The Counterculture in 1960-1970 - Report Example

Introduction The counterculture of the 1960 is an anti-establishment phenomenon of culture developed first in the United States and spread to other western worlds during the periods of early 1960 to early 1970. The movement continued to grow and became revolutionary as time went. According to an article known as American civil rights movements (1955-1968), the 1960s was a period where the long held values and behavioural norms seemed to break down, especially among the youths (McConnell 67). The dot.com bubble, on the other hand, was a market bubble that popped up to near disastrous effect in 2oo1. An interview held in recent history shows how a young woman got greatly affected by the counterculture movement and the dot.com boom revolution (McConnell 67). This paper aims at looking into how the counterculture movement of the 1960s together with the dot.com boom affected the life of the interviewee. During the 1960s, many young men and women practised political activism and were the wheels of civil rights and anti-war movements. Young people simply dropped out, taking themselves apart from mainstream culture (Carlisle 89). "Attitudes towards sexuality seemed to loosen and women started protesting openly about the traditional roles of housewives and mothers," said the interviewee. Consequently, protests groups started forming and one that was active was the Students for Democratic Society, founded at the Michigan University in 1960 (Gair 87). "Leaders of the SDS had strong beliefs that colleges were there to promote social change." Says the interviewee. Before the mushrooming of opposition to the war of Vietnam, issues that touched on the freedom of students such as dress codes, minority admissions and the likes were the hot topic of discussions. During this time, the administration of schools tried to maintain political activities. The resultant action was the formation of the free speech movement. People developed common forms of antiwar protests by taking over college buildings. In the spring of 1995, SDS supported a campaign against the draft (Carlisle 98). "Demonstrations on campuses included confrontations with military, the burning of draft cards and other forms of protest." Says the interviewee. Antiwar protestors protested at Army inductions centres with sit-ins and picket lines. During the period of the first few months in 1968, more than two hundred demonstrations took place in over a hundred colleges. More than forty thousand students got involves in these demonstrations. The most celebrated demonstrations of these early days were at Colombia University in April 1968. Here, the protested issue was not war, but the attempt of the school to do away with black housing and put there a gymnasium instead. Such an act greatly angered SDS supporters and members of the black community, which resulted in a huge demonstration (Allen 56). SDS members along with black students took over several buildings on the school’s campus. The police eventually got called in and seven hundred students got arrested that day with one hundred and fifty students getting injured in the process. After these demonstrations and the news of young students getting injured reaching Columbia’s president, the plans for building a gymnasium had to get abandoned. During this period of counterculture in the 1960s, there also existed a group of middle class whites known as Hippies (Gair 103). Their trademark was a particular mode of dressing that included tie-dyed shirts, jeans, long beards, sandals, and a lifestyle of recreational drug use such as marijuana and sexual promiscuity. The songs of the time reflected these qualities. An example of a band that displayed these images was performers like Jim Morrison, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. Hippies were an urban phenomenon. Various sections were the centres of counterculture at the time. While the counterculture’s open-mindedness encouraged sexual freedom, there are also a number of factors that contributed to change in attitude towards sexuality. Oral contraceptives got introduced and by 1970, twelve million women were on "the pill." Several stated legalized abortion, and the womens movement had the determination of making the procedure widely available (Carlisle 77). Throughout these sexual revolutions, the number of abortions rose drastically, with the number of birth rates reducing. The AIDS crisis began in 1980 because of the demolition of the sex revolution. Feminism is the other counterculture that got established during this era. The starting point of contemporary feminism was a publication done by Betty Friedan, the feminine mystique (Allen 66). She argued that women ought to discover themselves and find their own identity. The publication received a massive response from people (McConnell 124). Women wanted identities that people did not associate with the traditional roles of a wife or a mother. Women attending colleges increased and many of them joined civil rights and got involves with the new left group. Women started getting roles and jobs in colleges such as typing, making coffee and many others. However, they were not the only people that fought for equality during this time. Homosexuals also started forming their liberation groups until the treatment of lesbians and gays started becoming a global civil rights issue. Following this counterculture was the dot.com boom, which came much later during the twentieth century. The dot.com boom was a stock market bubble that almost brought catastrophic effects in 2001 (Carlisle 56). People having experienced counterculture, they were open minded and started associating with the world differently. The dot.com boom got powered by the rise of the tech industry and internet sites in general. Many tech industries learned a lesson when the bubble finally burst. Investors lost substantial sums of money, which triggered a mild economic recession. "Everyone was suffering as the economy of the country was in bad shape." Says the interviewee. 