The Great Debate

Many people are divided on weather or not that the Untied States should go to war with other countries. Even more so when we have no business going to war with the other country to began with or when everyone but the president sees that there is neither going to be a winner or a loser in the war. Others think that being the Untied States we are obligated to help others in need even if they didn’t ask for any help. The main reasons that some people don’t want to go to war is it causes great depression for the country that the war is going on in. The country loses a lot of food and water sources, money, people and homes to what is known as “culture genocide”. Paul Potter was the president of SDS, which stands for Students for the Democratic Society. He supports this idea in his article by saying “That in itself [war] is horrendous and incredible beyond belief. But it is only part of a larger pattern of destruction to the very fabric of the country. We have uprooted the people from the land and imprisoned them in concentration camps called "sunrise villages." Through conscription and direct political intervention and control, we have destroyed local customs and traditions, trampled upon those things of value which give dignity and purpose to life.” Another reason most don’t want to go to war is it’s never really clear what we are fighting for if the other country hasn’t attacked us in anyway. In the Vietnam War the president sent over troops to fight for the “freedom” of the Vietnamese people. Potter says whose freedom are we fighting for it can’t be the Vietnamese people we are putting them into camps raiding their houses and ruining their land. After 20 years what did the Vietnamese people have? The ones who survived the war now have to live on ruined land and try to make peace with what happened? (Potter) Others think that being one of the most powerful nations in the world we are obligated to go help out other countries when they are in need. Gregory Clark said it best when he stated “regardless of the morality of the Vietnam War, Australian national interests demanded that we stay with the U.S. in Vietnam, that we deny territory to communist regimes, which we act to stop the dominoes from falling.” (Clark). Those main thoughts are only two of the millions of thoughts that go through people’s heads when they think about the Vietnam War and why we decided to join in on it and help others out. 

http://www.gregoryclark.net/vietnam.html

http://studentsforademocraticsociety.org/home/

Reflection

I choose to research the Counterculture after watching the movie Across the Universe. Which is a musical using all The Beatles songs to re create the war protest, the Electric Kool Aid bus and the lives of young adults and how their lives were effected by the war. 

I went about creating my blog by wanting a more retro style looking background, with a media player that played only The Doors and The Beatles songs. I also wanted a crazy looking picture that was related to the 1960's and their lifestyle. Everything that i wanted for my blog ended up working out for me the only trouble that i had  was getting the font color to show up on my blog and making sure that the words didn't get cut off at the end of the blog. 

I have learned a lot about the 1960's. Before I researched this topic I thought that only the U.S had a Counterculture that stood up against the war and everything that the government stood for. After doing some research I learned that the Counterculture really started over in England and the went to Asia then Europe. I also learned that the Counterculture stood for more then sex, drugs, and music. They wanted everything from sexual liberation, freedom,to end the war and bring the troops back home safe. I also learned about the important people who had a great impact on the counterculture Timothy Leary being one of the people.  

I still really like my topic and find it fun to research, but as the weeks go on its getting harder to find new information, and people who had major parts in the counterculture.  The only thing that I can think of that I really havent researched is the war revolts, and the calamity  it brought to the cities it was in, who started them why they decided to preserve with the revolts , and how they ended. That is what I plan on researching for next quarter. 

Essay

Many people today have no idea who Timothy Leary was, but in the 1960's counterculture he was their icon. Leary was also an american writer, psychologist futurist and a advocate of psychedelic drugs research and use. 

Timothy Francis Leary was born on October 22 1920. At the age of 13 his parents abandoned him. He graduated from Springfield Classical High. He then attended three different colleges. He got his bachelors degree in psychology at the College of The Holy Cross. He then received a masters degree at Washington State University and got his Ph.D at the University of California. He then took a job at Harvard as a assistant professor. He was later fired for failing to conduct his scheduled classes and lectures. Another reason for his dismal was his role in the mushrooming popularity of the then legal substances among the Harvard students and teachers. 

In August 1960 Leary went to Guernavaca a Mexican City and tried mushroom for the first time. This experience changed his life forever. He said " 5 hours after taking the mushrooms I learned and ponder more about my brain and its possibilities and psychology then I did the last 15 years studying it."( Leary Wikpedia 1) After that he argued that psychedelics used with the right dosage and setting  could reform convicted criminals and treat alcoholism. He then conducted the Concord Prison experiment in which he gave 36 prisoners mushrooms and gave a speech on how to change their life. 80% of the prisoners turned their back on crime and never came back to the prison once they got out. 

