The Counterculture,
Environmental & Consumer
Movements
Ch. 23, Sec 3, 4
Counterculture
• In 60s, many adopted values that ran against
the mainstream culture.
– Counterculture.
– Valued youth, spontaneous behavior, individuality.
– Promoted peace, love, and freedom.
– Casual, free attitudes toward sex & drugs.
– Very different tastes in clothes & music.
– Didn’t understand older generations, older
generations didn’t understand them AT ALL.
– Led to generation gap.
• Lack of communication & understanding between
generations.
• Baby Boom generation was so large, they
changed US culture.
– Music, clothing producers rushed to meet their
demands.
– Colleges changed courses & rules to please them.
– Politicians pandered to them for votes.
• Styles changed dramatically in counterculture.
– Men & women wore long, loose hair; men grew
beards, mustaches.
– Adopted clothes from “working classes”, native
groups around the world.
– Painted cars & bodies in bright designs.
• Art influenced by counterculture.
– Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Pop Art, Op Art.
• Attitudes on sex led to sexual revolution.
– Sex not tied to marriage, families; cohabitation.
– Communal living-EVERYTHING shared.
– Homosexuality acceptable.
– Led to more discussion on sex in mainstream US.
• Drugs widely accepted, used in
counterculture.
– Marijuana popular.
• Timothy Leary advocated use of lysergic acid
diethylamide (LSD).
• LSD caused severe hallucinations, “trips”.
– LSD seen as a way to “broaden the mind”, learn
secrets of the universe.
• In reality, drug use killed LOTS of people in
1960s.
– Countless hippies, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi
Hendrix.
• Hippies really liked rock music, folk music.
• 1964-”British Invasion”-Beatles, Rolling Stones
first toured USA.
• Music was a unifying factor for hippies.
• August 1969-Woodstock Art & Music Fair.
– Held in pasture in Bethel, New York; 400,000
came.
– Producers expected maybe 100-150,000;
shortages of water, toilets, food, hot & rainy.
– Big name music acts.
– Sex & drugs done openly.
• No run-ins with police, peaceful.
• Older generations often disgusted with hippie
behavior, especially at Woodstock.
– Many, even younger mainstream Americans,
hated open sexuality, drug use.
– Saw hippies as childish, refusing to grow up.
• December 1969-rolling Stones played concert
at Altamont Speedway in CA.
– 300,000 attended.
– Hired Hell’s Angels for security.
– Beat a black man to death when he moved toward
stage with a gun.
– Seen as the “end of the 60s”.
• Most hippies came from upper- and middleclass families.
– In mid to late 70s, most hippies “got a haircut and
got a real job.”
Environmental Movement
• Began in 1962 with Rachel Carson’s book Silent
Spring.
– Naturalist; predicted that spraying pesticides like DDT
would kill all insects, would lead to death of all birds &
wildlife, would kill people.
• Carson’s book caused outcry against DDT; led to
US banning DDT.
– Other chemicals & pesticides came under more strict
regulations.
• Silent Spring is now believed to have led to death
of millions in Africa, South America.
– US would not give $$ to countries using DDT.
– DDT very effective at killing mosquitoes, which spread
malaria, yellow fever.
– DDT had very little actual effect on environment.
• 1950s & early 1960s saw widespread
development of nuclear power plants.
– Safe, little air pollution; water discharged into
nearby rivers was hot, raising water temps,
sometimes killing fish & plants.
• 1960’s protests against nuclear weapons,
power plants.
– Led gov’t to create Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) to oversee safety regulations in
power plants.
• Environmental organizations began growing
across USA.
• April 22, 1970-first Earth Day organized.
– To raise awareness of environmental issues.
• Gov’t responded to concerns.
• 1970-Nixon created Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to monitor air, water pollution.
– Gave them power to enforce regulations with
fines, lawsuits.
• 1970-Congress passed Clean Air Act.
– Controlled emissions in cars, factories.
– Led to scrubbers in smokestacks, catalytic
converters in cars.
• 1972-Congress passed Clean Water Act.
– Regulated discharge of industrial, municipal
wastewater.
– Built better sewage-treatment plants.
Fire on Cuyahoga River, OH
Consumer Movement
• Begun by Ralph Nader.
• Wrote Unsafe at Any Speed, about car industry.
– Claimed many cars had tendency to roll over, burn in
crashes, no safety devices.
– Claimed auto industry knew, didn’t care.
• Led to Congress passing National Traffic & Motor
Vehicle Safety Act.
– Set highway speed limit at 55, mandated seatbelts.
• Also investigated meatpacking, baby food, etc.
• Led to better consumer oversight of production
of goods (safer, cleaner, etc).