Importance of nonprofits in the current economy and society

The counterculture of the 1960s Introduction A number of factors distinguished the counterculture movement of the 1960s with the previous movements. The baby boom of the post-world war II, which saw an increase in the number of young people with diverse thoughts of the American democracy, played a major role in the development and growth of this movement. There were increased levels of tension in the society with relation to the Vietnam War, racism, human sexuality, the rights of woman and traditionalism of the society. with the rapid changes in the people’s lifestyles, especially with the increased level of production as the world economy gained from the effects of the second world war, coupled with the high technological adaptation changed the reasoning and thinking of most people in the world. As such, different cultures developed because of these factors. While discussing the counterculture movement of the 1960s, this paper will pay particular attention to the hippie movement, the new left movement and the women movement that led to the growth of feminism and equality among women and men.
The “ new left” movement
During the 1960s and the early 1970s, various political movements emerged in the west. Regarded as the new left, countries taking part in these movements advocated for political change their countries. These movements attracted mostly the middle class of the United States and the middle class. While most of the earlier movements advocated for labor changes in their countries, the new west movement advocated for social changes in the United States and other western countries (Roussopoulos 127). Particularly in the United States, mass campus protests and radical leftist movements characterized the New Left movement. The New Left movement also criticized the Old Left ideologies, which saw an increase in civil unrests in the United States. Due to the authoritarian leadership style that characterized the old left politics and organizational leadership, there was the need for a change. In order to end this, the New Left movement aimed at ending the period of authoritarian rule by advocating for democracy at both the national government and the organizational level. It is important to note that during the 1960s, there was a rapid growth in the middle class among the American population (Skrentny 66). Coming from the Second World War, the economy was undergoing dynamic changes, especially in the level of investment by the people and other government agencies. As such, jobs were easy to come across. The development in the countries, private sector, coupled by the increase in the number of college going students fuelled the growth of this movement.
There were good organizational skills in the movement, as mostly the educated middle class and college students were the members of the movement. The students for a democratic society (SDS), a movement founded at the University of Michigan in the year 1960 formed the organizational base for the New Left movement (Gann and Peter 9). The group coined the word new Left from its 1962 Port Huron Statement that contained huge criticism of the lack of individual in the west and the increased level of bureaucracy in the government, universities and corporations. The statement called for participatory democracy of the people in the United States, advocating for inclusion of individual freedoms and respect by the government. With the understanding of the leaders’ movement that colleges were a proper ground to cultivate social change, they massively recruited students who took party in the numerous demonstrations that took part in various parts of the country. Initially, the movement advocated for a number of issues in the universities (Roussopoulos 127). Among these, include the freedom of the students, the dress codes of the students, the course requirements in the universities and the admission of the minority in the universities. However, as the movement progressed, issues regarding the Vietnam War heighted, taking center stage in the movement’s concerns.
The birth of the Free Speech Movement took place in the University of Berkeley in the fall of 1964. As methods of protesting against issues they regarded as anti-democratic, the movement used sit-ins and taking over college buildings. Mostly, this movement demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and as such went among the various campuses recruiting followers of the movement. While on campus they used draft card burnings and confrontations against the military recruiters, off campus, demonstrators used protests at army induction centers with picket lines and sit-ins (Gann and Peter 9).
The first half of 1968 saw an increase in the number of protests and the number of universities taking part in the New Left movement. Over 200 major demonstrations took place in over 100 colleges and universities across the country. More than 40000 students took place in these demonstrations. The most notable demonstrations during this period was the demonstration that took place at Columbia university protesting against the decision to replace black housing to pave way for a gymnasium. For several weeks, students commandeered classrooms until the police came in, arresting over 700 students while over 150 suffered from injuries in the operation. In the final years of 1960s, the SDS organization splintered, featuring elements such as the Weathermen, who engaged in confrontational politics (Katsiaficas 28).
The Hippies movement
Just like the New Left movement members, the hippies’ movement comprised of white middle class. However, these did not have any political drive or affiliation. The main characteristics of this group were their identifiable mode of dressing. The movement dressed in a particular style, which involved jeans, tie-dyed shirts and sandals. They grew long beards, did not shave and as such had long hair. They embraced the lifestyle of high sexual promiscuity and high use of drugs such as marijuana and hallucinogenic LSD (Miell 347). Mostly, these individuals embraced the rock music culture. Essentially, the hippie culture spread through rock music and was rampant among rock music lovers in the United States. The hippie movement adopted the rock culture, as the popular rock stars of the time dressed.
The 1960s also saw a rise in the popularity of rock and punk music, which most of the young drew inspiration of their dressing mode. The event “ Human Be-In in San Francisco” that happened in January 1967, organized by Michael Bowen fuelled the growth of the hippie culture, especially due to the media influence in the event. The song, “” be sure to wear flowers in yo9uyr hair” brought over 100, 000 people from across the world to celebrate San Francisco’s “ Summer of Love” in 1967. The song, originally composed for the June 1967 event, Monterey Pop Festival became an instant hit across the world, notably in America and Europe. Further, the flower children of San Francisco, also referred to as the hippies“ by the popular newspaper columnist Herb Caen adopted new dress codes, lived a communal lifestyle developed a vibrant music scene. Some of the hippies developed communes as far as possible from the normal dwelling places, and started living in these areas (Fichter 570). The hippie culture did not allow any politics, rather, it advocated for dropping out of the society as a way of changing the society. This belief spread from the popular song by Timothy Leaky, “ Turn on, tune in, drop out”.
