The Counterculture Environmental Technology Movement

Along with its strong impact on religion, counterculture greatly impacted several aspects of politics, specifically environmental politics. Before the mid 1960s, most environmental campaigning was based on the preservation of American wilderness and protecting it from the invasion of urban development and technology. Due to the increasingly complicated politics of the 1960s, the strong division between wilderness and technology was not as effective after this time period, which lead to changes within the environmentalist movement. There was a change of focus in counterculture environmentalism from preserving the untouched wilderness to protecting the environment as a whole. While there were still some youths during this time that moved to the
woods in order to live a less developed, less complicated lifestyle, the majority of new counterculture environmental politics accepted both nature and technology, and they believed through using technology, one could achieve a closer relationship with nature. The focus of counterculture environmentalism was to use new technology, research, and environmental advancement to promote new ways of life and communities that would allow people to live in better harmony with nature in the future. Despite the New Left movement dying out after the early 1970s, the environmental movement remained strong. These new ideas impacted the environmental movement, but many environmentalists were still unaccepting of these new ideas. However, after the introduction of these ideas, a permanent link between environmental and social politics was formed. This link led the way for movements such as the environmental justice movement in the 1980s, and it provided inspiration for people who felt excluded from many of the mainstream environmentalist groups. The connection between environmentalism and urban issues opened up the environmentalist movement to a new dynamic of people who before felt little connection to the movement.
The counterculture environmentalists also created the Whole Earth Catalog. This catalog became a basis of the movement, and it brought together people from all aspects of the counterculture. The legacy of counterculture environmentalism is the marriage between technology and nature. Americans began to see technology as a good thing that we could use in order to help the environmental and create an ecological living. Ecology and technology coming together created a more realistic approach to the environmental problems. The counterculture environmental technology movement had some more disturbing consequences, such as leading to the creation of new technology powers. However, overall, the new advancements in ecological technology led to things that have now become mainstream ideas for helping the environment, such as solar power, energy-efficient devices, and even energy efficient houses. The environmental counterculture movement greatly changed the way people approach environmental issues, and led to many developments in the environmental movement in the United
States. Two core political groups of the counterculture movement were the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Yippies. Despite the important involvement of these groups during the time period, their impacts were minimal. The SDS saw issues with its purely student demographic. After the 1960s, the SDS had split into a bunch of small individualized groups, leading to the end if the group as a whole. The Yippies on the other hand, imploded due to their extremely radical anti-cultural goals, which were not feasible. After the 1960s, the Yippies ceased to exist and had little impact on the politics of the future. Both of these groups share the common factor of failure. They failed to come up with logical, thorough ways to address the radical issues of the time in order to change American society. These issues stem from the idea of alienation that the student based movements were rooted in. All of these issues ultimately led to the fall of these political groups, and while both the Yippies and the Students for a Democratic Society were important to the movement of their time period, their impacts were minimal. The eccentric hippie style was an important aspect of their eccentric culture, and it was very influential as it is something that still impacts the fashion standards in the modern world. One example of hippie style that assimilated into the mainstream is blue jeans. During the 1960s, jeans became a crucial aspect of American fashion. They took on a whole new role as an anti-fashion statement of the nonconformist. Jeans became a symbol of the growing numbers of rebelling youth, and they were a crucial aspect of the counterculture fashion. The baby-boom generation grew up with jeans as the clothing they wore as children. Naturally, jeans were seen as practical, and they were against the societal norm where fashion was ever changing. They were also affordable and comfortable, and to them, they represented freedom. They were identified with both work and play during a time when this distinction was naturally being blurred due to the new mindset of the counterculture movement. As jeans became more of a staple of the counterculture lifestyle, the youth began to glorify their jeans. This included decorating them and turning them into visual, individual statements, and personalizing one's clothing became a legacy of the counterculture on the fashion industry. In the 1970s, jeans assimilated into the high fashion world; they were no longer the anti-fashion statement they had become in the 1960s. Designers began to make new forms of denim and sell them for very expensive prices. They became a staple of American fashion that the fashion designer world took on as a new industry. Hippie fashion was greatly influential not only during the time period and soon after, but it has become a repeating influence of the fashion industry throughout time. Another important aspect of hippie culture that still impacts the United States today is the drug culture.
During the 1960s the mainstream drug use was a crucial aspect of the hippie culture, and many of the youth saw using drugs as making a statement. The most popular drugs were Marijuana and LSD, both mid-altering drugs. LSD is a hallucinogen, meaning it affects the central nervous system and changes the way a person sees and feels the reality. One reason hippies turned to LSD was because they needed a culture when they no longer trusted the natural world, and LSD gave this to them. The entire hippie culture centered on LSD, impacting the music, art, and living of the hippies, and this was the first time something like this occurred. These impacts were seen specifically through acid tests, festivals that essentially celebrated LSD, from which the psychedelic style emerged. One explanation for the popularity of LSD is the strong influence and association it had with the psychedelic rock of the sixties. At concerts taking the drug was almost seen as a necessity. After the 1960s, the risks of using LSD became better known. LSD is unpredictable, and many situations in which it had caused death were being publicized through the media. While LSD usage dropped significantly after the 1960s, marijuana and more casual, widespread drug use was a legacy of the counterculture, and hippies specifically. Drugs redefined the Western world-view, as they destroyed the traditions of time,
space, and personal identity. After the 1960s, mainstream drug culture became much more common, but there was a shift from using drugs for transcendence to using drugs leisure. Another important aspect of culture that the counterculture movement greatly impacted was music. During the 1960s, the introduction and popular recreational use of LSD created new forms of rock music. This music was referred to as acid or psychedelic rock, and some of the important players in this industry included the Grateful Dead and the Doors. As the counterculture movement ended, the popular music genres changed. The music shifted from the intense rock music to more calming forms to meet the needs of the post-counterculture age. More personal, established music became more popular. After the 1960s end of the counterculture movement, the mood of the United States was much more subdued, which was reflected in the music. The music became much more introspective, and it had more influence from jazz, classical, country and folk music opposed to the psychedelic, hard rock style of the sixties. The 1960s rock music was influential in the time period, and its creation was the formations of a new genre of music. While the music from the counterculture movement is not considered pop music today, it was influential and represents the time period accurately. Based on the needs of the American people, music changed, but the impacts of psychedelic rock influenced the music and the mood of the American people.