http://www.flickr.com/photos/30264265@N07/3767744228/in/pool-60s_fashion
The Sixties were an exciting and amazing time
where the young rewritten
the rules of social behaviour
for the future generations.
The rigid world no longer dictated
how we were supposed
to live, to love or to conduct our lives.
Question:
(Humanities2 TMA03)
‘It was a golden era.’ Do you agree with this view of the Sixties?
Why? Why not? Consider three disciplines including history in your answer.
The ‘long Sixties’ (1955 to 1973) captures some of the archetypal moments where there were extraordinary social transformations that impacted the society profoundly in the potency of its many trends. The Sixties does not fall neatly into the time frame of 1960 to 1969 as historians use a technique called periodization to dice the past into pieces of period with some distinctive unity of values, attitudes and events of an era. The Sixties -‘It was a golden era’ for the youth as it was the first time they were seen and heard: the rebellious counter-culture (youths) in their attempt to break conventional mindsets (western culture) of the mainstream (older generations) evoked great transformations in science, religion and in personal relationships. We will look into the Sixties in America and Britain where there was the most significant impact of counter-culture movements. We will see how affluence bred discontentment and teenagers, by opposing the mainstream’s rigid Victorian values gave rise to the distinctive youth culture and their questioning of the morality of the science as well as the passionate quest of spirituality in new religion movements resulting in the great human revolution of the Sixties.
In the sixties, there was the rise of the affluence, along with the good material lifestyles. Universities sprang and expanded. More young people have university education and could afford to travel and mixed with people of different cultures; this led to the opening of their minds. With the high rising incomes and high spending power and the opening of the mind through knowledge, and more mixing with the diversity of cultures, there were countless possibilities for teenagers that never exist before.
However, the growth of affluence bred discontent. Teenagers began to question the imperfection of the ‘perfect materialistic life’ of the older generation, been caught up in the endless circle of ‘consumerism’. Teenagers started questioning ‘why am I still unhappy with the ‘perfect’ life?’ and they became frustrated with the mainstream exclusive white society and its rigid Victorian cultural attitudes. Their social hierarchy-the upper, middle and working class, along with formality of social rules where obeisance was highly valued: unquestioning respect to authority in science, religion, government and parents. These rigid cultural and social attitudes pressured teenagers to change. The counter-culture emerged, in their quest for self-identity they looked for new structures: different set of values, attitudes and lifestyles. They went on to change their music and fashions that reflect their attitudes and values.
Youth ‘popular’ culture emanated by trends setting of the young. The musical scene change, their music was expressing new values. Elvis Presley singing the ‘Hound Dog’ on the Milton Berle Show in1956, watched by 40 million Americans on national TV, shocked the nation! A white guy using black rhythms, swaying his hips, highly suggestive and uninhibited was wild and unacceptable. Elvis and the Beatles of Britain gave teenagers of the Sixties a common identity and a sense of liberty and they epitomise the attitudes of teenagers. The fashion scene changed. Young girls refused to be dressed in neat little white shoes, dresses with ribbons and puffs; they felt like ‘young, old, people’. Fashions styles was no longer directed by the high society, now the people on the streets took over and directed fashions. Mary Quant and Twiggy became the fashion icons of the Sixties. It was a period of great fun and excitement.
The ‘counter-culture’ consists of all the different movements and protests in the Sixties challenging authorities by introducing fresh ideas and values which eventually permeated and revolutionized the mainstream. The civil rights movements - the fight for the black identity began in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks sat on ‘white’ seat on a bus and refused to get up. Dr. Martin Luther King, a black preacher’s signature speech ‘I have a dream’ was watched by millions worldwide on television. He became the spokesman for the blacks and led the Montgomery bus boycott.
The counter-culture’s ‘Liberal ideology’ did lead Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to support civil rights and anti-poverty programmes. They convinced the labour government to support the legalization of abortion, free contraceptives and homosexuals. The relaxation of censorship led to the liberation in sexual behaviour: publication of sexually explicit novels, daring behaviour in films, new uninhibited arts, fashions and entertainment. These movements gave rise to a centralized government and democratic voting systems: many youths became first time voters in the Sixties.
Soon, like other counter-culture movements, the opposition of science, centred on the universities in USA, spread to other advanced industrialized countries in Europe. The charges were against the alliance between science, technology and military by anti-science movement, ranging from polluting the environment to using chemical, biological and nuclear weapon. The use of chemical weapons by USA in the Vietnam War was bought into the private homes through television. For the first time the horrific violence of war was revealed and it caused distress worldwide. The morality of science and technology was questionable. Their objective in Vietnam was strictly technical: any best weapon was permissible as long as it achieved its goal of a minimum lost of American lives.
A new kind of science was needed, science for building a more humane and tolerant world. In 1960 only one out of ten scientists was female. Men dominated the status and power in the scientific workplace and woman scientists were not treated equally. There were protests over conventional roles in society. The prevailing mindset of ‘feminine mystique’ was that women was to be conformed to domestic roles subjected to the patriarchy structure of society. However, women were later encouraged to take a greater role in science due to a critical shortage of manpower. Women’s science are more sensitive, more caring and concerned about people and the environment.
