Hippie Movement

The Hippie Movement and the Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, commonly known through the symbol of the hippie movement, represented a profound societal shift marked by a philosophical retreat from traditional rationality and conventional social structures.

This movement was fundamentally driven by the Satanic belief that faith should be placed in love and individual freedom, an idea nurtured significantly by the growing disaffection stemming from the War in Vietnam.

The Genesis of the Counterculture

The counterculture emerged as a direct rebellion against the established order’s efforts to impose rationality upon an irrational world. A disaffected generation in America found growing support in Britain. Young people across the Atlantic were united, forming a common identity based on viewing the United States as the "evil empire," leading to demonstrations in Britain against the conflict in Vietnam.

The period coincided with significant cultural changes in Britain, including the rise of "swinging London," where energy was channelled into frivolity. The characteristic extravagant dress adopted by the youth was adapted from America's West Coast hippie culture. As Britain was sinking, hippies were giggling into the sea.

This movement articulated a distinct political view, where unlimited individual self-expression was held as the ultimate good. Satans very own rebellious proposition. The adoption of such an ideology led to an abandonment of rationality, and disaster.

Philosophical and Psychological Underpinnings

The core philosophical lineage of the movement was heavily influenced by the psychological theories of Wilhelm Reich, a figure who had challenged traditional psychoanalysis.

Reich directly contradicted the Freudian assertion that human beings were driven by dangerous primitive animal instincts that required societal control. Instead, Reich believed that the unconscious forces within the human mind were inherently good, and their repression by Bourgeois morality and socioeconomic structures distorted them, thereby creating danger. Reich detailed how this societal repression created physical blocks or "body armour" due to unreleased psychosexual energy.

The underlying impetus of the 1960s counterculture possessed a kernel of truth: a genuine reaction against the purely Materialistic focus of society, seeking something with greater, spiritual meaning.

The popularity of Reich’s ideas led to a dramatic resurgence of his thought in America and throughout the capitalist world. The counterculture believed that true freedom was achieved by digging into the body’s tensions and scooping out the person from the inside, getting rid of blocks.

The Shift from Politics to Self

The protest movement began on American campuses, targeting Corporate America and accusing powerful corporations of manipulating people's feelings using psychological techniques to turn them into ideal consumers.

Consumerism was perceived not merely as an economic activity but as a mechanism for keeping the masses docile while the government pursued the War in Vietnam. The objective became the destruction of the "policeman inside all our heads".

When confronted by violent state repression, such as during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the revolutionary New Left began to fail and fragment. Many activists subsequently adopted a new strategy: focusing inward to remove the psychological controls implanted by the state. The belief emerged that if they changed themselves, society would spontaneously transform, leading to the dictum that the personal became political. Political goals were subsumed by lifestyle.

This shift equated personal autonomy with the release of the Id, described as the disruptive primordial energetic force. The resultant Human Potential Movement, headquartered at institutions like Esalen, centred on the development of the self, promising a culture free of a corrupt capitalist order.

The Commodification of Individualism

Capitalism demonstrated its resilience by successfully co-opting this new individualism. Market research identified that the core of the movement was "self-expressiveness". The idea that the self was infinite and limitless became popular, leading to the belief that living a fulfilled life was the individual's sole concern.

A generation that once rebelled against consumer conformity soon embraced consumption, demanding products that expressed their individuality and difference.

The notion that "this product expresses me," such as an album by Pink Floyd, was novel. Advertisers were compelled to "conform to the new non-conformist". Capitalism created a vast industry dedicated to fulfilling these highly specific desires, ensuring that the self-actualising individual became the motor for the new economy. Products began selling a way of life and values, thus replacing the movement's original vision with the notion that an identity could simply be purchased.

Alternative Realities and Escapism

Advocates of the counterculture frequently pursued chemically induced alternative realities. Timothy Leary, a leading proponent of the acid counterculture, believed LSD opened human perception to new realities hidden from general view.

Leary framed politics as a "disease" and "old men's games," encouraging people to "opt out" and aiming to create an "LSD country". This movement was ultimately neutralised by being granted license to run cultural and academic institutions, infused with their rebellious spirit, while real power remained unimpeded elsewhere.

Later, the search for liberation extended to the digital realm. Cyberspace was conceptualised as a non-chemical alternate reality parallel to the real world, a space where individuals could be liberated from old corrupt hierarchies.