Paper Example on the Hippie Movement: Shaping a Counterculture's History

The most compelling story I have ever known that is significantly influencing my prospects in the history of a community that emerged in the United States. The hippie culture began from college campuses during the late 1960s in America then later spread to other countries like Britain and Canada. This countercultural group of young people rejected more of the American mainstream life. That is to say, they never wanted to follow the teachings of their elders but instead chose an alternative culture that was their own choice of lifestyle. The new religion was such a primitive society because it was a group made up of young people, which is why the media and people around them termed the group the Hippie. These young boys and girls left their families for different reasons and met in San Francisco. Some of them went because they did not like their parents' ideas, and others just needed adventure.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Furthermore, others needed to get that freedom, and they had to leave their families while others were simply outcasts. Most of the hippies were from wealthy and middle-class families, so Americans who knew them believed their parents spoilt them; they were wasting their lives. On the contrary, to them, this was the best choice way of life, and no one could ever stop them in achieving their dreams and ambitions. From the wayward life that this countercultural community lived during their time, I will focus my discussion on the turning point, and lessons learned from it concerning my future.

The story of the hippie community is such an inspiration because it started as a radical group of wayward young Americans and later changed to be the embodiment of the spread of Christianity. They favored long hair and casual dressing code. Many men grew their beards, and both males and females wore beads and sandals. For the females, the long granny dresses were standard dressing outfits. As a group with a common interest, they took up cooperative living arrangements. They were society dropouts. Therefore they forewent regular careers and jobs, although other established small business that was to cater to the basic needs of the hippies. Socially, they advocated for tolerance and nonviolence; their slogan was "make love, not war," and it gave them a new name of "flower children." Contrary to what they experienced in their families were restrictions and regimentation dominated. They chose openness and tolerance amongst themselves.

Due to lawless tolerance and openness, they practiced open sexual relationships while seeking spiritual guidance from sources outside the Christian tradition. They also promoted recreational use of hallucinogenic drugs like marijuana in what they termed as head-trips. They justified this kind of wayward lifestyle as a way of expanding consciousness and life expectancy; moreover, they named this season the summer of love period.

However, the summer of love was just a short period. After the fading of the movement, only a few of them went back to professional career paths. While giving up on drugs and promiscuous sex, the Jesus people retained much of their countercultural lifestyle. They brought along their dress code, music, and they laid back into the churches they joined.

The influence Jesus people had in the church would remark the Sunday worship experience for the people of America. Apart from praise, worship, and preaching styles that are characterizing contemporary evangelicalism, Jesus Freaks are shaping the politics of the United States (Bivins 14). They inspired the rebirth of religious rights as many of the conservatives avoided politics believing that it would corrupt their spiritual lives. On the contrary, Jesus people thought that Christians would keep their spiritual and political lives separate. The different transparent lives the hippie people lived creates a clear history of the origin of Christianity conservatives from the onset of the hippie era.

Inspiration from the Hippie Society

At the youthful stage, we tend to feel that our parents and guardians are overprotective. Under them, we are in captivity. Besides, youths tend to repulsive due to adolescence and other social effects of the transition period. From the story of hippie community inception to when it transited to be religiously influential across the United States confirms that ethical uprightness brings up responsible people. As a young person, I need not be like the hippie boys and girls. I should be morally upright, work hard towards my spiritual nourishment while still under the care of my parents. Parents will not lie and captivate their children; they need the best for us and for our children.

References

Bivins, J. C. (2008). The religion of fear: The politics of horror in conservative evangelicalism. Oxford University Press.