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In the 1960s, a generation of young people rejected the world that their parents had built. They turned away from war, conformity, consumerism and traditional authority and instead braced music, peace, love, psychedelics, communal living and a radically different vision of freedom. And for a brief moment, it seemed like they might change everything. Then, almost as quickly, the movement began to fall apart. Learn more about the rise and fall of the hippie movement on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Quint's. Several months ago I moved into a new apartment and I've been buying new furniture as of late. One of the other things I've been doing is shopping at Quint's for all my home decorating needs. From soft bedding and washable rugs to curtains, towels, decor and pieces that make a room feel more finished. 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That's why Mint Mobile's wireless plans have no gimmicks and no gotchas. Just high speed data and reliable coverage on the T Mobile 5G network. And right now, all plans are $15 a month, even the unlimited plan. It works on your current phone, your current phone number, and you can keep all of your contacts. That's why I recommend Mint Mobile. To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.comeed that's mintmobile.comeed cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.comeed that's it. There's no catch. $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. 20 new customers on first 3 month plan only speed slower above 40gb on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. The hippie movement did not emerge out of nowhere. Its intellectual and cultural ancestors can be traced back to several earlier traditions. One major influence was bohemianism. Bohemians who began in the early 19th century in Europe, rejected conventional middle class life, embraced art, poetry, free love, unconventional dress, and often lived in poor but creatively vibrant neighborhoods. Another influence was the 19th century transcendentalist tradition, especially figures such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. They offered models of simple living, resistance to unjust government and spiritual independence. The Beat generation and the beatniks of the 1940s and 50s were the most direct predecessors. Writers such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassidy rejected the conformity of post war America. Beat culture drew influence from jazz and intellectual subcultures. Jazz music played constantly and fashion was inspired by musicians. Poetry was also a major part of Beat culture as artists sought to express themselves spontaneously through beat poetry, challenging existing American literary standards. The American hippie movement began in San Francisco in the mid-1960s. It started in the Haight Ashbury district when artists, students and dropouts began to move into the region. Individuals were initially drawn to Haight Ashbury because the rent was cheap. Additionally, the area offered a more bohemian lifestyle distinct from mainstream America. This unconventionality was vividly reflected in the local businesses, including coffee houses, boutique shops and stores selling drug paraphernalia. This environment drew teenagers and young adults eager to escape their conservative middle class upbringings. The term hippie comes from the word hip, which was borrowed from the earlier beatniks in the hippie movement. The term hippie was actually mostly used by older outsiders to mock young people in the movement. The term was picked up by journalists who brought the nickname to widespread attention. Despite being called hippies, the group typically did not use the term or identify with it. They often called themselves flower children, flowers, freaks or the underground. The majority of hippies were part of the baby boomer generation, the children born in the aftermath of World War II. The 1950s saw consumer culture at an all time high and it was also the height of the Cold War with duck and cover drills and fear of the Soviet Union. Despite their background, many felt isolated by the mainstream world and they wanted something more. This desire led them to seek others with unique lifestyles. They separated from society and often lived in large groups. Many adopted holistic medicine and unprocessed organic diets. Their style also broke from traditional norms. They rejected conservative fashion. Men often had long straggly hair and beards. Women also kept their hair long and wore it casually. Their clothes were vibrant, often with psychedelic colors. Many wore flowers in their hair. Long, loose clothing such as bell bottom pants and Victorian shawls were common, as were beads and sandals. The hippie aesthetic bled into popular culture. It was found in the clothing, advertising and design of the 1960s, even among people who wouldn't be described as hippies. The hippie lifestyle was also heavily defined by drug use, particularly psychedelics such as lsd, which could alter a person's moods, thoughts and perceptions. Marijuana and LSD became deeply ingrained in the community, frequently present at parties, protests, and music events. The substance use contributed to the emergence of new musical styles, including psychedelic rock and the subgenre of acid rock, and it also played a major role in the eventual fall of the movement. More on that in a bit. Hippies also felt passionately about the environment. Because their lifestyle was connected to nature, they believed in eco living. The hippie compounds tried to be self sufficient, and the food was usually grown on site and was organic. Hippies played a major role in the establishment of the first Earth Day. Many of the members of the hippie movement lived in communes. During the movement, about 3,000 hippie communes existed, each having its own culture, shaped by its members. Communes allowed hippies to reject mainstream culture and allowed them to live in the free love, lifestyle and peace that they wanted. Communal lifestyles varied significantly from one group to another in terms of spirituality. Some, known as Jesus freaks, were Christian, while others embraced Buddhism or Hinduism, and some adopted no faith at all. Substance regulations also differed as drugs were permitted in most communes but prohibited in some others. Clothing standards ranged from traditional attire to complete nudity. Furthermore, while certain communities were mostly self sufficient, others engaged in various forms of commerce. Despite their various practices, problems arose in the communes. The main issue was the lack of a governing body with lax rules. Many skipped work, choosing to hang out or do drugs over their responsibilities. Many communes also struggled financially, which led to tension. Older members often left, either returning home or moving to another commune. Part of the hippie movement was public gatherings. These events were called be inside. The term be in was a combination of be and sit in. The initial be in, called the Gathering of Tribes, took place in San Francisco in 1967. This gathering initiated what was known as the Summer of Love, a major cultural phenomenon that highlighted protests, spirituality, and music. The Summer of Love successfully expanded the awareness of the hippie movement