What was one key belief that drove many people into the counterculture?
1 Answer
rejection of the establishment
Explanation:
College kids who joined the counterculture movement did it as a sign of rebellion against the establishment. The first issue that coalesced them was the Civil Rights movement, they participated in the 1964 Summer of Freedom in Mississippi which aimed at enfranchising African American. After 1964 and the Gulf of Tonkin resolution their target shifted to the War in Vietnam.
The counterculture with movements such as The Freedom of Speech movement led by Mario Savio or the SDS(created in 1962 with the Port Huron Statement issued by Tom Hayden) played a major role in getting the federal governement on its knees, public pressure is what forced the government to withdraw its troops from Vietnam.
Berkeley in California can be considered as the cradle of counterculture whereas the Woodstock festival is an emblematic event organized by people in the counterculture movement in the state of New York in 1969, the war was then a burning issue to such an extent that Jimmy Hendrix parodied the national anthem by making bomb sounds.
