He Shouts Retired and Disgusted

The American 1960s were the most culturally important decade of American history within the last century, if not since 1776. Americans were entangled with the British Invasion, the explosion of television, the “Summer of Love” in ‘67, and the moon landing in ‘69. During this era of overwhelming cultural evolution, select groups developed among the American public. There were the adolescent members of the military fighting in Vietnam, the politically active intellectuals who protested the war, the young baby boomers who were starting families, and pacifist “hippies” who roamed the valleys of California and promoted peace and love wherever they went. The specific demographic associated with the 1960s are these “hippies” and other members of the counterculture (civil rights activists, Vietnam protesters, beatniks, etc.) that rose into prominence during the Vietnam era. Members of the counterculture began to question the status quo and become civilly disobedient in the forms of sit-ins and political protests. Civil unrest, “free love”, and drug use exploded during this era within the young members of the counterculture, and bled outward into the general public. Marijuana and LSD were household names, and parents and religious leaders across the nation denounced musical artists like Jimi Hendrix for making the Devil’s music. The members of the counterculture and members of the civil rights movement allowed American culture and collective American identity to be thrown into disarray, as they had turned away from the safety of conformity experienced in the 1950s and instead embraced antithetical ideas like nihilism and nonconformity. The societal shift in both culture and political identity during the 1960s are interconnected with the popularity of the civil rights movement, the rejection of social norms and standards, and the spread of new pieces of music and literature across America.

The energy of the counterculture to participate in political protest stemmed from the already existing energy of the civil rights movement and, paradoxically, a sense of nihilism and apathy. Nothing matters; why participate? In his groundbreaking 1950 novel The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman discusses the effects of political apathy on a government. He claims that political apathy leads to “consistent failure” to operate a government in the way it is supposed to be run (Riesman et al. 1). Political apathy itself is a vague term, but also a broad one. Political apathy can be taken literally to mean pacifism and apolitical tendencies (a noticeable trend within the counterculture movement) or inaction with political intentions. Pacifism was an enormously popular movement throughout the ‘60s, as conscientious objectors and peace-loving hippies championed world peace through music and drug use. Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival would serve as havens for hippies to promote world peace, pacifism, and an end to the war in Vietnam. Political inaction and civil disobedience, however, are in fact based around action, but specific action in regard to disobeying the law. People were physically inactive with political motivations. People refused to obey racial segregation laws, and did not take action to ensure that the law would be upheld. There was a blatant disregard and apathy toward segregation laws so that attention would be put on the civil rights movement and issues within American culture and legislature. The apathy in regard to the law resulted in a failure of the rules to be followed, and therefore a failure in the maintenance of a “free” society.

The principal aim of civil disobedience, by definition, is to incite change “within the established system” (Civil Disobedience). The civil rights movement was doing exactly that. Civil rights leaders and activists helped define the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X are all names that are taught in history classes today for helping achieve racial equality in the United States. What is lesser recognized is their effect on other movements of the 1960s. Civil disobedience and social unrest in the late ‘60s were exacerbated by the civil rights movement earlier in the decade. The established system was flawed, and black Americans and civil rights advocates were not the only ones who noticed this. Conscientious objectors and draft dodgers avoided the war in Vietnam in order to incite change within the American system. To them, the war in Vietnam was unjust and as a citizen they could not support it as they believed it to be unreasonable. What better way to let the government know how you feel than to explicitly ignore their orders. This echoed sentiments felt by the members of the civil rights movement. Why participate in a society that one does not agree with? Why not take action to correct what one believes to be wrong within society? The similarity in motivation allowed advocacy groups to latch onto the powerful political train that was the civil rights movement. At the start of the civil rights movement, “hundreds of students got involved in sit-ins” and protested segregation laws across the country (MacDonald). This energy continued on to influence the Vietnam protesters, who followed suit in their civil disobedience and staged marches and protests across the nation to speak out against the war. The civil rights movement was the beginning of a long, tumultuous decade full of social and political unrest, and “inspired other groups to seek an end to oppression” (Meyer). The civil rights movement served as both the fuel and the fire that would continuously perpetuate political unrest throughout America during the 1960s.

