The powerful rule the world, but then what happens when someone is ready to challenge their ideas? They also put forward their own opinions and make a rule for themselves. Flower children have the motto of spreading love, not violence. It involves the hippie community that rejected the ideas of typical American life. It started around the 1950s on college campuses in the US during the Vietnam War. They felt left out by the middle-class society. Hippies also believed that the latter focuses on expensive pleasure. Hippie movement changed their lifestyles and chose for normal food and clothes. They spread peace and love. Men liked long hair and women liked long dresses in psychedelic colors. They like music festivals such as Woodstock.
Peace and love angels
They also did not leave a chance to spread love and peace in their surroundings. Tolerance was among their few qualities which discriminated them from the middle-class society. Worshippers of Eastern tradition also had open sexual relationships. They lived in many kinds of family groups. The use of drugs also rose up and was seen as a way of expanding alertness.
Flower child psychedelic music concert
The Beat generation included young writers who knew the scenario after the 2nd World War. They supported drug use and also sexuality in their written works. Beat generation was a literary movement. It influenced flower children, filled them with music and psychedelic things. Rock and then also folk music were a part of this movement. Singers like Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and the Beatles were a part of this culture.
“To be a seed in a world, is to remain safe almost unharmed living within a shell to protect you from the exterior world, what a risk it was to chose to bud and prosper into a little sprout unaware of what you will become, yet fearlessly ready to trust the process along the way.”
Nikki Rowe
Woodstock festival in chaos
A music festival called Woodstock took place in rural New York in 1969 and attracted around 400,000-500,000 people. It was then stated as ‘An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music’. The four days long festival drew people from all around the world and gained a lot of talks. Many artists such as Santana, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival and also The Who participated. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ of Jimi Hendrix’s famous psychedelic show was a big moment of the whole festival.
Influence in the Vietnam War
Flower children disliked the Vietnam War and wanted to spread peace and love. The US government started a military surge. They also sent American troops to Vietnam to settle and end the communist government. They then taught at colleges in which opposition to the war was present. Protesting in marches was also one of their features. The Americans were angry with the loss of life in the war. Everyone came for the protest. They also changed the American view of the Vietnam war.
The movement got slow in the mid 1970s and gave way to young people around the 1980s. Young people worked on making their careers. They also came to be known as young urban professionals. They are seen as an open society.