Do we owe it all to the hippies?

C-Net News.com ^ | 5/13/2005 | Charles Cooper

[Mike Bates]

The '60s represent many things to many people, but did that same era of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll also inspire the revolution in personal computing?

That remains an unconventional reading of contemporary history. You could just as easily argue that heavy investment in military research was the moving force. Same goes for pro-market tax policies. But a generation of pot smokers and draft dodgers?

Needless to say, it has the makings of a feisty barroom debate. Still, don't dismiss the argument out of hand. In fact, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand made a convincing try a decade ago.

In an essay he wrote for Time magazine in 1995, Brand maintained that the communal and libertarian outlook espoused during the hippie era spawned the seeds that later bore fruit in the form of the modern cyberrevolution. "At the time, it all seemed dangerously anarchic (and still does to many), but the counterculture's scorn for centralized authority provided the philosophical foundations of not only the leaderless Internet but also the entire personal-computer revolution."

[Brett66]

I think MLK had more to do with changing discrimination than any hippies did.

[Alkhin]

ROFL!! GO GOTHS

Alkhin

[Scenic Sounds]

Bingo!

The most important American political changes in the Sixties were the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). Nothing's been quite the same since.

All the cultural stuff was, you know, mostly just for fun. No harm, no foul! ;-)

[wtc911]

If you didnt live as a young adult in the 60's then you dont know what your talking about. Period.

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Exactly. If you were not there then your only knowledge about hippies would come from hollywood and we all know how good they are at accurately depicting any era or group. Besides, how many true hippies do you think there were? Maybe ten thousand? (and that's probably a generous estimate). By 1969 (Woodstock) the genuine hippie movement was long dead (hell, Laugh In had been poking holes in their boat for years by then). The concert was mostly a herd of wannabees without a clue. What was left was a fringe-dwelling element who played the part but mostly just got high. And most of these losers are now suburbanites worried about their 401ks or postal workers already collecting.

[Zrob]

the internet, with apologies to aLGore, was created by the U.S. MILITARY - not dope smokers from '60s hell.

[expatpat]

What BS! The personal computer revolution was due to electronics geeks, and the Internet was due to the desire of the Armed Forces and technical departments of universities to communicate on their research efforts.

[wtc911]

The most important American political changes in the Sixties were the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). Nothing's been quite the same since.

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You have to add the anti-war movement.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I have even less use for hippies!

[expatpat]

More BS. The personal computer was pushed by Commodore well before Apple came on the scene.

[Mike Bates]

Ivan: They don't seem to be in a hurry to either change their ways or just leave:

[MAWG]

What I'm saying is , if you werent there, you dont know how it was. It is your violence-laden language that is radical. I was a freshman in college in 1966. The Vietnam War was ramping up big time. IT was the focus for a lot of us as far as our politics went in those days. I was living in Austin then and if you wanted drugs, I didnt, the biggest dealer was in a fraternity. I knew a lot of people in " radical politics " and none of them were Communists. I always had a job and bathed every day. Do Goths take baths/showers? This idea that " Hippies " were all dirty,smelly communists is just nonsense. You'd probably be shocked to learn how many Freepers my age used to have long hair and wore funny looking clothes. Your ridiculous comments serve no purpose.

[expatpat]

I should have said Commodore and Altair.

[MadIvan]

One thing I've always noticed - the hippies always put pressure on the free countries to "stop fighting". It never occured to them that they ought to be applying that pressure on the tyrannies that the free countries are trying to destroy. Indeed, the hippies rather like the tyrannies...even if they'd never dream of going to live in one of them.

Regards, Ivan

[Alkhin]

The only objection I hve to the '6r Civil Rights acts is that it seems to have been a bit of overwriting of laws that were already in place and needed enforcing...it has the stench of rewriting the US Constitution, which if it had been followed as the root for state laws, the question of whether or not blacks were protected would have been solved without further legislation; also, we now have a generation or two of people thinking that no one had any freedom at all until 1964, that the Civil Rights Act OVERwrites the Bill of Rights and that the Bill of Rights is a Dead Thing. This is what troubles me about that law. I think what should have happened, if the Feds were going to be involved, they should have come in, wiped out whatever laws were on the state's books and pointed to the US Constitution and its Amendments and said "LOOK HERE! What does it say? ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. So, you not only let the blacks act as equal citizens, you do it with a smile on your face and a flag in your hand!"

BUT NOOOOOOO. I just see the Civil Rights Act as a precursor to rewriting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. THAT's wrong.

[itsamelman]

[Alkhin]

The hippies should have been more careful about what image they wanted to promote. I dont doubt that some of the worst perpetrators of drugs et al were teh 'clean-cut kids'...one doesnt need to use drugs to sell them. HOWEVER, the Generation Xers have the benefit of seeing just how ....ahem...."loose" the previous generation was with their words/dress/habits/morals/purposes and we took notes. WE have been and continue to be more careful about how we are going to look in the future. All this talk about how 'apathetic' the GenXers are is a myth created BY the previous generation, and it is used to its fullest extent to make us look bad.

MadIvan, you rock on

[MadIvan]

It is your violence-laden language that is radical.

Review what I said...apart from hanging Jane Fonda, I called mostly for humiliation of people associated with the "hippie movement".

I was a freshman in college in 1966. The Vietnam War was ramping up big time. IT was the focus for a lot of us as far as our politics went in those days.

And the hippies were totally wrong. It never occured to them to support a war to eliminate an enemy that was intent on enslaving the people of Vietnam. Hitherto, it had never been socially acceptable to support a tyranny in a war against one's own country. The protestors I saw on the streets of Washington during Gulf War I (yes, I was there) showed that this idiocy had persisted...and still does so.

I was living in Austin then and if you wanted drugs, I didnt, the biggest dealer was in a fraternity.

Illogical. Your personal experience with the biggest dealer in Austin doesn't mean the hippies weren't using drugs heavily. And you call me uninformed?

I knew a lot of people in " radical politics " and none of them were Communists.

All right. We'll call them Communist sympathisers since they wanted the regime in Vietnam to persist. They were still wrong, and it was their ilk that have given rise to a wastrel classs in politics today.

I always had a job and bathed every day.

Irrelevant. I am talking about the hippies in general, you are trying to counter that assertion with a case of one, namely yourself.

Do Goths take baths/showers?

Rolling around in the mud for fun was a preoccupation at Woodstock I'm afraid, not generally at Cure concerts.

This idea that " Hippies " were all dirty,smelly communists is just nonsense.

Maybe you weren't, but that's just one case. Furthermore, I'm talking about the broader implications of the hippie movement - which were profoundly negative.

You'd probably be shocked to learn how many Freepers my age used to have long hair and wore funny looking clothes.

Certainly there are some. But most regret that time as one would regret having drunk too much the previous night.

Your ridiculous comments serve no purpose.

You are suffering from what psychologists would call "projection".

Ivan

[Brett66]

the hippies always put pressure on the free countries to "stop fighting"

They're blindly against war, even when there are just reasons for it. Most of the time their thinking is so twisted they can only identify with the plight of the poor tyrant that's about to be thrown out.