The Hippie Movement of the 1960's

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The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement beginning in the United States around the early 1960s and consisted of a group of people who opposed political and social orthodoxy, choosing an ideology that favored peace, love, and personal freedom. The hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, were usually eco-friendly and vegetarians, and promoted the use of psychedelic drugs. They created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs to explore alternative states of consciousness. They strived to liberate themselves from societal restrictions, choose their own way, and find new meaning in life.

The term hippie derives from the word hipster, which was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. The word hipster was also used in the 1940s and 1950s to describe Jazz performers. Hippie is also a Jazz slang term from the 1940s. The hippies inherited their cultural dissent from bohemians and beatn...

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