The Hippy Movement

The Hippy Movement

Counter-culture: The Hippie movement

The Hippie movement became the movement that defined the life of the counter culture. It is where traditional values were rejected, and where a new wave of philosophical beliefs transformed the youth to believe in a better world. They did not aim to change society, they created their own. A society where everyone is equal, where violence is ruled out, and where drugs were common. This was and in some cases still is hippie movement.

What is the historical/societal context in which the movement occurred?

It was during the time of the Vietnam war, during the time when mostly poor Americans where sent out to Vietnam to join the war, this war was based on a lie, causing a out burst of people standing up against the authorities. At this time most of the men where sent home in boxes (dead). Theses hippies questioned the authority and its power leading to a peaceful rebellion against it.

What were the aims of the movement? What changes did it aim to bring about?

The Hippies established new forms of living together: Communes and free love. These Communes were household where everybody had the same rank so parents had the same rank as kids, independent of the person’s sex, occupation etc. Ideally, a commune would live on the countryside in a natural environment away from chemicals and none natural substances, people would be wearing self-made clothes made of natural fabric. There wasn’t a bond of marriage needed and love was basically free, the children wouldn’t be forced to obey one certain set of parents but they would be brought up as a group (the communes). Beside the fact that these communes nearly never worked in reality because of how a child naturally needs parents and love from a certain set of parents, the average American was not very fond of these new forms of living. This meant that most of America and any government in America where essentially the counter or status quo of the movement as they believed in...

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