Counterculture

The Counterculture is the term used to describe a significant cultural shift that began in the United States and Europe, beginning in the late 1950s and 1960s. While the term may be used generically to describe any cultural movement that runs contrary to prevailing norms (see Underground culture), this specific counterculture is historically significant, because it did in effect entirely displace the historically dominant cultural values, and superseded it as the dominant culture.

The roots of the counterculture may be found in the dying embers of the 19th century, when moral and cultural values which had their roots in the Renaissance, and were presumed to be universal, were beginning to be undermined by the Existentialist movement. The idea of progress was called into question; the idea that the universe was rational and purposeful began to be displaced. New political movements, such as Communism and Fascism, spread in the early 20th Century, leading to political violence and ultimately the horrors of World War II. The enormity of the crimes committed by states and individuals in this period, made possible the further spread of a deep cultural pessimism -- which was then compounded by the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the world's population had to confront the possibility, that mankind had become so irrational as to destroy itself through the use of nuclear weapons.

During this period, an organized force of intellectuals and institutions began to emerge, which advocated a new cultural paradigm, not based on the conviction that Man is inherently good, but rather on a reaction against that conviction as false or hypocritical. Institutions such as the Frankfurt School began to promote the idea, that any proposed universal values or collective mission for mankind, were inherently destructive, authoritarian, or proto-fascist.

A fascinating glimpse into the mentality of the architects of the counterculture may be found in the following quotations from Encounter magazine, published by the Congress of Cultural Freedom. It is from a May 1956 review, by Isaiah Berlin, of Alexander Herzen's autobiography:

The thesis which Herzen offered to the world comes to this, that any attempt to explain human conduct in terms of, or to dedicate human beings to the service of, any abstraction, be it never so noble--justice, progress,nationality--always leads in the end to victimization and human sacrifice ... always lead in the end to a terrible maiming of human beings, to political vivisection on an ever increasing scale,... and the replacing of an old tyranny with a new and sometimes far more hideous one--by the imposition of the slavery of universal socialism, for example, as a remedy for the slavery of the universal Roman Church. Herzen embodies his central principle--that the goal of life is life itself, that to sacrifice the present to some vague and unpredictable future is a form of delusion which leads to the destruction of all that alone is valuable in men and societies--to the gratuitous sacrifice of the flesh and blood of live human beings upon the altar of idealized abstractions. Let us encourage egoism instead of trying to suppress it. Egoism is not a vice. Egoism gleams in the eye of an animal. It is wild, self-centred and salutary. Moralists bravely thunder against it, instead of building on it. What moralists try and deny is the great, inner citadel of human dignity. They want to make men tearful, sentimental, feeble, kindly creatures asking to be made slaves. But to tear egoism from a man's heart is to rob him of his living principles, of the yeast and the salt of his whole personality. Sentiments like these, coming from august members of the intellectual establishment, began to find popular expression in the Beatnik, Hippie and Libertarian movements, and ultimately began to permeate every aspect of the culture of the Baby Boomers. They have influenced not only the more overtly countercultural Hippies, but also the conservatives who condemned them; a close examination of the above quotes will yield an insight into the ideologies of the neoconservatives and the religious fundamentalists.

However, a discussion of the counterculture were incomplete, without taking a look at the use of recreational drugs such as LSD. This, too, was promoted by very powerful members of the establishment, such as the founder of Time, Incorporated, Henry Luce. Despite his conservative political profile, Luce was an early promoter of the counterculture and an avid experimenter with LSD. He took the drug numerous times during the late 1950s and early 60s, under the supervision of Dr. Sidney Cohen, who was attached to UCLA and the Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles. Cohen also introduced the drug to Luce's wife, Clare Boothe Luce, who was considered to be the grande dame of postwar American politics.

In the late 1960s and 1970s the counterculture movement was revealed as decadent and morally bankrupt. Spikes in the divorce rate, crime rate, abortion rate, drug-related violence, and economic stagnation left many disillusioned with the movement. Incidents like the Jonestown massacre and the Charles Manson murders cemented the feeling that the counterculture and drug culture were false and destructive idols not unlike the fascism that they claimed to criticize.