to the rest of the population. During the summer of love, 100,000 people visited the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, seeking to experience the city's music, peace and love. The enormous influx of people created chaos in the area. Rather than fulfilling these promises, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held In August of 1969 in upstate New York, became the defining symbol of the hippie movement. Roughly 400,000 people attended. Despite rain, mud, food shortages, traffic jams and logistical chaos, the festival was remembered as a largely peaceful gathering built around music, cooperation and shared idealism. Performers included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the who, Santana Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and many others. Woodstock became the movement's great myth, a temporary city of peace and music, where young people proved that they could gather without descending into violence. Of course, you can't really talk about the hippie movement without talking about the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was one of the most important forces behind the rise of the hippie movement. At first, many hippies were more cultural than political. They wanted to change consciousness, relationships and daily life. But as the war escalated, it became impossible to avoid. The draft meant that young men could be forced to fight in a war that many considered immoral and didn't want any part of. Television brought images of bombing, burning villages, wounded soldiers and civilian suffering into American homes. Hippies often overlapped with the broader anti war movement, though the two were not identical. Groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society were more explicitly political, while hippies were more likely to emphasize peace, love, personal liberation and spiritual transformation. One popular slogan during the protests was make love, not war. First printed during a Berkeley, California anti war protest, the slogan was the epitome of hippie ideology. The beginning of the end of the hippie movement is usually dated at just four months after Woodstock at the Altamonte free concert in California. Held in December of 1969 and headlined by the Rolling Stones, Altamonte was a poorly organized, chaotic and violent event. The Hell's Angels were used as security during the Rolling Stones performance. A young man named Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a Hells angel near the stage. Altamont is often described as the symbolic end of the 1960s counterculture. It's a simplification, but it captures something real. The hopeful image of Woodstock was replaced by images of violence, bad planning, drug abuse and danger. That same year also saw the Manson family murders, which terrified the public and badly damaged the image of hippie culture. Charles Manson was not representative of hippies, but he used countercultural language, communal living, sex, music and drugs in a horrifyingly manipulative way. To many Americans already Suspicious of the movement, Manson seemed to confirm their worst fears. As you can probably guess, the hippies were not universally loved. In addition to the expected criticisms from more conservative supporters of, say, President Nixon, criticisms also came from unlikely sources. One surprising critic of hippies was George Harrison. A member of the Beatles. Harrison visited haight Ashbury in 1967 at the Peak of the Summer of Love and found the whole scene to be disturbing. He said, quote, I went to Haight Ashbury expecting it to be this brilliant place. I thought it was going to be all these groovy kind of gypsy kind of people with little shops making works of art and paintings and carvings. But instead it turned out to be a lot of bums. And many of them were just very young kids who had come from all over America and dropped acid and gone to this Mecca of lsd. It certainly showed me what was really happening in the drug cult. It wasn't what I thought of all these groupy people having spiritual awakenings. It was like any addiction. So at that point I stopped taking it, actually, the dreaded Lysergic. He further went on to say, Haight Ashbury reminded me a bit of the Bowery. There were these people just sitting around the pavement begging, saying, give us some money for a blanket. These are hypocrites. They're making fun of tourists and all that, and at the same time they're holding out their hands, begging off of them. That's what I don't like, end quote. The hippie movement waned in the 1970s for multiple reasons. First, the Vietnam War began winding down, especially after the draft ended in 1973 and American combat troops withdrew. Anti war activism didn't disappear, but the central issue that had united millions of young people were lost urgency. Second, the movement suffered from drug problems. Psychedelic experimentation gave way in many places to heroin, amphetamines, cocaine and alcoholism. The romantic image of expanded consciousness became harder to sustain amid addiction, homelessness and mental breakdowns. Third, the movement was weakened by poverty and impracticality. Many hippie communities were built on lofty ideals, but lacked structures for long term survival. Shared property, open relationships, anti leadership attitudes and disdain for ordinary work produced real problems. Those who grew their hair out, dressed in vibrant colors and participated in drugs and free love eventually got older and returned to their previous life. They left their communes, went back to school or work and conformed to the same society they once rejected. Many of the hippies of the 1960s became the suspender wearing yuppies of the 1980s. The hippie movement burned brightly and briefly, but its cultural impact actually lasted longer than its moment in the spotlight. It became one of the defining cultural revolutions of the 20th century. Hippie fashion and aesthetics remain evident today, and many of their beliefs persist in other social movements. The hippies did not create the utopia that they imagined, and their movement was often undermined by naivete, drugs, and internal contradictions. In the end, the hippies failed as a revolution but succeeded as a cultural force, leaving behind a world that was less rigid, more expressive, and permanently shaped by their dream of peace and love. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Ocken and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode were provided by the Olivia Ashe. Today's review comes from listener Liii Za on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write Love this podcast. Hi Gary, thanks for this always interesting podcast. I look forward to learning something new with every episode. I'm proud to be the newest member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania completionist club. My 12 year old who listens with me asked if I get removed and reinstated to the club each day as new episodes come out. I told him we just have to keep up. Thanks for covering the gamut of interesting topics and go Birds. Well, thanks Lisa. Just so you're aware, our Completionist Club chapters in your region all serve Philly Cheesesteaks. Please enjoy responsibly. Remember, if you leave a review of the podcast on any of the major apps, you too can have it read on the show.