There is a common perception that the counter-culture movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's was primarily a period of exuberant youth seeking escape through 'dropping out', irresponsible idleness, promiscuity and illicit drugs. Without doubt there was plenty of this and being so visible and salacious it attracted the attention of the media and influenced the lazy eye of history. It is overlooked that the perhaps risible revolt of youth was cynosure of a much broader and quieter reflection about the nature of man, community and work. This can be seen in the flourish of literature on these subjects. To cite a few: E.F Schumacher, Herbert Marcuse, Charles A. Reich, Alan Watts, Theodore Roszak, Norman O Brown and Paul Goodman. The common theme of these writers was to question the diminished quality of human life in the industrial state with its worship of efficiency, corporatism, consumerism and conformity. This led to a discussion in society of alternative ways of organisation and enhancement of human consciousness, in the broadest sense, in living.
From my comfortable position I participated in this discussion and it changed my outlook of life considerably. I also noticed how society was picking up on some of these new ideas and incorporating them into mainstream living. One can think of a growth in interpersonal sensitivity, humanistic values, changes in the lives of women, sexual tolerance and a doing away of various stigmas arising from formal religions. The counter-culture movement, of course, failed in its raison d'etre of enhancing consciousness and freeing man from the fetters of the industrial state. Society is still pretty much the same, and worse in some respects. The survival of the status quo was, however, inevitable and is shared to some extent by all idealistic and utopian schemes. What is disturbing, however, is that the notion of a counter culture no longer exists. We seem to have capitulated and in doing so have lost our capacity to imagine something better. In this sense the 'System' has had a double victory. A society which does not dream is in danger of losing its heart.
Robert Persig in Lilia has this to say:
'Of these periods (WWII to 1970; then present), the last two seem the most misunderstood. The Hippies have been interpreted as frivolous spoilt children, and the period following their departure as a 'return' to values, whatever that means. The Metaphysics of Quality, however, says that's backward: the Hippie revolution was the moral movement. The present period is the collapse of values.' (my parentheses)
