A Chasm of Misunderstanding.
Counter-culture was the youth culture of the 1960s, which continued to flourish in the 1970s. As the term implied, it was a culture that developed against the established culture. Young people rejected capitalism, competition, social conventions, and the work ethic of their parents. They embraced communitarianism, cooperation, toleration, and "doing your own thing." In contrast to the heterosexual monogamy of their parents, young people championed sexual experimentation; in place of the three-martini lunch, young people had marijuana picnics. For those embracing the counterculture, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll took precedence over hard work, sobriety, and suburbia. Un-counted numbers of adolescents left home or school in the early 1970s to enjoy the hippie life in Boston, New York's Greenwich Village, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, or in rural communes. By the mid 1970s, how-ever, the countercultural...
Source: American Decades: 1970-1979, ©1995 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 1633 words.)
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