FREE ESSAY ON THE SIXTIES

THE SIXTIES

The Sixties split the skies. Only Civil and two world wars so neatly divided our history
into a Before and After. And the Sixties were more divisive than World War II, which drew
more people for the war effort. The Sixties drove people apart - husbands from wives,
children from parents, students from teachers, citizens from their government. Authority
was strengthened by World War II. It was challenged by the sixties.
Relatively few Americans in 1960 would have predicted that the decade ahead was to be
among the most turbulent of the century. Despite the growing restiveness of the nation's
African American population, and despite undercurrents of protest and discontent from
many other groups, most Americans faced the future with optimism. 
The civil rights movement spawned social activism. Among the many effects of the civil
rights movement as it gained momentum in the early 1960s was its impact on Greensboro
sit-ins in 1960, accelerating with the 1961 Freedom Rides, and with the Mississippi
Summer project. These movements opened up some eyes to Americans so they could see what
was going on in the country at this time. Most of the things that went on in the sixties
dealt with the War. The Cold war in which included the Korean War, but mostly dealt with
our little rivalry the Soviet Union. There was a lot of division between people because
of the War. Many people couldn't handle the thought of War. They were just scared that
they had to be in a country that was involve in the War. Others thought that it was the
perfect time to start their own groups. Some were Ethnic groups in which gained more
power. Though much of American history, most of the nation's dominant institutions had
been controlled by middle-class, Protestant, white males. Nonetheless, throughout those
same years, American society was extraordinarily diverse. It included may groups whose
political economic, and social outlook was very different from those of the controlling
white male population. African American, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and
members of other ethnic groups were largely excluded from the mainstream of American
life. Women lived within sharply defined boundaries. People in the South and the West had
different interests from those in the Northeast. The Existence of racial, ethnic, and
religious diversity had been the source of many conflicts and adjustments for more than
three centuries. In the 1960's, perhaps more than at any other moment in American
history, that diversity erupted and helped redefine the nation's life. African Americans,
students and women all raised challenges to traditional practices and institutions. So
did other groups who felt excluded from the centers of American life. 
The Counterculture rejected traditional standards and styles. The rise of political
radicalism on college campuses occurred alongside an even larger change in the character
of American youth: the emergence of what became known as the counterculture. Among the
conspicuous features of this was a general contempt among young people for traditional
standards. Youths displayed that contempt by wearing long hair, shabby or outrageous
clothing, using unconventional speech, and acting in conventional standards of behavior.
They also were attracted to drugs, particularly to weed(marijuana) and hallucinogens. In
addition, they adopted a new and more permissive view of sexual behavior. Rock music was
an increasingly important part of the counterculture. Lying behind these open challenges
to traditional lifestyles were the outlines of a philosophy. Like members of the student
left (with which it in many ways over lapped, the counterculture challenged the nature of
modern American society for its hollowness and artificiality. It called for a more
"natural" world in which men and women would live in closer harmony nature and would have
greater freedom to vent their instincts and emotions. This was, in the end, a search for
personal fulfillment. Popular phrases of the 1960's expressed something of it s
character. "Do your own thing" or "if it feels good, do it." So did the communities
created by the so-called hippies. Adherents of the counterculture who attempted to
withdraw from the conventional world and the live among people who shared their beliefs.
Such communities emerged in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and then
spread to other large cities. The hippies also established rural communes in Colorado,
New England, and elsewhere. 
I believe that hippies had a lot to do with the division of American society. The
individuality among them just set everything off. There were some groups in the Sixties
in which drove Americans to split a bit. They just wanted to get their rights and open
some doors for their communities. Many of the groups had a lot to protest for. Martin
Luther King opened many doors for the African American society. He was the key leader in
the African American civil rights movement, using nonviolent methods of protest. It is
just many different ways that America has changed through all of the events that went on
in the Sixties to divide up families and friends. In hippie's lives, a big aspect that
might have been a cause of major breakup of communication in a house hold is drugs. I
mentioned earlier that marijuana was a popular drug that seemed to make everything feel
good, and also like I mentioned earlier in the phrase, "if it feels good, do it." I think
that is the way a lot of people were thinking. They seemed to pick up a more of a free
will, everything goes, kind of attitude. I really think that people just expressed
themselves the way they wanted and took advantage of the opportunities that were there to
get what they needed accessible to them. I just wished that I could go back in time to
see with my own eyes and check out how life really was back then.