While the hippie culture was primarily an urban culture, some of the youth in the countryside also adopted the dress code. However, the influence of the culture on these was not as significant as that of the urban dwellers (Miell 347). The Woodstock festival that took place in the upstate New York in the year 1969 became the landmark for the counterculture, promoting the growth of the hippie culture among the young people. The event, branded as “ three days of peace, music and love” budgeted a huge crowd of youngsters to attend. However, nothing close to the 300, 000 to 400, 000 people in attendance was part of their imagination. The management of the event, having taken into consideration every detail while organizing the event ensured that nothing went wrong for the entire period the event took place. Despite the huge number of people in attendance, there was adequate medical attention available for the revelers, especially drug related incidences. Moreover, the police did not attempt to interrupt the event by enforcing any drug related laws. This event fueled the growth of the hippie culture in the United States. Popular and celebrated rock artists of the time performed during the event. People openly smoked marijuana during the event and used other drugs. Moreover, they engaged in various sexual, acts during the event. The fact that the police did not enforce any drug related law during the event gave those in attendance the perception that they could use drugs, especially marijuana at any time. The performers, mostly under the influence of drugs entertained the crowd in attendance. After the event, most of the teenagers and youth engaged in various acts that took place during the event. Additionally, the high number of people in attendance was adequate to spread the events to the rest of the people in the United States (Shepherd, et al. 283).
The media boom, in the time also played a major role in promoting the hippie culture. Most of the radio stations and television played rock music. Magazines featured posters of rock stars dressed ibn their identifying attire, munch to the appeal of the young people. With the message in the music, mostly being sex, drugs, love and peace, the young tended to believe in the message (Sterling and Michael 6). As the lifestyles of these artists appealed to the young, it was easy to spread this culture among the people. Fueled by the media, it rapidly spread among the people, reaching to other regions in the west and the rest of the world (Perone 146). However, as the members of the hippie movement grew older, they started moderating their lifestyles and their views, thus neutralizing their radical influence. Further, the increased number of people taking part in the Vietnam War too helped in neutralizing the impact of the movement. As the war approached its stretch in the 1970s, the hippie movement became absorbed in the mainstream, with the only lasting impact being on music, art, philosophy and alternative health band diet of the people.
Women movement
As the world progressively sought for freedom and equality between the black Americans and the white, the women too saw the need for equality in the society with men. Being a diverse social movement, the women’s movement of the 1960s advocated for equal rights and opportunities for women in the economy, personal lives, homes and politics. The traditional notion that women were homemakers faced serious criticism and rejection during the second wave of the women movement that paved way for feminism. While the first movement that took place between 19th and 20th century advocated for women’s legal rights, the second wave of feminism that took place in the 1960s and 1970s focused on all spheres of women experience, including family, sexuality and work. After the Second World War, women’s lives in the developed countries took dramatic changes.
Technology adoption in the kitchen eased their homemaking duties, subsequently increasing their life experiences. The drastic growth and expansion of the service sector opened numerous opportunities that did not require physical strength (McDonald 8). Despite the fact that women b saw these opportunities as a change for the social roles, the real hope for change appeared in 1963 after the publication of the “ Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan. Friedan described the life of a suburban homemaker as a problem that lay buried and unspoken among the women in the society. According to her, the women lived the life of utter boredom and lack of fulfilment. According to Friedan, women described as having everything they needed in their homes including nice houses, responsible husbands and children in fact suffered from oppression and domesticity (Fisher and Ellen 36). However, they were too socially contained that they could hardly realize their own state of desperation. This publication saw the wake of women, ready to fight for their rights, getting out of their living rooms and taking care of their homes, started looking for jobs in the service sector (Frum 8).
Women inspired by Friedan’s book joined government leaders and union representatives taking part in lobbying and advocating for equality in income distribution and protection against discrimination in employment. However, they concluded that polite request was a fruitless way of trying to win the war. Seeing the need to start their own national pressure group, the National Organization for Women, equivalent to the national association for the advancement of colored people started operations in June 1966. In its early stages, the movement faced a myriad of challenges. By the second year, it only had 1035 members. Additionally, ideological issues marred the organization. Some of the women, after the organization’s failure to rewrite the constitution walked out of the movement. With time however, the movement grew and managed to reach its goal of including women rights in the constitution.
Conclusion
Numerous things happened in the 1960s, especially in the political and social spheres. Immediately after the Second World War, the world was undergoing yet another global political problem, the cold war. The two ideologies capitalism and socialism proved to divide the world in two. Notably though, it was the wave of cultural change that arose during this time that significantly affected the people’s social lives. Starting from America, this wave of social change known as counterculture spread to the United Kingdom before spreading to Canada, Asia and later the rest of the world. With the increased growth of the African-American civil rights movement, the counterculture movement of the 1960s gained even more momentum, rapidly spreading to other areas of the world very fast. When the American government provided extensive military intervention in the Vietnam War, the movement revolutionized. While some of the movements that grew during this time focused on changing the politics of the day, others did not. The New Left movement advocated for political change, both in the government, universities and corporations. Women movement advocated for equality of women both in the society, the national government and at the economic sphere. On the other hand, the hippie movement, a culture developed and spread entirely through rock music focused on the lifestyles of the young and the middle class whites.
Works Cited
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