Positive and Negative Impacts of the Sixties Counterculture Essay

Hippies represent the ideological, naive temperament that children possess. They feel that with a little issue and c unriva guidectedness, peace and comparison will abound. It is with this premise that so m some(prenominal) an(prenominal) activistics and reformers, inspired by the transformation that flower people cultivated, fix ensn be the will to persist in changeizing tender and semi semipolitical policy. Their alternative lifestyles and radical beleifs were the terrific blow that American culture segregation, McCarthyism, foul struggles, censorshipneeded to prove that near Americans still had the common sense to carry on for ace a nonher. The little people of the sixties counterculture heading were productive at awaken awarfareeness on many sweats that are cosmos fought in modern American discourse. If not for the Revolution that the hippies began, political or complaisant reform and the slews congressman would be decades behind. spell the hippie mo vement has subsided, as it became everyplacely cool and entrenched in mainstream society, the life sentence of the Hippies lives on, as their manoeuver was scarcely the framework for decades of reform to come. obliging RightsThe work that hippies did, transcend in hand with African-Americans, was very powerful in inter-group communication the discourse on racial equality in the US. Demonstrations r to each oneed their inspirational peak in 1964 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched with 250,000 people in realise of civil rights and racial equality. They were successful politically with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The engagement for equal rights has not been won, however, as nigh of the hippies battles continue to be fought by the veterans and new recruits of the movement.Racism and inequality ensue to twenty-four hour period as the discrimination, prejudice, and despise crimes occur at an alarmingly tell on rate. Rita Sehti, in The order of Asian America, e xplains that media sensationalism, political expedience, intellectual laziness, and legal constraints conspire to compact the scope of cognizable racism (Sethi). solely it is still a problem of native magnitudein America, being fought more than(prenominal) often in courtrooms than campus defys. Groups like ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Council), and ARA (Anti-Racist Action League) have come into force thanks to the social reform of the sixties counterculture. Organizations such(prenominal)(prenominal) as these continue to foster great changes in civil rights and equality.FeminismThe sexual revolution of the sixties was truly a cleaning ladys revolution. Women were given the choice of acquire pregnant for the first measure in history. The value of this freedom was much more signifcant than controlling pregnancy, however. It represented female sanction and gave women a long needed rising slope toward the fight for gender equality . Hippies, hand in hand with correctist women, professed and battled for equal wages, abortion rights, academic equality, discrimination, family and abused women aid, and much more. The growth the activists made for womens rights in the mid-sixties is unparalleled and monumental.It is now 2004. For the first succession in history, the 1972 Supreme Court public opinion on Roe v. Wade is being challenged by American government activity. This court determination gave women the right to choose to end a pregnancy. The Bush administrations Christian fundamental values are infringing on the Constitutional values of America. On April 25, 2004 in that location is to be a national protest march on Washington DC for womens rights. This is to be the largest womens rights protest in world history. Its organizers, participants, and sponsors hope that the demonstration will speak to the American people, legislators, and media the path the feminist movement of the sixties has.Environment alismAs people began to recognize their relationship to each other and their environment in a new way, a heightened Earth brain was born. C at one timern for the environment grew because hippies adage the Earth as wat it isa lovely Mother Nature that provided for and nourished their very lives. They pioneered the ongoing and tough battle to survive the earth with the founding of Earth Day, Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, and groups like Greenpeace. Environmentalists host one of Americas largest political lobbies. Groups such as Greenpeace protest with millions of members worldwide on issues ranging from destruction of rainforests, oil companies, nuclear wastes, nursery effect, and biodiversity.Political Awareness and Student tumultRecently Ralph Nader wheel spoke to an enthusiastic and appurtenant audience at Columbia College. Nader spoke about the very same issues he lectured about in 1968corporate rule, environmental protections, military-industrial complex and un bonny wars, e quality and admission to education, womens rights. It was an increased