Topic > The Hippie Subculture - 1428

The Hippie Movement: The Philosophy Behind the Counterculture The 1960s were a decade of liberation and revolution, a time of great change and exciting exploration for generations to come. It was a time of anti-war protests, free love, sit-ins, naked hippie girls, and mind-altering drugs. In big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Paris there was a passionate exchange of ideas, fierce protests against the Vietnam War and a time for love, peace and equality. The meeting of like-minded people from all over the world was spontaneous and unstoppable. This group of people, which included writers, musicians, thinkers, and smokers, became known as the popular counterculture, better known as hippies. The dawn of the Age of Aquarius in the late 1960s was much more than just a musical orgy. It was a time of spiritual missions to fight for change and everything they believed in. Freedom, love, justice, equality, and peace were at the forefront of this movement (West, 2008). Some wore beads. Some had long hair. Some wore tie-dye and others wore turtleneck sweaters. The Hippie Generation was a wild bunch, to say the least, who opened the cookie jar of possibilities politically, sexually, spiritually and socially to be forever known as one of the most memorable social movements of all time (Hippie Generation, 2003 ). Researchers classify social movements based on the type of change they seek (Aberle, 1966, Cameron, 1966, Blumer, 1969, as cited in Macionis, 2007). According to John Macionis, a social movement is when people commonly come together to create organized activity that encourages or discourages social change (Macionis, 2008). In the case of this radical society, the Hippies were typically… in the center of the paper… evolution was the change of thinking in society. They challenged established authorities and conventions, which resulted in transforming the lives of thousands of people. Hippies have created an ongoing social movement and continue to fight for the freedom that “ordinary” people are afraid to question. References (2003). Hippie generation. Knowledge Rush, retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Hippie_generation/(2008). Activism. Hippy Land, retrieved March 18, 2009, from http://www.hippy.com/php/sitetopics.php?topic=9Macionis, John (2007). Society the basics. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.West, Maggie (2008). The hippie subculture. Elio, retrieved March 17, 2009 from http://www.helium.com/items/1308069-the-sixties-seventies-beatniks-hippies-and-the-vietnam-war