This long decade would be characterized by those who stood up and spoke out against the government, be it teenagers fighting for free speech in high schools, intellectual college students marching to protest the war in Vietnam, or working class black Americans demanding service in segregated stores and restaurants. As Norman Mailer puts it in his semi-biographical retelling of the march on Washington in 1967 to protest the war in Vietnam, The Armies of the Night, dozens of activist groups joined up with the movement for civil rights and against Vietnam:

... every week, the Administrative Committee would get together to make basic decisions. … Representatives from Women Strike for Peace, the New York Parade Committee, the Chicago Peace Council, the Student Mobilization Committee, the Ohio Area Peace Action Council, and pacifists, veterans groups, Communists, Trotskyists, returned volunteers from the Peace Corps in Vietnam were present. (Mailer 230-231)

Mailer describes meetings within the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (otherwise known as “the Mobe”), who were the masterminds behind the march in ‘67. Members of dozens of different peace groups got together to protest this war, heightening the overall tensions within the nation between proponents of the war and those against it. So many people had conflicting opinions, it was difficult to contain them within the scope of the Vietnam War. Issues of all types would be addressed and discussed, as “the antiwar movement, the women’s movement, and the struggles of gays and lesbians, Latinos, and other minority groups” all squabbled over the limelight so that their respective groups could receive the same attention as the anti-war movement or the civil rights movement (Cullen). This constant battle for attention has continued up until even today, and has created a culture in America that places importance on social justice and activism. During the 1960s, this shift in political and cultural identity can be traced back to the rejection of established cultural norms popular in the 1950s, which included conformity, domesticity, and the popularized suburban nuclear family.

The idealistic, clichéd white picket fence American dream had been embraced fully by the nation over the course of the 1950s. White suburban families attended PTA meetings, watched television, and feared communism. The children of this generation, otherwise known as “baby boomers”, grew up in prosperous economic times and enjoyed all the comforts of a homogeneous suburban lifestyle. These children would grow up and experience their adolescence in the ‘60s, where they would reexamine and look to abandon the safe lifestyle that had been bestowed upon them by their parents. Young people experimented and looked into new, strange ways of living. They were tired of the conformist lifestyle they had grown up surrounded by, and were eager to examine what life was like under different circumstances and different rules. The doctrine of “free love” was preached, where casual sex was okay and the discussion of sexuality was no longer taboo. Of course even at the height of the 1960s counterculture era, there were still suburban families who lived peacefully and kept sinful acts (sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll) out of their dinner conversations, but those who were interested and old enough to experiment with preconceived notions of society lived in a time where they were not alone. Young people across the nation were fascinated with finding new, avant garde ways of life. Hippie communes opened up across the nation, where people could join and live a strange anarchist/communist hybrid lifestyle with others who shared their same desires. The widespread rejection of established societal standards made it easy for Americans everywhere to find fellow nonconformists who looked to abandon the comforts of domesticity. After all, “they had everything … it was a pretty good society they were dropping out from” (Hoffman). The risk of losing out on the safety net of the ‘50s was worth the reward of new and interesting ways of life to these young American freethinkers.

This new method of free thinking and free living was heavily popularized through the reading of both old and new works of literature during the ‘60s. Authors wrote novels with lonely protagonists that wayward readers could empathize with regardless of their actual background. Notable works written and consumed during the 1950s and ‘60s include J.D. Salinger’s 1951 The Catcher in the Rye and Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land. The protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, is a character that disillusioned adolescents and teenagers were able to relate to. He is lonely, awkward, and he feels as if he is a righteous outsider in a society full of “phonies”. Feelings of loneliness and teenage angst are emotions that are very easy to understand, as everyone has experienced those feelings at one point or another in their young lives. For the baby boomers, 1951 was the perfect time for such a novel to be released, as it popularized their emotions and placed teenage hardship into the mainstream. Teenagers were not alone in feeling this way, and yes, it was okay to talk about these feelings and to express oneself. Holden Caulfield resonated the most with “middle-class students who saw themselves as disillusioned intellectuals” in a world plagued with issues like racism and inflated levels of consumerism (Frischer). Teenage cynics had a pop culture figure that they could identify with, and thus facets of Holden Caulfield were implanted into the American youth toward the beginning of the Vietnam era. Holden embodied the counterculture movement: he was a rebel without a cause, he dreaded the idea of growing up (and losing one’s innocence in the process), and he rejected the mainstream and instead placed his own code of ethics as the most important law of the land. These traits would continue to represent the rebellious counterculture movement for the rest of time.

