The Hippie Movement That Arose From Vast Political Changes
Massive black rebellions, constant strikes, gigantic anti-war demonstrations,
draft resistance, Cuba, Vietnam, Algeria, a cultural revolution of seven hundred
million Chinese, occupations, red power, the rising of women, disobedience and
sabotage, communes & marijuana: amongst this chaos, there was a generation of
youths looking to set their own standard - to fight against the establishment,
which was oppressing them, and leave their mark on history. These kids were
known as the hippies. There were many stereotypes concerning hippies; they were
thought of as being pot smoking, freeloading vagabonds, who were trying to save
the world. As this small pocket of teenage rebellion rose out of the suburbs,
inner cities, and countryside's, there was a general feeling that the hippies
were a product of drugs, and rock music; this generalization could have never
been more wrong. The hippie counterculture was more than just a product of drugs
and music, but a result of the change that was sweeping the entire western world.
These changes were brought about by various events in both the fifties and the
sixties, such as: the end of the "Golden Years" of the fifties, the changing
economical state from the fifties to the sixties, the Black Panther Party, women
moving into the work force, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and
John F. Kennedy Jr., the war in Vietnam, the Kent State protest, and finally the
Woodstock festival.
The electric subcurrent of the fifties was, above all, rock'n'roll, the live
wire that linked bedazzled teenagers around the nation, and quickly around the
world, into the common enterprise of being young. Rock was rough, raw, insistent,
especially by comparison with the music it replaced; it whooped and groaned,
shook, rattled, and rolled. Rock was clamor, the noise of youth submerged by
order and prosperity, now frantically clawing their way out.
The winds of change began to sweep... [continues]
Massive black rebellions, constant strikes, gigantic anti-war demonstrations,
draft resistance, Cuba, Vietnam, Algeria, a cultural revolution of seven hundred
million Chinese, occupations, red power, the rising of women, disobedience and
sabotage, communes & marijuana: amongst this chaos, there was a generation of
youths looking to set their own standard - to fight against the establishment,
which was oppressing them, and leave their mark on history. These kids were
known as the hippies. There were many stereotypes concerning hippies; they were
thought of as being pot smoking, freeloading vagabonds, who were trying to save
the world. As this small pocket of teenage rebellion rose out of the suburbs,
inner cities, and countryside's, there was a general feeling that the hippies
were a product of drugs, and rock music; this generalization could have never
been more wrong. The hippie counterculture was more than just a product of drugs
and music, but a result of the change that was sweeping the entire western world.
These changes were brought about by various events in both the fifties and the
sixties, such as: the end of the "Golden Years" of the fifties, the changing
economical state from the fifties to the sixties, the Black Panther Party, women
moving into the work force, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and
John F. Kennedy Jr., the war in Vietnam, the Kent State protest, and finally the
Woodstock festival.
The electric subcurrent of the fifties was, above all, rock'n'roll, the live
wire that linked bedazzled teenagers around the nation, and quickly around the
world, into the common enterprise of being young. Rock was rough, raw, insistent,
especially by comparison with the music it replaced; it whooped and groaned,
shook, rattled, and rolled. Rock was clamor, the noise of youth submerged by
order and prosperity, now frantically clawing their way out.
The winds of change began to sweep... [continues]
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"The Hippie Movement That Arose from Vast Political Changes." StudyMode.com. 10, 1999. Accessed 10, 1999. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Hippie-Movement-Arose-Vast-Political-Changes-3366.html.
