Features of Counterculture 1. Breakthroughs and radical innovations in art, science, spirituality, philosophy and living 2. Diversity 3. Authentic, open communication and profound interpersonal contact. Also, generosity and the democratic sharing of tools 4. Persecution by mainstream culture of contemporaneous subcultures 5. Exile or dropping out. From Counter Culture Through the Ages by Ken Goffman a.k.a. R.U. SIRIUS and Dan Joy Do we agree on the above? ---------------------- paul
I agree, that's what the counter-culture has ment to my life, and that's how I would define it. The very name, counter-culture, implies the first, because culture implies arts and sciences, and counter would, by definition, imply radical innovation. That's how I experienced it, and that's why the mainstream oppose it. The second and third definitions are recognized as the most effective achievements of the '60s and '70s counter-culture. More authentic and profound experiences amongst a more open and diverse people. Ken Goffman and Dan Joy got that much right. Is the rest of the 'Counter Culture through the Ages' any good.
So how was the counter-culture promoted? Of course it would have never received the attention it did had it not been for the media. So if the counter-culture genuinely posed a threat to the established order, then why was it promoted by the media and given so much attention? I can tell you why, but I would like to hear other people's opinions.
I lived through it, and I have to say the media coverage started out rather sparse, but it became a sexy story and the young and hip became a market that companies wanted to sell to, so it gained momentum. Kind of like rap and hiphop. If there's a market to sell to, they'll cover it and promote it. It can work for both in an odd symbiotic type way.
I think the one mostly responsible for making Hippy a common term in the vocabulary was Bill Graham and the Fillmore. Without that I think it would have tapered out long before it did. http://www.centerwest.org/projects/past/listening/graham.html Hollywood's attempts to capitalize on it were lame, and if you view them today, they are totally dated. But the Fillmore, them were the days.
There's always been a counter-culture. Read the history books. "Civilization" is not a one size fits all thing. Hippies are new, but not their philosophy. x
Someone here posted a nice summary of the counter-culture, going back to the industrial revolution. I'll try to post it if I can find it. It was part of a school assignment. .
The following is a post by a hip forums poster from a few years ago. I don't remember who posted it. ------------ so i did a report for my sociology class on the hippie culture and this is what i wrote (sorry its long): From Hip to YIP: The American Counterculture The decade that changed the United States the most was the 1960’s. It brought about civil rights, women’s rights, the 26th amendment, and so much more. Much of this was to due to the counterculture. The most well-known title for most of these radicals is hippie. It is a common term, but one must ask what exactly makes a hippie a hippie and where they come from. There has never been an official rule on what a hippie is exactly, but many definitions have conjured up throughout the past few decades. Webster’s dictionary defines it as “any of the young people of the 1960’s who, in their alienation from conventional society, have turned variously to mysticism, psychedelic drugs, communal living, experimental arts, etc.” But this definition only provides one viewpoint. There are several different ones. Some of the most widely accepted definitions are best stated by Lisa Law, Larry Caffo, and Skip Stone. Law says it is a lifestyle involving “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” and having “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”. Stone has a similar view and states, “Being a hippie is not a matter of dress, behavior, economic status, or social milieu. It is a philosophical approach to life that emphasizes freedom, peace, love, and a respect for others and the earth”. Probably the most common viewpoint is held by Caffo, who played with The 13th Floor Elevators and occasionally with Janis Joplin. He says a hippie was any person who smoked marijuana and took LSD. While the definition of “hippie” is uncertain, its origins are practically unknown. It is thought to have been originated in Harlem, New York. In Malcolm X’s autobiography he discussed being seventeen in 1939 and observing “A few of the white men around Harlem, younger ones whom we called ‘hippies,’ acted more Negro than the Negroes”. The more publicized use of the word was first applied in September of 1965 by the San Francisco writer Michael Fallon. The lifestyle hippies led predates the term. The group evolved from ancient times, some even say as far back as Julius Ceasar and Jesus Christ. But the beginning of the modern hippie began in Germany near the end of the nineteenth century. Many youth movements were formed in reaction to a more industrialized, technocratic society. Adolf Just opened a retreat in 1896 that inspired Gandhi to begin a Nature Cure sanitarium in India. Just spoke against pollution, meat, traditional education, and many other things. These were just a few of the social trends termed as “Lebensreform” (life reform). Others included nudism, natural medicine, commune movement, sexual reform, and liberty