A similar novel was released in 1961. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land featured Mike, a protagonist who fully encompassed the title of the novel. Like Holden Caulfield, Mike finds himself in a society where he feels as if he does not belong, but in a much more literal sense considering he is literally living on Mars. His life is a metaphor for the life of lonely Americans: he is surrounded by people he can not relate to, and therefore attempts to develop his own culture and way of life amongst a world of people who are very different from him. To readers, Mike’s spiritual journey was seen as a “blueprint for a whole new way of living”, and heavily shaped the individualistic, introspective lifestyles many members of the counterculture would live (Johnston).

In a similar vein, students in the 1960s stumbled upon the early 1900s works of German author Hermann Hesse. His works were also centered around lonely, rebellious protagonists who strongly resonated with college-aged intellectuals of the counterculture era. All of these works of literature have a common theme: they are centered around characters who are inherently lonely or misplaced in their worlds. The works of Hesse, Salinger, and Heinlein “gave a disaffected young generation of Americans the sense that there were kindred souls in the universe”; they were not alone in their internal conflicts and struggles (Barry). In a world severely lacking in such, companionship and empathy were found in abundance throughout the pages of these novels, and inspired and gave hope to frustrated young minds of the ‘60s. This sense of understanding spewed outward from these lonely souls in the hippie culture of peace, love, and understanding. Wanting to prevent anyone from feeling the same loneliness they felt, self-proclaimed hippies devoted their lives to spreading their message of peace and acceptance, clearly influenced by the novels they had read in their youth. The loneliness they felt was not unique to them, therefore it was felt by others and if it could be prevented, the world must first be molded to allow a certain kind of acceptance not otherwise present. The consuming of philosophical literature like Siddhartha and Stranger in a Strange Land allowed impressionable minds to attempt to rework the accepted structure of what is accepted in society.

It is unfair to describe the rollercoaster that was the 1960s without discussing the music. Looking back, “music, above all, captured the spirit of the age”, be it the mellow noodling of the Grateful Dead or the fast and loud rock ‘n’ roll of The Who (Barry). Music heavily inspired the masses and serves now as a convenient time capsule as to what people were thinking and feeling throughout the decade. Music festivals like Woodstock and the lesser-known Altamont Speedway characterized the counterculture movement of the decade as idealistic and influential, but debatable when it comes to practicality and actual efficiency. Woodstock was fun and peaceful, but offered no solutions to the country’s problems and really was only known for good times, good music, and good attitudes. Altamont Speedway was even worse, as it resulted in the death of a black man and the assault of a member of Jefferson Airplane onstage. While not particularly game-changing, Woodstock in particular is special because it epitomized the decade and is an excellent microcosm of the 1960s. Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” went down in history as one of the greatest guitar performances of all time not just because of the skill involved in playing, but for what it symbolized. His echoey power chords and screeching bends emulate falling bombs and screaming people, and the hectic drum fills and guitar feedback represent the chaos that can be found in Vietnam. His taking of something so inherently American (the national anthem) and draping it in paint so appropriate for the times (chaotic, frenzied) perfectly symbolized the state of the country at the time. There was something also patriotic in the act itself, as America was built on manipulating tradition and rebelling against what was believed to be common practice. Hendrix’s legendary performance, and music as a whole, became “recognized as a political and artistic force in its own right” and was viewed as a legitimate method of expressing oneself politically (Cullen). Thousands of Americans stood proudly behind musicians and viewed them as de facto leaders of the counterculture movement, whether those artists appreciated such positions or not. Musicians like Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan are seen to embody the opinions and beliefs of millions of Americans, and therefore are seen almost more as political figures rather than musicians.

