The popular use of LSD is often associated with the youth counterculture movement of the 1960s, who were often referred to as hippies. They began in small pocket communities in cities throughout the United States (US), but their numbers and philosophy would eventually expand influence young people around the world ("Hippie", 2021). On the whole, they were members of the baby boomer generation, those born between 1946-1964. In 1960, their age would range from 15-25. Hippies, as briefly described in (""Characteristics of Hippies,"" 2021 ), rejected the social, political and economic conventions that are the norms of American life, i.e., materialism, capitalism, consumerism and social classes. However, their philosophy on rejecting these norms of society did not originate with hippies. According to ("Hippie", 2021), they inherited their tradition of cultural dissent from the previous generation of the counterculture group, of the late 1950s, known as the Beat Generation.
The Beat Generation have been defined in various ways. The one that seems most appropriate for our purpose is that it was a movement represented by a small group of about a dozen writers (""Vietnam empowered hippies,"" 2019) that were novelists and poets who were disenchanted with what they viewed to be an excessively repressive, materialistic, and conformist society, and sought spiritual regeneration through sensual experiences"(Petrus, 1997). They are described as being asocial. That is lacking the desire to interact with mainstream society. Instead, they made spiritual quests, with explorations of American and Eastern religions, they wrote of explicit portrayals of the key events that make up human existence, experimented with psychedelic drugs, and explored various aspects of sexuality. The most well known of these writers include Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, and also Neal Cassady. However, Cassady would not have his works published until after his death. Nevertheless, he was a model for characters that would appear in these writers books and poems. Both Cassady and Ginsberg would also later become part of the Hippie movement following the end of the beats and beatniks movement. The beats, however, should not be confused with the beatniks. Although they seemed to pursue the same goals, there was a generation that separated the two groups.
The beats were much older and had different values. They had lived during WWII, or came of age shortly after the war. The beatniks would come of age much later, during the late 1950s. They were borne either during or slightly after the war. Therefor, they were young enough to have been the children of the beats. Although the beats were "starving artist" during the 40s and part of the 50s, they would become immensely popular when their works began to be published in the late 50s. Jack Keroac, would be become critically aclaimed with his "On the Road" novel, published in 1957, and be the most renowned member of the beats. Allen Ginsberg had written numerous poems, but would not have any published until "Howl", in 1955, when he was 29, that made him an instant celebrity. Also, the poem drew public attention soon after it was published when it was deemed obscene, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the publisher of City Lights Books that published Howl, was arrested, and the 520 copies of the book was confiscated from his City of Light bookstore in San Francisco. Ferlinghetti would eventually be found innocent of publishing obscene books and released. However, the obscenity trial, undoubtedly, brought the Howl poem to the attention of high school students that may have otherwise completely ignored it. It was the recognition of their writings that would make the beats popular to the like-minded young people of the late 1950s that became their disciples, that were called beatniks.
There were small communities of beatniks throughout the country. The largest populations lived in New York City's Greewich Village and San Francisco's North beach neighborhoods. Like the beats, the beatniks rejected the conformity of society. However, the conformity of their lifestyle and appearance led to a negative image of beatniks and a stereotype was created by the press. For example, beatnik men were envisioned as having long hair and beards, dressing in old, black, second hand clothing, usually a turtleneck shirt. Women would also have long hair and dressed in black, often in leotards. Both men and women would wear sandals and had a very depressed view of life, i.e., everything is rotten, everything is hopeless, wallowed in despair, and voluntary homelessness and joblessness (Rorabaugh, 2017). Despite being looked down upon by straight society, tourist flocked to Greenwich Village and North Beach in tour buses so that they see real live beatniks (Stevens, 1988). Suburbanites would even dress up as beatniks and go to local hangouts of beatniks and pretend to be beatniks (Rorabaugh, 2017).
In San Francisco's North Beach, there was a thriving beatnik community of artists, poets and musicians during the 1950s. However, by the early 1960s, due to police harassment, crackdowns on drugs by narcs, an evolving criminal element and rising rent, North Beach was no longer a desirable place to live and the beatniks eventually disappeared in that neighborhood (Stevens, 1988). Many of the beatniks would migrate to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, commonly referred to as the Haight during the 1960s. At the same time that the changes in Northbeach was occuring, the Haight was an under populated district with many ornate, shabby Victorian houses dating back to the early 20th century, when many politicians built mansions in this part of the city. However, the Depression caused many residents to leave the neighborhood. During WWII, the large Victorian houses would become divided into apartments to house workers, or became boarding homes in which it was hoped that rentals would turn a profit. After the war, many of the houses became vacant as the last of the middle class residents would leave in favor of newer suburbs leaving many of the units of Victorian houses vacant and available for cheap rentals that the beatniks would take advantage of (Stevens, 1988). However, the description given of the stereotype beatnik is not that of what we perceive as hippies. Stereotypically, hippies wore bright colorful clothing, were sunny and cheery, and were often portrayed as using the word "love" frequently in conversation as opposed to the depressed beatniks who were dressed in black and had a gloomy outlook on life (Stevens, 1988). Other young people that came into the community included college students that were dissatisfied with the path of their education at San Francisco State College, City College of San Francisco and the Berkeley Campus, at the University of California. By June 1966, the population in the Haight had exploded to approximately 15,000 hippies, due to the influence of Ken Kesey and his followers, who were known as the Merry Pranksters. They wore brightly colored clothing and emulated a life style similar to that of the beats and advocated LSD for the masses (Stevens, 1988). Starting in 1965, Kesey began his Acid Tests, i.e., LSD parties, in small venues. In 1966, Kesey had his largest Acid Tests, The Trips Festival, a three day affair, January 21-23, would take place in San Francisco, with 10,000 people attending. During a period of no more several months, Kesey and his Merry Prankster introduced more people to LSD than the CIA, Timothy Leary and Sandoz Laboratory combined.
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