Hippies: Late 1960s and early 1970s anti-Vietnam war protests, social and political background notes

Hippies: Late 1960s and early 1970s anti-Vietnam war protests, social and political background notes

by James K. Sayre

Part and parcel with the growing anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s was a growing general disillusionment with material progress, keeping up with the Jones mentality and the general emptiness of material life. As kids protested, grew their hair and smoked their pot, they began to reorder their lives and some of them "dropped out" to pursue different styles of living. This included more sexual freedom, less work, less ambition, and more being stoned or "high," more meditation and thoughtfulness, more bicycle riding, more walking and more hitch-hiking. (Of course, someone had to be driving that VW van that gave you that groovy free ride, but no worries, mate!). These kids and young adults became known as "hippies." Of course, no one really knew what a "hippie" really was, so you just smiled when someone asked you if you were a "hippie?" Many of the hippies were ostensibly apolitical or nonpolitical; some moved to the country and built and lived in teepees, old farm houses or even built their own new-style dome homes. Geodesic domes were all the rage in the early 1970s as an alternative to the traditional four-cornered house. : Background sketch

You may want to check out an interesting web site called hippy.com link: www.hippy.com

Check out the new book by John Markoff, a computer expert, who has written, "What the Dormouse said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry" (Penguin, 2005). What the Dormouse Said

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Web page last updated on 15 May 2005.