Rhetorical Analysis: The Hippie Subculture
The hippie subculture that was born in San Francisco in the 1960’s came from nowhere. As unlikely as life forming on Earth billions of years ago, new political ideals oozed from a seemingly disengaged primordial ooze of activists and idealists. Foner says, “the rise of a protest movement among white youth came as a complete surprise” (Give me Liberty!, 1103). A new age of free thinkers, inspired by a variety of factors found themselves questioning their government, challenging the steady diet of “propoganda” they had been force-fed. The counterculture was historic in that “millions of young people openly rejected the values and behaviors of their elders” (Give me Libery!, 1112) Historically, the difference between oppression and revolution
…show more content…
It is an opinion piece, a hippie manifesto. Statements like “we must break the law” or “our society [is] corrupt, vile and heinous” highlight the bias of the author. The most convincing opinion pieces state and then debunk the opposition’s argument, and that is what this piece misses most. All of the arguments presented in respect to the government or US Army’s point of view are either so sarcastic or radical that they are satirical. That being said, one must consider the target audience. No one over the age of 30 would read this piece and take it seriously, but as we learned, they had no interest in anyone that age anyway, as they could not be trusted. The poignance and drama with which this essay was crafted aimed to connect with a younger, more emotional generation, one that had not yet been tainted by the evils of society. All things considered, there is no doubt that From the Haight came off just as it was intended to. What they did not know at the time of the essay’s conception, though, was that this hippie movement would succeed, that their opposition was one of the major factors that would lead to the eventual withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. In a spin on the end of the original publication: There were many reasons that the United States finally submitted to allow southeast Asia to go the way of China, “and one of the many reasons is the long-haired hippies” (From the Haight,
It is an opinion piece, a hippie manifesto. Statements like “we must break the law” or “our society [is] corrupt, vile and heinous” highlight the bias of the author. The most convincing opinion pieces state and then debunk the opposition’s argument, and that is what this piece misses most. All of the arguments presented in respect to the government or US Army’s point of view are either so sarcastic or radical that they are satirical. That being said, one must consider the target audience. No one over the age of 30 would read this piece and take it seriously, but as we learned, they had no interest in anyone that age anyway, as they could not be trusted. The poignance and drama with which this essay was crafted aimed to connect with a younger, more emotional generation, one that had not yet been tainted by the evils of society. All things considered, there is no doubt that From the Haight came off just as it was intended to. What they did not know at the time of the essay’s conception, though, was that this hippie movement would succeed, that their opposition was one of the major factors that would lead to the eventual withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. In a spin on the end of the original publication: There were many reasons that the United States finally submitted to allow southeast Asia to go the way of China, “and one of the many reasons is the long-haired hippies” (From the Haight,