what does the term counterculture mean in relation to the 1960's?

Question

what kinds of people were part of the counterculture and what were their ideas? what mistakes did they make?

Answer 1

Hippies and so called "flower children" made up the counter culture of the 1960's. They talked a lot, did little, and tried to convince [people they were for love and pace as they blew themselves away with marijuana, LSD and other illegal substances. Timothy Leary was their hero, President Johnson and anyone else who didn't agree with their drivel were the enemy. However, we did survive them.

Chow!!

Answer 2

It was a reaction against the rigid norms and beliefs of the prudish, conservative and conformist culture of the 1950s.

Mostly young, educated and middle-class. Lots of wannabes who only adopted the superficial signs : clothes, music, drugs.

There were two tendencies : leftist activism and "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" hippies. But they had in common the resistance to the war in Vietnam, and the conservative politics of the previous generation.

Two main mistakes : hard drugs, and the lack of support from the labor movement.

Answer 3

Many young people questioned America's materialism and cultural and political norms. Seeking a better world, some used music, politics, and alternative lifestyles to create what came to be known as the counterculture.

Unconventional appearance, music, drugs, communitarian experiments, and sexual liberation were hallmarks of the sixties counterculture, most of whose members were white, middle-class young Americans. To some Americans, these attributes reflected American ideals of free speech, equality, and pursuit of happiness. Other people saw the counterculture as self-indulgent, pointlessly rebellious, unpatriotic, and destructive of America's moral order.

Authorities banned the psychedelic drug LSD, restricted political gatherings, and tried to enforce bans on what they considered obscenity in books, music, theater, and other media. Parents argued with their children and worried about their safety. Some adults accepted elements of the counterculture, while others became estranged from sons and daughters.

Many members of the counterculture saw their own lives as ways to express political and social beliefs. Personal appearance, song lyrics, and the arts were some of the methods used to make both individual and communal statements. Though the specifics of the debates were new, arguments for personal freedom, free speech, and political reform go back to the foundations of American society and the arguments of 19th-century social reformers and founders of new communities.

The counterculture movement, greeted with enormous publicity and popular interest, contributed to changes in American culture. A willingness to challenge authority, greater social tolerance, the sense that politics is personal, environmental awareness, and changes in attitudes about gender roles, marriage, and child rearing are legacies of the era.

The types of people involved in counterculture era wore long hair for both genders, and more facial hair for men than was common at the time. Many white people associated with the American Civil Rights Movement and the 1960s counterculture, especially those with curly or "nappy" hair, wore their hair in afros in earnest imitation of African-Americans.

Brightly colored clothing; unusual styles, such as bell-bottom pants, tie-dyed garments, dashikis, peasant blouses; and non-Western inspired clothing with Native American, African and Latin American motifs. Much of hippie clothing was self-made in protest of Western consumer culture. Head scarves, headbands, long beaded necklaces (for both men and women), and sandals were also fashionable.

The VW Bus was known as a counterculture/hippie symbol, and many buses were repainted with graphics and/or custom paint jobs—these were predecessors to the modern-day art car. A peace symbol often replaced the Volkswagen logo. Because of its low cost, the bus was revered as a utilitarian vehicle.

Mistakes:
Hippies, a gentle, loving, environmentally conscious, Zen-reading, LSD-gobbling, sexually communal, nonjudgmental, nonviolent critical mass, had upset the apple cart of social decorum.
The counterculture revolution was seen by gay conservatives and by right wing politicos as a threat to the social order.

Answer 4

counter culture = hippies