HIPPIE MOVEMENT

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SOCIO UPSC MAINS 

Paper 1 – Politics and Society

Chapter 7 – Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.

 

  • It was a cultural movement.
  • Originated in 1960s.
  • It was a time of rebellion for many young Americans.
  • It is a great example of counterculture. A counter culture is simply a group that openly rejects the norms and values of the larger society.
 
 
THE IDEOLOGY
 
  • Many of the ideals of the Hippie movement came from a small group of New York City writers who called themselves The Beat Generation or Beats for short.
  • Hippies rejected the accepted values of American society regarding material success and personal appearance.
  • Kennedy’s (JFK) tragic death, the slow progress of the civil rights movement, economic inequality, etc persuaded the youth that problems of American society cannot be fixed.
  • Hence the hippies rejected the mainstream American society.
 
 
HOW DID THEY REBEL ?
 
  • They kept their hair long when most American males kept it short.
  • They often adopted vegetarian diets and practiced holistic medicine.
  • Advocated non-violence.
  • They almost gave up all of their personnel positions at a time when materialism was encouraged.
  • The increasing availability of birth control pill during the 1960s allowed more experimentation with sex leading to a more relaxed standard of morality.
  • Some Hippies saw Christianity as a failure and turned to Eastern religions and philosophies.
  • Drugs were an important part of the hippie counterculture.
  • Around 1965, rock music begin to reflect the music attitudes and styles.
  • Disgruntled with American war with Vietnam, Hippies questioned political authority.
  • The liberal hippies were living inside of a larger culture that they felt was dominated by conservative values and materialism.
 
 
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
 
  • Sociologist regards Hippie movement as a counterculture.
  • Hippies nearly invented the political stands of liberalism, socially supporting a sexual revolution and feminism.
  • Immense social conflict occured within US.
  • The movement impactedd the entire world in the way that it strives for things uncommon in the American culture.
  • They promoted environmentalism at a time when society was least bothered about nature.
  • Some sociologists refer to the behaviour of the hippies as deviant behaviour which means they act opposite to the norms.
 
 
By the mid 1970s, the movement had declined and by 1980s hippies had given way to a new generation of young people who were intent on making careers for themselves in business and who came to be known as yuppies (young urban professionals). Nonetheless, hippies continued to have an influence on the wider culture.