“Hmmm. So there was no sex or drugs or high school dropouts or abortions before the hippies?”
No, there was, to be sure - including opium smoked by ‘pioneers’ heading west during the great expansion here in the US.
We just decided to glorify being a loser in the 60’s. The boomer’s essentially decided to veto the American Dream.
A sham, a ratrace, the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. Boomers made ‘up’ into ‘down’, and ‘left’ into what’s right.
No, we had drugs, and we had abortion, but it was considered shameful, took its toll on families, and God was thought to be watching.
“No, we had drugs, and we had abortion, but it was considered shameful, took its toll on families, and God was thought to be watching.”
I’m 42, so there were always drugs from day one as far as I knew. Historically, it seems there was mostly alcohol before that. Weed, smack, all that stuff was for .. er .. “jazz musicians”. If you get my drift. But alcohol was a huge issue. Look up Carrie Nation and the suffragists and “Gin Alley” and so on — and it’s always been thus, at least in Europe and here which is basically Europe Junior.
As far as abortion, there have always been abortions, too. Illegal sometimes, not illegal other times. Roe V Wade wasn’t because of hippies — all the USSC judges were way too old to be hippies, after all, and hippies didn’t have any say over who got to be on the USSC.
I would say you were right on as far as your “glorify being a loser” comment. “Tune in turn on drop out” wrecked a whole lot of lives.