When speaking with folks who came of age in the 60s, I ask if they were political or just hippies.They always answer just hippies(with a cheesy little grin).
It was just about sex,drugs and rock ‘n’roll for the majority.
By 1973, everyone who wanted to be considered cool had adopted *the look*. The smart and connected went back to school, into the family business and mouthed that they were working within the system to change it. Today, they are elder statesmen, wealthy Democrats and they are financing the *revolution* from safety.
Conseravatives just on with their lives. I remember trying to reminisce with some people back in the early 80s and they, who had spent that time in a small rural town working and raising a family, just looked at me deadpan and asked:”What Sixties?”
Everyone was into the music, though, even the politicals who saw the music as an organizing vehicle.
I grew up in the midwest..Wisconsin to be exact. I know many teens smoked dope, but I never did. And I didn't know one person who I could genuinely have called a hippie. Most young people still drank a lot of beer (this is Wisconsin remember), and those who smoked dope were only interested in getting high and not supporting some witless, leftist revolution. Even in my college poly sci class there was only one kid who dressed and sounded like a hippie activist. Other kids dressed normal and laughed at his statements in the classroom.