Summer Of Love aired last night on American Experience, a PBS program that we always find interesting around here. This program was no exception. It chronicled the summer of 1967 when many young people across the country went in droves to join The Hippie Movement in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. I had read several things about this movement before and so I was amazed that many of the people who participated in this movement still had positive things to say about it. Peter Coyote, who is extensively interviewed in the program, makes the point that The Hippie Movement was not able to end Capitalism and Imperialism as it set out to do, but it did accomplish some good things. His list of good things included, organic food, yoga, and alternative medicine.
Some of those things are good things, but the film footage provided makes it difficult for me to judge the movement in a positive way. Film footage of the Haight-Ashbury area before the Hippies cames shows a lovely and well kept neighborhood that quickly became filthy while they were there.
The Hippies themselves were filthy bringing back diseases that had not been seen since Medival times because they had been cured by soap. Venereal diseases were spreading through the area rampantly.
Art Gerrans, a San Francisco police officer durring that time said, "These people were supportive of the anti-war movement, but on the other hand, back in the Haight-Ashbury, where they were living, their culture there -- having sex with minors and committing statutory rape and using dope and murders -- they were violating the law, so we were arresting them. I guess they were rebelling against authority."
The idea of rebelling against Capitalism in reality turned into living with out working. Subsequently, funds soon ran short for hippies. Young people as young as twelve and thirteen were roaming the streets filthy and starving.
One of the women spoke glowingly of what the hippies called, "the free store" where you could go in and just take what you needed. The problem I saw when they showed film footage of this store, was that no-one would want anything in it. It was all garbage. It made a great summation for me of the whole movement.... You get what you pay for.
If you are interested, the next program will be a co-production with the program Frontline. This program airs April 30th & May 1. It will be a four-hour program called The Mormons. You can also learn more about the Mormons right from the source, here.
5 comments:
Now THAT sounds interesting...
I so wish I had seen that! I am eager to see the Mormon one.
How did I miss that one? Thanks for the tip, I was trying to remember when the mormon one was on.
Hi! I'm new to your blog!
Had to comment here. . . I wanted to see the PBS program you mention but didn't get to. I was curious to see if the program showed "glorified" footage of the hippies or if they showed the "real" stuff. (I'm 34 yo) After growing up in America and seeing the "glorified" footage, I could never quite figure out why my parents (one was 20 in '69, the other was 18) were appalled by their peers. . . And I do mean appalled with a capital "A"! I think as a child of the 80s, I felt that the hippies were more of a fashion trend, haha! But now, I know, of course, what a disaster the whole thing was.
And here's an interesting link I checked out in the last year(Hippie Society: The Youth Rebellion):
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-580/life_society/hippies/
Very interesting. You won't see some of that footage on TV. It's not "glorified" enough!
I love your blog!
Dear Emily,
Thanks for posting the link and for your kind comments. To answer your question honestly, I thought that the PBS program was a bit distorted on the side of normalizing the whole thing. I think Peter Coyote and some of the others must have had their brains affected by the drug use.
I would like to understand what these people actually mean by "ending capitalism." What that always translates into is a parasitic society. And, eventually if no one is producing it crumbles just like the Hippie experiement shows. I couldn't help thinking of a quote by Benjamin Franklin that appears in the book Benjamin Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson... I can't quote it directly but he says that the wealth of America does not lie in its resources, but in its industry. There is a holiness in work. It gives people self-esteem and purpose, a way to support themselves and to help others.
There was a lot of footage of when the hippies first came to Haight, and they made it look so fun and happy, but then in the end, there was a little footage of some very thin, wild-eyed and frightening looking people. The also talked about how young some of the children were who were there. And, they did talk about some of the disease and the free clinics that had to be started. What they failed to emphasize is that this is how far the society in Haight deteriorated in less than six weeks. Imagine if it had gone on.
It was interesting to me the comment you made about your parents ideas about hippies and your own. Same here. :) Thanks Emily.. obviously your comment made me think of a lot of stuff :) please forgive :)
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