for women, children and animals. In Ascona, Switzerland, counterculture resurgence started in 1900 and lasted twenty years. Some of their approaches to life were surrealism, pacifism, Paganism, and dada. Many famous people, who inspired the hippies, went to Ascona. Hermann Hesse, D.H. Lawrence, and Carl Jung were just a few. In 1903, a San Francisco newspaper ran an article telling about the people and thinking of Ascona. This was one of the first times California was exposed to the European counterculture. Also at this same time, several thousands of Germans moved to America because of the domineering political powers taking over their country- ones that led them into both World Wars. America has always been a melting pot and the Germans melted right in. They brought in their suitcases their radical views of life and their imaginings of what America could be. Closer to the Age of Aquarius, was the Nature Boys. This was during the 1940’s. They were Americans who had taken up the Lebensreform lifestyle and were living mostly in the Southern California mountain ranges. They slept in caves and trees. They ate natural foods, such as fig, which was how they got their “high,” in opposition to the illegal drugs used by the hippies of the sixties. One of the most known Nature Boys was Gypsy Boots. He lived in Tahquitz Canyon with the other boys until his marriage in 1953. Five years later, he opened a health food store in Hollywood and became a health teacher. He became such a well known figure that he was a guest over 25 times on the Steve Allen show. He also performed at the Monterey and Newport Pop festivals in the late 1960’s alongside groups like The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane. Boots and the rest of the Nature Boys were an inspiration to many through more than their relaxed way of living; they started a trend in fashion. Though The Beatles’s haircut is known as having been obscene, it was domestic compared to les known bands from Southern California, like The Seeds. They wore their hair down to their shoulders from the influence of the Nature Boys. Jimi Hendrix and The Doors, two of the most idolized music producers of the flower child era, both were fans of The Seeds. On the east coast at the same time were the beatniks. Men like Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Alan Ginsberg could be found in New York City. Beatniks celebrated the arts in free form. Such inspirational writings as On The Road, Dharma Bums, and “The Howl” were read by many hippies. Alan Ginsberg even took place in the San Francisco Be-In, anti-war protests, and the demonstrations in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Acid started becoming common in the early 1960’s. Harvard professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzer, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) studied the drug and almost instantly found a correlation between it and the German scientists, writers, and artists of the Lebensreform era. These professors made books like “Steppenwolf” popular to read among the rising hippie culture. They also wrote their own book called “The Psychedelic Experience,” which became known as the hippie’s “bible”. In general, the hippies of the 1960’s were a-political. The innumerable protests and demonstrations were held by such groups as the Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen. In 1968, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin coined the name Yippie or also called the Youth International Party. This was originally for the flower children going to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that year. They did such high jinks as trying to run a pig for President. This ended in the Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial accusing the Yippies and the others involved for trying to incite riots. The Yippies outlasted the election year and became the “political party” of hippies. They never were a registered party or took a traditional platform, but still existed. There were common stands of pro-drugs, anti-war, pro-sex, and environmentalism throughout the group, for they were hippies after all. Their core beliefs were in absolute freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Their group outlasted many of the fellow radical groups, but became weaker when Abbie Hoffman went underground for drug charges in the 1970’s. Much do to the media, people see the hippies as a group from the 1960’s that no longer exist. This is not so. Being a hippie is a lifestyle choice that was made before the 1960’s and is still made by many today. According to Aron “Pieman” Kay, who famously threw a pie in Richard Nixon’s face, the hippies “are still everywhere- whether it be the streets of Haight, the Rainbow gatherings, the web or just when I least expect it, I will meet an old timer on a New York City subway.” Furthermore, another hippie from the 1960’s added, “Protests are still going on for more or less the same things. And as far as clothing, there is still the Salvation Army clothing store. About the only major changes here are satellite TV, microwaves, and the computer”. Hippies are more than a part of a counterculture movement, they are a recurrent subculture. All in all what being a hippie means was best stated by Abbie Hoffman when he said: “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… 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”.
