Beatniks and Hippies

A detailed Summary of Beatniks and Hippies

In the times of recovery after 2 great World Wars and The Great Depression it was not hard to realize why there were some people that held negative reactions towards the lifestyle that the average American was used to living in the 50's through the late 70's and their ideals of values and beliefs of the nation. Two movements that was conceived and born of these feelings of alienation and freedom are the Beat movement and later the movement of the Hippies. These two movements are called the Counter Culture. For many people it is seen as a step backwards, and a period in the history of the United States where it is seen as a reason for all the problems in society there is today.

I although however believed that the best times in the United States came from the movements of the Counter Culture and what they had done to influence popular culture and society forever for the better and I will demonstrate with this essay how that has happened. Although however most will see them as a misguided or anarchic group of individuals, they actually contributed to one of the best eras of the United States. These movements promote freedom, basically freedom from the society that America has created. Free from their ideals and their monotonous v

natural environment robbed of all its riches. You're seeing things no-one else seems to

In the 60's there were many social movements, which were all fighting for a goal. It was in these trouble times that sprang the movement of the hippies that was the opposite of the activists. It would soon from that launch the beginning of the "Me Decade," a time in the eighties where the people stopped caring about what happens in the world around them. This is the "New Drug Culture" that considered drug use as a political act and promoted the usage of drugs, further sexual

be seeing. It's all in your head. The situation you, just by existence, have found

The Beat movement supported improvisation and stylistic freedom much different from the restraints of the 50's. Its themes had influences from jazz, mystical Asian religions, drugs, and sexuality. One of those rebels representing the Beat movement is Allen Ginsberg the poet who wrote the famous poem "Howl". The words, statements and meanings to the poem represent the Beatnik's ideals. What was so significant of the Beats was that their contemporary works were very different from the conservatives of the 50's, they contained a continuous flow and spontaneity and many references to drugs and sex and the questioning of the institutions, values and beliefs of the America and always written in spontaneity and never following any formulas. As a part of their rejection towards society, they mingled with society's outcasts and misfits - blacks, drug addicts, prostitutes, bums and migrant farm workers, and petty criminals. They first caught the American public's attention when there was an obscenity trial against Ginsberg involving his book, "Howl and other poems".

Hippies wanted a world based on love of humanity and peace, a utopian society. Many hipp

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dr Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Counter Culture, Wars Depression, Hippies Beat, Drug Culture, Lost Generation, World Wars, beat movement, , counter culture, drug culture, united movements, world wars, values beliefs, movement hippies,

Approximate Word count = 1218
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History