The Sixties

After World War II, the American people, under Dwight D. Eisenhower?s presidency, wanted peace and quiet and an end to all activism. The Eisenhower years were times of great conformity, when even the nation?s youth aspired to little more than the standard pattern of material success represented by a nice car, well-behaved children, and a pleasant house in the suburbs. Rather contrastive to the ideals and ambitions of young Americans in the 50s new ideas were born in the 60s. The 60s were a time of remarkable flux and change. The social-cultural trends of the decade reflected not only the relative affluence of the post World War II period, but also the coming to maturity of a generation that was a product of that prosperity.

Many changes took place and revolutionary ideas came to birth. Several black leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Stockley Carmichael formed organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) or the Congress of racial equality (CORE). Aim of those Institutions and leaders was to set the black people free and to fight for equal rights for black Americans. Another Group inspired by black militancy was a group of educated women who began to assert that the American (Western) society was male-dominated. They strongly felt that women were discriminated against in jobs and status. Just like the black civil rights activists they wanted to change the existing system to improve their status in society.

These new, radical voices were also heard among the intellectuals and the young, especially college students. Interllectually, the 50s had been a conservative decade because even for left-wing activists America in the 50s still represented the lesser of two evils compared to Russian communism, which displayed all its brutality in the downkeeping of political opposition and the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956). So in the early 60s, the intellectual and literary communities began to change. These cycles were now dominated by young idealists who believed that a better world was possible.

They were often university students from middle class or upper middle class families who had always enjoyed the benefits of an affluent, suburban society.

Some came from conservative families and were clearly rejecting the values and ideals of former generations.

Never having known want or social insecurety, these young people felt free to take risks defying society.

They refused to go along with its values. Some chose to dissent by adopting life styles that sharply differed from those of most Americans. Young men now wore their hair long and women decided to wear colorful beads and bizarre costumes. Conventional marriage and the institution of the traditional family were rejected by this new youth, they rather chose to live together informally in communes. Furthermore, they renounced conventional careers and sought a new freedom in experimenting with psycho-active drugs such as LSD and Marijuana.

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