The rejection of conformity and willingness to commit civil disobedience during this era rose to prominence due to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. But at the same time, the civil rights movement and the protests against Vietnam rose to prominence due to the rejection of conformity and willingness to commit civil disobedience. Any simple assertion that one event caused the other is not only a vast oversimplification, but also merely incorrect. The 1960s were such a complex time and were so heavily influenced by the decades that came before that it is difficult to nail down one event and claim that it is the direct cause or the direct effect of any event or topic. In some cases, a chronological cause and effect pattern can be identified, such as the consuming of literature during that time, since authors like Heinlein and Salinger wrote novels that clearly had an influence on the population. But in cases like the protests against Vietnam or the movement for civil rights, the relationship between rising political dissatisfaction and growing active protest is a mutual two way street rather than an exclusive cause and effect relationship. Any claim otherwise would be incorrect because of how hectic the times were. Americans were participating in sit ins, they were marching on Washington, they were reading nonconformist literature, they were listening to strange experimental music, and they were experimenting with drugs. America was such an amalgam of chain reactions and cause and effect relationships that it is impossible to draw clear distinct lines between each and every large cultural shift. What is possible to do is identify connections between specific events and to recognize mutual relationships that exist between a person, event, or idea. The 1960s were a melting pot of ideas; each of them influenced the other until everything was an amorphous stew of disorder and change.

Looking back on the 1960s, it is easy to recognize what a long, strange trip it has been. The popularity of the television allowed ideas to be spread at never-before-seen speeds, which meant that people were now able to become more educated and more aware of world events than they had ever been able to before. The 1960s fully embody this idea, as Americans across the nation banded together and united under a common cause: improvement. Americans wanted to improve society through amending racist legislation; they wanted to improve the world by ending the war in Vietnam; they wanted to improve themselves by looking inward and focusing on one’s spirituality; and they wanted to improve each other by spreading messages of love and compassion. This great change in culture and politics was surely kick-started by the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam War. Or was it the other way around? Answering that question would be a sizeable task for any historian to take on, but what anyone can seen is that the 1960s were a complicated era that will always be remembered for the change it brought to a nation in chaos.

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Works Cited

Barry, Thomas F. "Sixties Culture in the United States Rediscovers the Works of Hesse." Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1941-1970, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2008. Salem Online.

Cullen, Jim. "Woodstock Music Festival Marks the Climax of 1960’s Youth Culture." Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1941-1970, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2008. Salem Online.

“Civil disobedience.” Civil Disobedience, Social Justice, Nationalism & Populism, Violent Demonstrations and Race Relations, Salem 2017. Salem Online.

Frischer, Susan. “Young Readers Embrace The Catcher in the Rye.” Great Events From History: The Twentieth Century, 1941-1970, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2008. Salem Online.

Hoffman, David, and Ricki Green. Making Sense of the Sixties - Teenage Rebellions Examined. YouTube, PBS, 1991, youtu.be/plgKnrpvtAI.

Johnston, Eunice Pedersen. "Heinlein Publishes Stranger in a Strange Land." Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1941-1970, edited by Robert F. Gorman, Salem, 2008. Salem Online.

MacDonald, Meg Meneghel. "Account of Participation in Sit-ins." Civil Disobedience, Social Justice, Nationalism & Populism, Violent Demonstrations and Race Relations,Salem, 2017. Salem Online.

Mailer, Norman. The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History. Penguin Group, 1994.

Meyer, Raoul. The 1960s in America: Crash Course US History #40. Performance by John Green, YouTube, YouTube, 6 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkXFb1sMa38.

Riesman, David, et al. The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. Yale University Press, 1950.