Leary had runs in with the law before, but always found a way out of it. That is until he went to cross the boarder from Mexico into the U.S. The cops found marijuana which was his daughters but he took the blame for it. Under the Marihuana  Tax Act he was sentenced to 30 years of jail, given a $30,000 fine and order to take psychiatric treatment. Leary saw this unconstitutional and the Supreme Court agreed with him, it was unfair sentencing so he got off with 10 years in prison. 

Leary was released from prison on April 20, 1976. When he got out he started writing books and LSD, and still praised acid and mushroom and the effects it could have on ones life. He then married Barbara Blum. In 1986 Leary's oldest daughter committed suicide after years of metal instabitily. Early in 1995 Leary found out that he was terminally ill with prostate cancer. Leary's death was videotaped at his request. He had his body donated to science where they cut off his and put it on ice to run tests on it. Then seven grams of his ashes were arranged by a friend to be sent up in space on a small rocket containing the remains of 24 other famous or rich people who paid to have this done once they died.

Timothy Leary had a great influence on the music scene "Come Together" by The Beetles was written for Leary when he was sent to jain for 10 years. Infected Mushroom also uses "Turn on tune in and drop out" which was Leary catch phrase for that ear as lyrics in one of their songs.  Some other artists that use him in their songs are: Third eye, Marcy Playground and Tool. Leary also had many regular people that loved him and believe in what he stood for. All in all Timothy Leary had a great influence on the Counterculture and its relevance to drugs. 

I got my information from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary

http://deoxy.org/leary.htm

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=65

http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/timothy_leary.html

Survey

For my topic it was a little challenging with coming up with questions that would invoke a yes or no answer the five questions that i came up with were 1. Do you believe in what the Counterculture stood for? 2. Do you know what the counterculture was? 3. Is there still a form of the Counterculture? 4. Was the Counterculture only in the United States? 5. Would you have joined the revolt against if you lived during that time? I asked this questions to see if anyone really understood the Counterculture and understood why people acted the way that they did. I thought that i would encounter many students that didn't have a clue as to what the Counterculture was. 

For question 1. 8 out of 10 students said yes 6 of those students where girls 

For question 2. 4 out of 10 students said yes the others said kinda. 

For question 3. 9 out of 10 students said yes 6 of them were boys. 

For question 4. 10 out of 10 students said yes to this question. 

For question 5. 9 out of 10 students said yes only one girl said that she wouldn't join it.

It didn't really surprise me when most of the students said that they didn't really know what the counterculture was. I think many of the students said that they would join the revolt against war and believe in what the Counterculture stands for has a lot to do with the war that we are currently in. One girl that said that she wouldn't join in the counterculture because she thinks that it is amoral to do drugs, have sex freely and openly and to go against the government. 

After finding these results I want to start researching more about the revolts against the war and where and how they would set them up and what the government did to try to prevent this from happening.

Website

The website "The 1960's Counterculture( Movement and Photos)" is a good website to look and rely on for facts about the counterculture who was in it and why it happened. They also had a lot of facts that aren't really anywhere else on the web. The 1960's Counterculture also has links to cool books ie) making hemp bracelets wallets and everything else you could imagine to make with hemp. Their other links are to What Kind of Hippie are You? Their only downfall is in the title it says "Movement and Photos" and when you get on the website its hard to find their pictures.

http://www.artsandmusicpa.com/popculture/60'scountercult.htm

Current News on the Counterculture

The Counterculture became obsolete after the 1970's. Today we have a new group which is called the Subculture. The subculture is a group of people today with different cultures and ideas from their parents and other older people. Many sociologist think the subculture us are very sub absorbed and materialist. We aren't really into getting an education and all we want to do in life is make money the easy way and get rich. You can identify who belongs to each subculture by where they live the people they hang out, what music they listen to the kind of hair they are rocking and their fashion style. There are to main groups Punk subculture and Urban subculture. Punks are the ones that have the crazy style and don't want to answer to any type of authority. While urban subculture are the ones that fit in with the crowd and don't mind doing what they are told. Many think after this generation there will be a new subculture to fit their times and ideas. I found my information at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_culture