As a counterculture in the 1960s, sure thing they have their relevancy as the Baby Boomers generation in the US.
One of the most influential subcultures of youth is Hippy or known as The Hippies where its influence marked during the 1960s up to 1970s. Initially started in the United States, hippy deliberately described as a countercultural movement that its value believed in the rejection of the mores of mainstream American life (Brittanica 2020). People who were born in the 1940s up to the early 1960s were categorized as the baby boomers generation and become notable in the case of interpreting the world within their point of view, which is drastically different compared to the generation before them or known as the silent generation. Baby boomers, on the other hand, were deeply involved in many social issues whether in the civil rights movement, and were motivated to change the world.
To be born after the world war and lived in a society where elders were used to be war veterans, the youngsters or teenagers during the 1960s were much likely expected to fulfill parents’ expectation of living an American dream. The world now has open for opportunities and the essence of working hard then achieving real success become a middle-ground for most conservative and traditionalist families. Rather than following the way of seeing the world full of competition and wanting to be the best, in this time, the distinguishment from the youth shown based on the influences of religious and spiritual teachings of Henry David Thoreau, Buddha, Gandhi, et cetera (TIME 1967). It all pointing to reflecting a simple life surrounding by nature and promoting anti-war, protest, and freedom.
Hippies often associated themselves with the high value of peace and creating safe circumstances for everyone. Theirs uphold of nonviolence and the infamous phrase to “make love, not war” indicate an alternative reference taken from the previous series of unfortunate events in American history which including World War II, the Great Depression, the Pearl Harbour incident, et cetera. The youth drives a significant point of view of promoting a less-restrictions way of life and belief among its tier. Therefore, there were various types of innovation and practice of sophisticated and up-to-date values (Sheildlower 2004). The popular ones have bravely embraced the diversity in the sexual revolution, gathering together with their community, the use of drugs such as marijuana, and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) to experience the alter of their consciousness (Lee and Shlain 1992).
In addition to what these youth lived in back then, it attracts other youngsters from all across the United Stated about their way of life. Most of them gathered together away from their parents and family in one particular area spread in several states; which in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Fransisco, Greenwich Village in New York City, and Old Town in Chicago. One of the most major points about hippies is their sense of being different and alienated from society since they promoted an alternative way of life to live their own developed distinctive lifestyle. Appearance is what can be distinguished from these hippies and other teenagers in America at that time, where they favored flowers as accessories and dresses for girls and growing long hair and beards for males. Often hippies received bad stigma from society whether from their wild way of life for forgoing regular or normal life and stereotyping their way of thinking of non-rational based on transcendentalist belief.
References:
Brittanica. Encyclopædia Britannica. May 22, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/hippie.
Lee, Martin, and Bruce Shlain. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. New York City: Grove Press, 1992.
Sheildlower, Jesse. Crying Wolof: Does the word hip really hail from a West African languange? December 8, 2004. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/12/the-real-history-of-hip.html.
TIME. Youth: The Hippies. July 7, 1967. http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,899555-1,00.html.
