Were the hippies involved in some major movement?

Question

I am doing a history paper and I want to write about hippies. The theme of the paper is 'Triumph and Tragedy'. And I want to talk about what they did/their movement and how that was both a triumph and tragedy. So..was there anything major they were involved with?

Most of you guys said they were just a disorganized group/bunch of college students. So..hippies didn't really do anything major then? Except like some of you said, experiment with drugs and stuff.

Because if that's all they did..Im not sure I could put together a 6 page paper on that. x_x

Answer 1

The beetnicks wanted to be the opposite of their parents, thus making words like 'cool' because their mothers would be like 'Thats some hot jazz'. This all happened around the 1950's.

Answer 2

Hippies were a 1960's extension of the Beat Generation of the 50's. The Hippies (or Flower Children as the were sometimes called) were often college educated young people who were experimenting with new cultural experiences, such as pacifism (the Peace Movement), openness in laws and politics, relaxed views on love and sex, and experimentation with different religions, music and drugs. Their existence was fueled with events like the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Answer 3

The hippies were an unorganized group. They didn't have any cohesive agenda at all. I would say that, as a generalization and on the whole, most hippies were interested in: (1) getting the government to pull out of Vietnam (2) experimenting with drugs (3) experimenting with sexual freedoms (4) promoting women's rights (5) choosing and promoting a lifestyle in direct opposition to the materialism of the 50's. That was my viewpoint at the time anyway...

Answer 4

The hippies were involved in promoting peace, free love, and self-fulfillment. These were good desires, but they went about it the wrong way. For peace, they staged sit-ins against war, cruelty to animals, and whatever else they were against, and would sit in the way of pedestrians or traffic (sometimes tying themselves together) to bring attention to the cause. They only succeeded in being dragged away and jailed (how peaceful is that?) For free love, rather than providing service or assistance to humankind, they indulged in sex with anyone interested ("making love" instead of acting lovingly). Therefore, few had solid relationships and venereal diseases increased. For self-fulfillment, rather than seeking education or wisdom, they listened to music, burned incense, hung beads everywhere, smoked pot and experimented with drugs to have better ideas, dreams, and visions. Many became drug addicts, some of which ended up living on streets or in parks. I lived in the Oakland/San Francisco area during that time and people saw the hippies as a nuisance rather than a group promoting good values and morals for the USA.

Answer 5

Hippies, huh? Anti-war protests that eventually led to the death of the students at Kent State University. Drugs, sex, immorality, Woodstock, heavy metal music. Sit ins and demonstrations. Not much good came from hippies. They were a wasted generation.