posted on May, 11 2012 @ 11:15 PM
The 1960s basically is when American Society shattered. People had been doing things like their dad and his dad before him for so long... and it
wasn't working anymore. The whole world seemed to have gone crazy. People had gotten so caught up in materialism and things and titles and status and
symbols that the young people rejected it... all of it.
Your dad had short hair...you had long hair. Society said you had to dress conservatively... you dress flamboyantly, no black and blue suits here...
the rainbow was the limit... The rules said only safe, traditional music... you listened to Hendrix and Joplin and the Doors... the American people
and government had to defend freedom and liberty where you had to do what you were told and go to war... you burned your draft card and talked of true
love and freedom...
This is where people started going back to the land and shedding the confines of accepted society, basically doing for yourself and sharing the fruits
and bounty of the land with others.... caring for the land, and being free like Adam and Eve... not titles, no possessions, no status...FREE.
Women rebelled against the rules... wearing pants, no bras...which represented the confines and woven straps of feminine slavery to "the man."
Nobody knew who the man was... but everybody was rebelling against the man. Blacks, women, youth, ...
Oddly enough, if you think of society and politics as a circle... the young living off the land hippies grew akin to the old, mountain people and
country folks and realized they were very much alike.
It was all about rebellion and thinking outside the box, just trying something new. if the "squares" and "establishment" knew so damn much, Why
were we in another war with no end? Why were dogs being used on people just because they were black? Why was the government corrupt and lying to the
American people? Why were couples still married when they didn't love each other and mentally, verball, sometimes physically abused each other? Was
all this stuff really the foundations of happiness?
Love was the answer... Love. Peace. Harmony. ever see the old Coke commercial..."I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..." and it
grows into a crescendo of voices in harmony holding candles skiing down a mountain at night.
Love, man. that's where it's at, man...Love. Whic in some circles blended into the Christian faith and gave way to the jesus freaks... not only
Lovem but Jesus... actually many of Jesus' views are socialist principles, they are passive, pushing spiritual growth and not material growth, living
for today at peace and love your neighbor and love your enemy.
Some good movies of the times include Easy Rider... MASH... Billy Jack... Helter Skelter ( the old version made in the 1970s).. The Graduate... Dirty
Harry...all of these reflect viewpoints prevalant at the time. Look at the people and really look at the backgrounds and cars and dress.
Many young people mistakenly think it was about wild clothes and drugs and rock n roll. If you listen to the people and the songs, it was about
expansion and evolution of people and society and love. people took drugs to expand their minds and consciousness, people wore the clothes to express
themselves and be free to be who they wanted to be... not what the machine said they had to be. The music was about breaking the barriers and letting
freedom and love reign.
"Come on people now, join hands.. get on the love train, the love train..."
"Lean on me, when you're not strong... and I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on..."
The whole world seemed to be going crazy. As crazy as it is now, it was crazier then. We saw John and Robert kennedy get shot and killed. Martin
Luther king shot and killed. The Civil Rights marches and riots up in Chicago, Detroit, and most other metro areas. The KKK was in and out of the
news.. hangings and cross burnings, Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison all OD'd on drugs. Cities were burning, American servicemen were coming home in body
bags, or messed up with no legs, or came home in one piece but hooked on drugs and morphine, mass numbers of people were dropping out of society and
sleeping in parks and city streets and national malls and monuments protesting the Viet nam War by the tens of thousands, the riotous burning 1968
democratic convention, George wallace got shot, WaterGate, pictures of little Vietnamese girls running from Napalmed villages, the Mi Ling Massacre
and Lt Cally?... think I got that right.
All this offset by the Moon Landing, Buffaloe Springfield's Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming, the Kent State Massacre, Charlie Manson and the Tate
Murders... Elvis Comeback Special.. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, public school integration of whites and blacks
I lived and remember those day. I was young and idealistic. Now I am an old hippie with short hair and a red neck.. I really miss the spirit of those
days... and we were freer then, too.