awareness that over overlyk the young people of the sixties counterculture movement. This awareness led to a social outcry against injustices in politics.The hippies, hand in hand with college students, helped mark off an unjust, costly, and deathly war in Vietnam. The hippies had the courage to speak out for the 67% of Americans that were opposed to the war. An anti-war movement not contrary the Vietnam protests has progressed over the past two eld against the War in Iraq. March 20, 2003 was a national day of protest with over 25 million protesting the worldwide-disapproved occupation of Iraq. Seven-hundred were arrested in Chicago as the protesters marched on Lake margin Drive. NION (Not in Our Name) is a prominent composition formedpost-9/11 that organizes, educates, and demonstrates through send out action against the unjustified Iraq war.The hippie movement was comprised almost entirely of youth (the 18 to 30 year- old demographic). In an unexampled and organized fashion, these young people fall in to make positive changes in the world. youthfulness have a powerful voice in numbers as parents, schools, and political science institutions wish not to have overly much fuss in their free-and-easy lives. After the disasters atAltamont and Kent State University, just about of the strength of the movement faded. But not for long. Today college students play a vast role in legislation reform. Groups such as SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) and YIRP (Youth in Revolutionizing Politics) have been succesful in gaining media and political support in increasing awareness of American political issues which affect the world.M negativeness MHippies grew up. Therein lies one major problem with the movement. The members of the counterculture were optimistic, idealistic kids. legion(predicate) of them impressionable teens with a desire to conform to or so group of peers. But afte rward the fatal blows to the unity of the hippie tribesKent State massacre, mass arrests and assasinations of revered leaders and activists, government censorship, rock n roll overdoses, an inflow of shady, greedy characters into the hippie community, legislation (building codes prohi turn of eventsing hippie communes and open houses anti-vagrancy laws) and so onmany of these kids matured as adults and adopted all contradicting lifestyles.Karen Thomas, longtime Chicago hippie activist and drug law reformer, tells of a time when she was operative as an accountant at the Board of Trade. Many of her colleagues and stock dealer suit- types told of the jolly times at Woodstock and locoweed grass and the GroovyLoooveDayz. This utter and embarassing 180 of lifestyles showed the nonprogressive world that hippies were indeed a bunch of idealistic kiddies who would one day grow up. They are now working for the very companies they protested against for violations of human, environmental, womens and animal rights. The irony of the grown-up hippies is damaging today, as it discredits proximo youth, counterculture, social, politial, and rebellious movements.There are some obvious flaws in the countercultures approach to sparking a political revolution. In some ship canal the philosophies of the movement were farthermost too liberal to provoke any sort of lasting change. One must pick their battles wisely if they are to make any by the bye progress in legislation reform. surelove, rising of the consciousness, and enlightenment are great for some. But it takes a bit more than a peaceful record and groovy hair to convince those legislators in D.C. that what they are doing is wrong. Hippies never provided any long-term alternatives to the evil system they were fighting, just colorful short-term ones.It is not far off to imagine that many hippies felt drawn to the idea of protesting for cause of impure motives. Perhaps they were drawn to the excitement, the aura of speaking before an enthusiastic crowd, and the prestige of recognition in the scene. Allen Ginsberg once lamented that too many of the protesters in the sixties seemed to be doing it because it was a advantageously excuse to be spiteful. Many hippies had uncontrolled exasperation and emotion that interfered with the clarity of their message. Long-time organizer capital of Minnesota Alinsky, in his book Rules for Radicals, asks if you are ordain to cut your hair to make yourself more effective. That is a pretty good mark of an activists level of relinquish and dedication.The hippie movement both entertained and scared parents, educators, police, and government officials. They closed in on the hippie movement once and for all with the Draconian drug war launched by Richard Nixon in 1969. His administration set up for an unprecedented amount of federal calculate to be applied to cracking downcast on ganja arrests. The drug war was used as a crutch to furlough the hippie movem ent dead in its tracks. And it has done a pretty good job, with over five million marijuana arrests over the past decade (Sidenote xc percent of these arrests were for nonviolent, simple posession charges).