old classmates who originally laughed at them in '66 now came asking them for drugs.
Not only were these ideas abandoned, but for the majority of people they never understood what the culture was about to begin with. As some have put it, the free love and drugs were simply a new tool men had used to get what they wanted from women - sex. The people who got it probably had a same SLC Punk realization about the other members who claimed to be part of the movement and went insane or died on drugs - they were the lucky ones to see what the movements did turn into. The Democratic party failed 30 years ago once hippies started cutting their hair and championing a million different causes.
In the end the institutional damage was never recovered. Respect for authority in any form was shattered, which left a generation disinterested in politics or the possiblities. In one way this left the system ripe for the takeover of conservative republicans who wanted to weaken institutions, if not tear them down to begin with.
Danno is correct about what hippies do now. There are no leaders, no real movement, no ideals. It seems to be about drugs, the environment, and some misguided effort to teach multiculturalism everywhere which neither respects cultures or offers a workable way to live. I wouldn't characterize the hippies/counter culture as really having an effect on American politics. The most effect they had was the Yippies which made a mess of the DNC in 68. I would like to think that had Robert Kennedy been elected he would've brought the counter culture back into mainstream society and we wouldn't have Eric Cartman on South Park showing modern day hippies such contempt.
... Samuel Huntington's work for the 1975 Trilateral commission ... a good critique of what the counter culture did to American society. In a nutshell the hippies and yippies adopted a Diogenes view on society. That is the entire thing was corrupt, so they refused to be part of it. This rebellion was not understood by all, and it was hijacked by marketing firms later on and turned into pop culture. As my professors have said, they sold their VWs and cut their hair when all their old classmates who originally laughed at them in '66 now came asking them for drugs.
Not only were these ideas abandoned, but for the majority of people they never understood what the culture was about to begin with. As some have put it, the free love and drugs were simply a new tool men had used to get what they wanted from women - sex. The people who got it probably had a same SLC Punk realization about the other members who claimed to be part of the movement and went insane or died on drugs - they were the lucky ones to see what the movements did turn into. The Democratic party failed 30 years ago once hippies started cutting their hair and championing a million different causes.
In the end the institutional damage was never recovered. Respect for authority in any form was shattered, which left a generation disinterested in politics or the possiblities. In one way this left the system ripe for the takeover of conservative republicans who wanted to weaken institutions, if not tear them down to begin with.
Danno is correct about what hippies do now. There are no leaders, no real movement, no ideals. It seems to be about drugs, the environment, and some misguided effort to teach multiculturalism everywhere which neither respects cultures or offers a workable way to live. I wouldn't characterize the hippies/counter culture as really having an effect on American politics. The most effect they had was the Yippies which made a mess of the DNC in 68. I would like to think that had Robert Kennedy been elected he would've brought the counter culture back into mainstream society and we wouldn't have Eric Cartman on South Park showing modern day hippies such contempt.
