The Rebellion of the Counterculture Movement
Counterculture is a movement that arose from the idea of rebellion. Rebellion against the norms and
expectations from the surrounding American culture of the post-war period. The American culture was
one that encouraged living a structured life pursuing the American dream of being financially stable,
living comfortably, and raising a family. This American culture had developed from the years of war and
economic depression. The generation born during the post-war years had not experienced these
hardships, and instead of seeing the prosperity and comfort in the American Dream, they saw burdens,
responsibility, and social rules that restricted their lives, as Ozan Selcik stated, “This young generation,
unlike the previous generation, had not seen America in a depression or in the war. Economy was on the
upheaval since the Great Depression. This new generation was surrounded by Rock and Roll that caused
teenagers to question authority and their lives” (Selcik, 2014) This gave rise to the Counterculture
movement as the new generation rebelled against this lifestyle and decided to live free of social rules
and restrictions. This rebellion is apparent in the writings of Counterculture authors as they wrote about
this new lifestyle with details that would have been considered improper in society at the time. They
wrote about the nomadic formed by these young people boldly referencing their sexual behavior and
the drug abuse that was rampant among their small communities. They also openly protested the social
stigmas surrounding the different aspects of their rebellious lifestyle. Ralph Larkin wrote, “At the height
of the middle-class youth movement, there emerged a new social type, self-designated as the ‘freak
radical,’ whose opposition to the dominant institutions was as much cultural as it was political, and
whose critique of state-supported corporate capitalism was total” (Larkin, 2015) In general, this
movement was characterized by a total rebellion and fight against the social norms of the prevalent
culture.
Works Cited
Larkin, R. W. (2015). Counterculture: 1960 and Beyond. International Encyclopedia of the Social &
Behavioral Sciences, Second Edition,.
Selcik, O. (2014). The Beat Generation in Social and Cultural Context. VFAST Transactions on Education
and Social Sciences .