Loss of Leaders: Event in the 1960s that Influenced One's Life - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... This paper stresses that to enable a validated discussion of the era, a brief overview would reveal that there were marked social changes in the 1960s that influenced people’s lives. According to Goode “in the less than half a generation from 1960 to 1970, fundamental changes have taken place that will permanently alter the shape of history. The most important of these changes have been cultural, not technological”.
This discussion explores that since one has been about seven years of age by the time the hippies proliferated American society, their emergence was significant in terms of manifesting distinct characteristics and traits that exhibited unconventional behavior. Historian Arnold Toynbee describes them as "a red warning light for the American way of life." For California's Bishop James Pike, they evoke the early Christians: "There is something about the temper and quality of these people, a gentleness, a quietness, an interest—something good." To their deeply worried parents throughout the country, they seem more like dangerously deluded dropouts, candidates for a very sound spanking and a cram course in civics”. In one’s personal contention, there was definitely a feeling of fear during the time one saw them. One had the impression that they were bad people from their physical attire, to their behavior and actions, to public display of revolt. The hippies wanted a world based on peace, love, and happiness. They revolted against society, and abandoned traditional traditional customs, lifestyles, and society to form their own. Many times they lived together in small groups called communes, where they worked together and shared posessions. Sexual relations with members of these groups flowed freely, whenever there was a mutual attraction. They believed they should "go with the flow" rather than be uptight about sex like past generations were. Drugs were also very common with hippies, especially such drugs as LSD, marijuana, and hashish” (The Sixties, n.d., pars. 1 & 2). The comments heard from parents and elders confirmed one’s apprehension to empathize with the hippies advocacies that include their opposition of Americans to the Vietnam war. Further, the use of drugs and promiscuous sex further confirmed one’s fear. Influence on Career and Life Since one was immersed into persisent comments and observations on the potential dangers that drugs and promiscuous sex would do to the hippies and to those they significantly interact with, one’ ...Download file to see next pagesRead More