It is noteworthy that a female physician, Frances Kelsey who insisted that embryos and adults reacted differently to drugs changed the mindset of the dominant science of man. Beginning in 1959, there was the tragic event of an alarming emergence of deformed babies with distorted growth of arms and legs due to an active ingredient – thalidomide in Contergan, a favourite sleeping pill. It was only tested on animals and shown to have no harmful effects. The predominating mindset was that the ‘idealized’ placenta was impermeable to harmful substance except in doses that could harm the mother. Kelsey demanded evidence that the drug was safe in pregnancy. Kelsey was able to delay the acceptance procedure in America thus preventing an even greater tragedy. It was arguable that the men’s science concerned with military purposes would ask the same questions that woman scientists ask.
Women in Science by asking different questions and focusing on different objectives - not the rational detached objectivity of man scientists but a more humane objectivity completely altered the prevailing mindset of the society. Women’s influence in the science of primatology – the study of apes and monkeys, are able to identify natural characteristics in their behaviours that are disarmingly similar to ourselves. Detailed research found that female monkeys can be competitive, aggressive and dominant and are sexually assertive. Mothers baboon can effectively manage their time and juggle the hierarchy of importance while manoeuvring with activities such as nursing, disciplining or protecting from danger. By studying them woman scientists overturned the stereotype of the male aggression, dominance and passive dependent females that human societies imposed on us for centuries. These studies change mindsets and the reassessment of social role of females.
In the Sixties, modernisation have robbed the spirits of the people and secularisation of the contemporary society led them to alienation and a loss of meaning in life. Counter-cultures started seeking an alternative religion. Huxley, a novelist wrote ‘The Door of Perception’ advocated the use of drugs in unlocking the door of non-verbal consciousness to experience the spiritual states of hidden truths. In addition, ex-Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Leary’s book ‘ The Psychedelic Experience’ asserted that LSD (drug) offer mystical experience. His infamous phrase ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’ (to turn on is to get high, tune in to be reborn, drop out to detach oneself from the external social drama) became the mantra of the drug culture. LSD became a major influence and famous people like the Beatles and the intellects took part in the LSD acid tests. Drugs became the new religious path to easy, speedy enlightenment without the prolonged suffering and self-denial. In establishing the drug culture, teenagers became hippies and formed communal living based on a hallucinogenically-assisted spiritual quest. They promoted the religious use of psychedelic drug, sex and they desired love, hope and peace.
The drug culture started in the early Sixties soon fizzled off and new interest in Eastern spirituality surfaced. Drugs was then seen as an inferior way in one’s spiritual aims. The west who was raised in Christianity were then drawn to exotic eastern spirituality: Zen Buddhism, Taosim, Indian philosophies and the most popular was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s transcendental meditation ( TM). TM do not reject western materialism nor demand self-denial thus it fitted well with the counter-culture lifestyles. TM is seen as part of a religious quest to discover the ‘answers to life’.
Along with the popularity eastern religions, many new religious movements were formed. Both world-rejecting (see the world as corrupt and evil) and world-affirming religions (teaches that the human spirit contains untapped power) rose from the failure and disintegration of the counter-culture. Counter-cultures believed that inner experiences were diverse and there could be no one path to truth, and this led to the acceptance and blossoming of NRMs (New Religious Movements) that stressed on personal transformation, love and acceptance. Jesus People, a new religious movement directed at street people was preached out of church. Jesus People emphasized on ‘witnessing their own experience of a changed life’. Their basic principle is fundamentalism emphasized on one truth path, rejecting the counter- cultures pluralism. JP groups are all organized communally. They expect believers to abandon their possessions, families, jobs, former values in order to conform to their behavioural and doctrinal norms. Believing that Jesus would return this lifetime, they did not see value in long-term enterprises like education or professional training. The mainstream out of fear of losing their children use deprogramming (brainwashing techniques). They hired deprogrammers who use forcible removal of the members from the premises of an NRM against their will and locked them up in a secret location until they renounced their religion affiliation. The mainstream was concerned with counter-culture’s bizarre religions, counter-culture eventually rejoined the mainstream churches; by that time counter-culture had already affected the mainstream’s mindset and led them to be more tolerant of other religions.
The end of the Sixties was signalled by the final withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973. Some might argue that the Sixties do not deserve to be called ‘a golden era’ with its flaws - the Vietnam War, the drug culture, breaking up of families and the immorality of science and technology. What may started off with the innocence and naivety of discontented and disillusioned teenagers who thought they could change the world through music, drugs and spirituality did resulted in positive outcomes.
The ‘liberated’ culture we now live in has its seeds in the ‘golden era’ of the sixties. The Sixties may not be perfect but is there a greater era with such great vivacity of the youth, the excitement and the fun in popular culture? There was never an era before that with massive opportunities and material well-being for the greater majority. There had never been an era of great liberty ideology- the abandoning of rigid mindsets, the rise of the black identity, the emergence of female role in society, the moral objective of science and the change of religious climate with an increased tolerance for pluralism. We are no longer trapped in a stifled tunnel of rigid mindsets. The youth, women and the Blacks were given their rightful identities. Science, religion and Victorian’s rigid mindsets were shaken and tossed. We will always be affected by the rebellious spirit of the youth that resulted in the great revolution of the mind in the great golden era of the Sixties.
(2021 words)
Bibliography:
AZS103, 2000, An Introduction to the Humanities, Block 6. The Sixties: Mainstream culture and Counter-culture, The Open University.
AZS103,2000, An Introduction to the Humanities, Resource Book 4, The open university.
AZS1032, 2006, An Introduction to the Humanities II, VCD6, TV 25/27, The Open University & SIM university
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