The Counterculture of the 1960s

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The political, social, and cultural life in the USA during the 1960s was characterized by the focus on people’s freedoms and rights. All the forms of people’s liberties were taken into consideration. As a result, a range of right movements was developed.

Thus, socially active citizens organized the Free Speech Movement, women reactivated the Feminist movement, African Americans declared their equal rights, and the youth accentuated the ideals of freedom and free love.

Moreover, the anti-war movement against the aggression of the USA in Vietnam was supported by thousands of people. These political and social events influenced the consciousness of the public; significantly, the impact was strengthened with the help of rock music and psychoactive drugs.

From this point, the young people of the 1960s who were the post-war boom babies believed that it was possible to change the current social and political situation and improve the lives of many people with the focus on their real rights and freedoms.

Thus, the counterculture of the 1960s should be discussed as the product of the people’s search for utopia in the form of equality and liberty as well as the realization of the American dream for all the population.

In spite of the fact, all the movements associated with the counterculture of the 1960s were developed quickly and actively, attracting a lot of people, all the proclaimed ideals were rather utopian and far from the reality.

It was impossible to stop the war in Vietnam, to provide women with new rights and African Americans with equal opportunities immediately.

However, the hippie and psychedelic culture, rock music, psychoactive drugs, and sexual revolution present people the feeling that the changes for the new free world are possible (Goines 204-205). Love and peace became the main concepts and ideas of that period.

The representatives of the hippie culture tried to live a life free from pain and suffering, but full of love and peace. Thus, the mind-changing substances became their way to avoid reality and seek for the utopian life.

According to Leary, thousands of young people tried to realize “the quest for internal freedom, for the elixir of life, for the draught of immortal revelation” as it was typical for heroes (Leary 343).

From this point, hippies lived basing on their hopes and dreams, vivid pictures of the changed mind, and psychedelic sounds of rock music. The counterculture of the 1960s can be discussed as the way for millions of people to escape from the unstable reality.

Hippies, sexually active and free persons, and fans of rock music felt like people who saw the new conception of a man and society.

LSD and marijuana contributed to such feelings. Lydon describes these people the following way, “Like an ugly-beautiful mass, it is bewilderingly unfamiliar – a timeless lake of humanity climbing together through the first swirling, buzzing, euphoric-demonic hours of acid” (Lydon 310).

The representatives of the counterculture of the 1960s can be divided into two groups. Striving for happiness, love, freedom, and peace, hippies rejected any limitations and enjoyed their psychedelic experiences, focusing on philosophy and self-knowledge.

The social activists followed the path of the utopian struggle for freedoms and equality. In spite of the fact, a lot of the ideals proclaimed by social activists were realized, the world and social life did not change globally, and changes provoked new social issues.

As a result, many young people belonging to the generation of the 1960s asked the question, “Are we-we, and if we are, who are we?” (Lydon 310). The reason for the fact was the period of global changes in American social life and culture.

It is impossible to discuss the counterculture of the 1960s only from one perspective because it is a complex phenomenon based on a lot of different social ideas which can be considered as rather naïve in their nature.

Nevertheless, Leary describes the counterculture in a few words which reflect the realities in a rather provocative, but not naïve manner, “Beatniks. Orgies. Naked poets. Junkies. Homosexuality. Drug parties” (Leary 342).

However, all these notions support the idea that people of the 1960s tried to find the meaning of their life during the changing times (Goines 204-205). On the one hand, LSD and other psychoactive drugs begot psychedelic images of the ideal life full of happiness and love.

On the other hand, the development of social movements begot utopian ideas about worldwide peace and equality.

The counterculture of the 1960s can be discussed as the complex phenomenon which is the product of a search for utopia rather than the product of the people’s self-indulgence and rejection of any limits.

From this perspective, the focus on freedoms and rejection of limits became the result of the people’s orientation to new ideas and concepts which were nonviolent because of accentuating the peaceful life.

The 1960s changed not only people’s social life but also their vision of themselves with references to their consciousness.

Works Cited

Goines, David Lance. “The Free Speech Movement”. The Portable Sixties Reader. Ed. Ann Charters. USA: Penguin Classics, 2002. 202-206. Print.

Leary, Timothy. “Turning on the World”. The Portable Sixties Reader. Ed. Ann Charters. USA: Penguin Classics, 2002. 331-343. Print.

Lydon, Michael. “The Rolling Stones – At Play in the Apocalypse”. The Portable Sixties Reader. Ed. Ann Charters. USA: Penguin Classics, 2002. 306-314. Print.

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The Counterculture of the 1960s

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