Reply #213: a different point of view

[Two Americas]

Most of what people associate with "the 60's" today is either a caricature, or is more appropriately associated with the very late 60's and the 70's.

There weren't any "hippies" really, let alone an "average hippy." I think that as late as 1968 there were 10 people in the city of Detroit who would fit the modern cartoon caricature of "hippies," while there were a couple hundred thousand serious political activists. Of course, by 1971 everyone looked like a "hippy" - that was nothing more than fashion, though, and the fashion statement represented the death of the political movements of the 60's. Why bother being politically active when you could make a statement with how you dressed?

The 60's were mostly a time of serious political activism. The right wingers have been on a campaign ever since to paint it as a time of "hippies," drugs, rock and roll and hedonism.

Woodstock and the Yippies at Chicago were at the end of the 60's, and not very representative of the era, but they have come to define the era.

The 60's were sober, serious, and important.