I was in the thick of that whole scene but I never accepted the Left uncritically nor did I fail to see the glaring contradictions of the hippie culture which lambasted conformity while insisting on its OWN codes of dress,thought,and style.
I have this theory that the reason the Left captured so many youth during that time is that they promised risk,action and channeled that need all young people have to rebel and challenge the status quo.The Right,on the other hand,seemed stale and static,way too intellectual and effete.Where were the Right wing versions of SDS and the Yippies who would take the fight to the peaceniks and Commies IN THE STREETS?Nowhere to be found so the fact that the Right wing took the"high"road left them essentially unappealing and moribund.Really,what 20 year old in 1968 would get excited about having tea at William Buckley's estate in Sharon,Ct?
I spent the sixties dabbling in a little bit of everything.Went to Birch Society meetings as well as SDS conclaves.I was incredibly intellectually curious and wanted to explore any and all ideologies from extreme right to extreme left.Loved Goldwater but also loved hitch-hiking to Tahoe with pot smoking freaks.Tore up Communist protest signs at College of San Mateo but also marched throgh campus buildings at Berkeley as black and white radicals swarmed throgh buildings like locusts,wielding pipes and smashing windows.Heady stuff for a 21 year old kid from the suburbs.REALLY loved the music scene of the time and saw all the old classic rock groups.It was a wonderfully exciting time to be alive.
Today at 57 I am still that eclectic gadfly,more Conservative than Liberal on most issues but never an idealogue or a bot type.Can venture out for a couple of days a week at some local ghetto high schols and feel right at home with the little homeboys and girls but can also converse intellgently with doctors and college professors.I love the FR site for its wide array of opinions and breadth of member's experiences.I mostly lurk but when the topic of hippies come up I just could not resist throwing my life into the mix!
Jump in more often
David Horowitz and his book Radical Son tells me that honest thought will lead most people out of the Liberal swamp...I never really went that far left in my 20s ....I just didnt question the thinking du jour enough.