The 1960s was the age of youth, a period when long-held
values and norms of behavior seemed to break down when the 70 million children
from the post-war baby boom became teenagers.[1]
The decade resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking that created dramatic
change in American culture. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles,
laws, entertainment, and attitudes toward sexuality.
The 1950s, a decade that would become synonymous with
unquestioning conformity, had seen the rise of the other-directed character-all
those middle class, upwardly mobile businessmen and consumers who focused on
other people’s opinion on them. By the early 1960s, however, more and more
Americans were starting to follow an inner voice. There was a new kind of
empathic individualism, a nonconformist mentality that would soon see full
flowering in the psychedelic drug culture.[2]
This trend is similar to the 1920s; a time of dramatic changes characterized by
prosperity, new ideas, and personal freedom caused profound social change and
cultural conflict that created “The Flapper”.[3]
But instead of being categorized as the roaring 20s with skin-clad flappers,
the 60s is categorized as the age of counterculture with bell-bottom, long hair
wearing hippies.
Representatives like Weil and Huston Smith found inspiration in works like John Dewy, an education reformer who developed “naturalistic theism”, which sought to reconcile religion in the scientific worldview and British writer Gerald Heard who claimed “evolution was not over, humanity was on the cusp of a breakthrough in consciousness”[4] These ideals led to the reform of mainly religion, politics, and education. The new view on religion is less organized and people were encouraged to “look within, find god within yourself…do your own thing”.[5] Politics became a topic of debate where hippies like Leary formed thoughts of “you could destroy both capitalism and socialism in one month with that sort of thing”.[6] However, education underwent the most change.
The young college-age men and women “dropped out” to separate
themselves from the conventional college education, for example, Andrew Weil. “Andy
was reluctant to go with the flow…he could see that having any more of the
insights might convince him Harvard was a waste of time”.[7]
College students began to think the education they obtained was not stimulating
enough and began forming their own ideals. Thus, many
college‐age men and women became political activists and
were the driving force behind the civil rights and antiwar movements.
For example, Berkeley
in 1964 to cover the free speech movement-the campus protests at the university
of California that kicked off a decade of unrest at schools across the nation.[8]
The counterculture ideas of the 1960s exhibited behaviors that
went against the norms of behavior, and psychedelic drugs were certainly a
factor that caused the manifestation of these ideals. “The idea was to
create a transcendental community whose members would fully experience life and
go beyond ego trips and social games”.[9]
After Leary discovered psychedelic mushrooms which the Aztecs called “the flesh
of the gods”,[10] and
claimed, “I learned more about psychology from these mushrooms than I did in
graduate school. These drugs can revolutionize the way we conceptualize
ourselves”.[11]
The drugs perpetuated a change in social arrangements as well. For example,
“The unorthodox scene inside the Kenwood Ave home…was an early warning sign of
a counterculture movement that would soon sweep across the nation… sexual
roles, living arrangements, and family structures were about to undergo rapid
revolutionary changes”.[12]
But what is most interesting is that Leary, Weil, Smith, and
others were genuinely trying to use psychedelic drugs to help society, which
sounds ridiculous to us because these drugs are seen as extremely harmful
today. But back then, these scholars who experimented with these drugs at
Harvard University believed “this could be of great benefit to society, curing
people of alcoholism or helping reduce the recidivism rate among criminals”.[13]
The research at the time looked promising and was even used to help alcoholics;
“it was the research that briefly brought bill Wilson, a cofounder of
alcoholics anonymous into the early psychedelic scene”.[14]
In my opinion, perhaps the biggest downfall of Leary, Weil
and Smith’s mission is mass media. At this time, most homes had television and
the news platforms were trusted for accurate news. The media brought to light
the problems surrounding psychedelic drugs by reporting headlines like “the
drugs has grown an alarming problem at UCLA and UC Berkeley... hundreds were
showing up in hospital emergency rooms, suffering from panic attacks and
psychotic reactions”, and also “young runaways from across the country was
victimized by a variety of sexual and chemical predators”.[15]
By the time Nixon announced that Leary was “the most dangerous man in America”[16]
during his war on drugs campaign, the public support toward the benefits of
psychedelic drugs began to shift.
 |
| protester in 1960 |
 |
| Protester Today |
I think the most prevalent similarity between the 1960s to today would be the debate on drugs specifically the legalization of marijuana. In the 60s marijuana was “seen at the time as the dangerous drug everyone was suppose to worry about”[17] but now some scientists and scholars are trying to push the potential health benefits of marijuana. It is interesting how the most dangerous drug of the 60s is now a big topic of debate that the mass media is narrating. Is the 1960s counterculture making its comeback? It certainly seems like it with the popularity of yoga, which was introduced when “Smith stood alongside a desk and chalkboard, writing mysterious words like yoga”.[18] Also, Leary’s idea that “you could destroy both capitalism and socialism in one month with that sort of thing”. [19] Seem to be the platform for many young protestors at events like Occupy Wall Street.
[1] Goodwin, Susan and Becky Bradley.
"1960-1969." American
Cultural History. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library. Last modified July 2010.
http://wwwappskc.lonestar.edu/popculture/decade60.html.
[2] Don Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston
Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for
America (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 26.
[3] Joshua Zeitz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style,
Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, (New York: Three Rivers
Press).
[5] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 105.
[6] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 110.
[8] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 86.
[9] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 104.
[10] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 38.
[11] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 52.
[12] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 101.
[13] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 115.
[14] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 66.
[15] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 143.
[16] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 60.
[17] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 92.
[18] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 35.
[19] Lattin,The Harvard
Psychedelic Club, 110.
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