1995 was the beginning of a major leap in the growth of internet users, whom companies saw as potential consumers. Majority of these companies engaged in daring business practises with the hopes of capturing and dominating the market. Most companies engaged in the growth over profit policy that later saw them in the ditches. Investors responded to the daring practises with money (McConnell 145). The American stock market skyrocketed, with people founding hundreds of companies on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, for many investors, the tech sector proved to be deceptive. Many court cases targeted tech companies for illegitimate practices and the stock market began to crumble seriously. The decline in business spending was imminent and this pronounced a serious blow to many tech companies. The issues of the bubble burst led to people outsourcing services from outside countries that led to an increased rate of unemployment. The interviewee experienced the counterculture of the 1960s and the dot.com boom in various aspects. The countercultural movement of the 1960 had a massive impact on people, the interviewee included. In an interview, she said that young people got frustrated due to a number of issues. Some of those issues include racism, consumerism, gender issues, and the general conservative nature of the society. She says that they were looking for a change and found it in countercultural movements. People started questioning the American consumerist culture and the traditional values as a whole. As a result, they followed a lifestyle contrary to the orthodox American society. Sex, drugs and music became the norm of living. She says that people sought after politics, music, and drugs in order to form a better world than the one they were living. The effects of the revolutionary ideas express themselves in todays world. One of the notable features of counterculture that the interviewee experienced was sexual freedom. She says that, after the introduction of oral contraceptives, abortion became the order of the day. People used to engage in regular sex without considering the repercussions. As a result, there was a high abortion rate, divorce and orphans. She exclaims that the rise of feminism was an integral part of the counter culture movement. As she recalls, women started experiencing their rights more often than they did. Women attended schools, something that was not there before the counter culture. Eventually, feminism leads to the establishment of women political activism. One example is the formation of National Organization of Women that took place during this time. Counter cultural sentiments also got expressed in films and movies such as the Apocalypse, The Deer Hunter and others, which showed explicit scenes of sex and violence. The interviewee also talks about how homosexuals started fighting for their rights. Some films would display homosexual scenes in a bid to change the way society views them. This culture also got expressed in music by the great artists such as Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, and the Beatles, an international rock and roll group that came from Britain. The countercultural movement was an open rebellion against established traditions in the society. It had its advantages and disadvantages. On one hand it rebelled against American traditions, but, on the other hand, it supported the fight against the cold war and feminism. The interviewee was also able to share her experiences after experiencing the dot.com bubble during the late twentieth century period. She says that, during the dot.com period, many standard business models got abandoned because of the innovative and unknown nature of the online business. After the bubble burst, she witnessed the acquisition of companies and liquidation of dot.coms. The bubble burst led to a mild recession that only investors and businesses that had traditional models of business survived. The repercussions of this are that the rate of unemployment increased. Jobs were scarce because the money that investors lost was a lot. The countrys economy was not stable. Moreover, the terrorist attack that took place in 2001 worsened the situation. She says that people were very sceptical to start any business as they were afraid to lose their money. Also, huge pessimism developed for the IT industry. People viewed it as unpredictable and did not want to venture business in this sector. As a result, many IT firms went to a loss. However, the rise of broadband in developed countries has become an issue of concern to some financial analysts. Investors fear that the growing number of high speed users especially in social working sites such as facebook, YouTube, and twitter might lead to another bubble burst. Work cited McConnell, William S. The Counterculture Movement of the 1960s. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Print. Carlisle, Rodney P, and J G. Golson. America in Revolt During the 1960s and 1970s. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print. Gair, Christopher. The American Counterculture, 1945-1975. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Print. Allen, Franklin, and Douglas Gale. Understanding Financial Crises. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2007. Internet resource. Doukidis, Georgios I. Social and Economic Transformation in the Digital Era. Hershey, PA [u.a.: Idea Group Publ, 2004. Print. Read More