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The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Analysis

1209 Words5 Pages

Carly Herrin
American counterculture of the 1960s was one of the most powerful movements that had a lasting influence on American society in the following decades. The counterculture movement is strongly associated with the hippies, sexual revolution, and the protests against Vietnam War. The movement was shaped up by the rejection of the social norms of hippies’ parents but evolved to embrace more specific political and societal goals, including the withdrawal from Vietnam, environmentalism, gender equality, and the expansion of civil liberties.
“The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” by Tom Wolfe is an excellent non-fiction work that allows to see the movement from the inside and in the specific details of the daily hippie life. Even though the …show more content…

Its members have taken active positions for racial and gender equality, free speech, and the expansion of civil liberties. Their political stances reflected the underlying ideas of peace, love, and harmony. Hippies firmly believed in equal rights and participated in numerous marches that advocated for such issues as women’s rights and the meaningful end of racial segregation. In particular, this concerned equal voting rights, access to education, and economic emancipation of women. Their marches and demonstrations were not fruitless, as eventually policymakers responded by expanding the rights and liberties of African Americans and women. Moreover, immediate and lasting results were also achieved in the field of freedom of speech. The right to free speech and political activities on college campuses has been pushed for by hippies and remains in place to this day. Even though it is not accurate to reduce the Civil Rights Movement to hippies, the latter were clearly major actors in that political framework. Moreover, the embrace of further progressivist ideals such as the use of marijuana and same-sex relationships by hippies continued to influence the sociopolitical discourse in America years after the movement virtually came to an …show more content…

First, it sought the expansion of civil rights and liberties, including the fight against racial and gender discrimination. Consequently, American society reacted well to these demands and adapted policies and laws to pursue equal rights and opportunities. Secondly, the counterculture movement emphasized the importance of cultivating tolerance towards different forms of sexuality. By and large, this goal was achieved through the sexual revolution that eliminated societal taboos surrounding unconventional sex. Thirdly, the hippie movement considered it vital to build a peaceful and nonviolent society. Unfortunately, this objective has not been fully realized in the United States, but many of its ideals influenced policies and shifted public opinion on environmental protection and personal freedoms. Last but not least, all three objectives were underpinned by the ideology of protest against mainstream culture, political establishment and conventional social norms, all of which gradually changed in the second half of the 20th

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