And to make this a Great Debate topic- what do you think about where you stood on spectrum then, what the good & the bad points of your position then was, what you miss & don’t miss about it, and how lasting on society it was?
No thread is complete without one of the first responses addressing not quite the question being asked, so I’m glad to turn the tables and adopt that role this time.
I was a late 70s-early 80s young adult, and I was conservative then, and am conservative now. The other day I was talking about our “radical” youths with a couple of friends and they couldn’t believe it when I said I never went through a rebellious stage. At the same time, I get more radical, not less, as I grow older, which makes it a bit difficult for me to fit in as a “company man”.
Re socialism (and my question for socialists is always “Do you advocate equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?”) I said it my first year at Oxford (when I helped vote Maggie into power) and I say it now: “When I’m rich enough, I’ll think about becoming a socialist.”
None of the above.
And honestly where I grew up we didn’t really see much of any of that. There was one small group of kids who were wearing “hippie garb” regularly; but even they were more just copying the cultural aspects and fashion aspects without actually having any deep beliefs or concerns that would have put them in line with the “mainstream movement.”
If you look at pop culture’s representation of that time period it’s basically everyone is was using drugs and were hippies except for the fascists who were dogmatically supporting the establishment.
I think a lot of people who grew up in small town USA like me probably look back at pop culture representations of the 1960s and 1970s and wonder where we were during all of it, because the popular representation bears little resemblance to my youth.
Early 70s young adult here. We saw plenty of activism in Chicago. I was and still am pretty far left on the spectrum.
Unfortunately, the conservative right seems to have the spotlight these days. I think the left made some lasting changes, but there is still a huge gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” that needs to change. Unfortunately, that attitude of greed is so deeply ingrained in some people that I don’t think we can ever totally bridge the gap.
I miss the music. Protest songs ain’t what they used to be. 
Well, I became an adult in Australia in the late 1960s, and was neither a hippy nor a Jesus freak. I don’t think I knew any Jesus freaks, though I did know a few that might have been described as hippies. Most of the period talked about I was a university student of some kind or other, involved on the leftward side of student politics at two universities. (Yes, it’s true that there are some eternal students, but I did finish up 1975 in the profession that I still follow now).
Born in 1962, I was just a kid during that whole era, becoming an official teen in 75. That & living in the SE corner of Indiana, I definitely never actually saw any hippies or Jesus freaks, which made them even more fascinating to me. They were part of an era & a locale that I missed out on.
So how I made up for it- listening to a lot of The Beatles, Moody Blues & the HAIR soundtrack, reading Timothy Leary stuff, and the library newsmagazines (Time,
Newsweek, Life) from 1960 onward; and also listening to the new Christian pop sound, JC Superstar & Godspell, reading Hal Lindsey books & the Living Bible, and collecting the Time & Life issues about the Jesus Revolution. I knew the drug/free love Hippiness stuff was not for me, so I was easily enamored at the idea of being part of the last great awakening before Jesus returned. Oddly, I never felt compelled to toss out my rock music or hippie material because it never had a tempting pull on me. It was just entertainment & wasn’t going to lure me from Jesus.
My only “rebellion” was actually against the casual moderateness of my schoolmates- and took me in a rightward direction of Rapturism & Birchism
from about 1975 to 1985 (I was 13-23), both of which faded after that into a more respectable Christian conservatism.
Born post war England. Young Teenager when Beatles broke it in UK. ‘Mod’ - sort of Brit pre-hippy hippy in early sixties. Methodist wing (as opposed to Marxist wing) of Brit Labor Party (when it was socialist, unlike its current conservative incarnation). Moved to California in time for the summer of love. At first left-wing with libertarian/anarchist leanings - kept my mouth shut a lot in US. Lived SoCal but went to SF monthly. Attended big demos. I became politically moderate left- found some SDS stuff too extreme and became alienated with SLA and Weatherman stuff- but still to the left of any conventional politics. Worked for Bobby Kennedy’s campaign in California. Disillusioned for years after that. Returned to UK when offered a two year vacation in Viet-Nam by Nixon. Became more libertarian/anarchist less socialist as opposed to Labor party corporatist-socialist 1970s-1980s incarnation. Voted for Margaret Thatcher in 79 just to remove the Labour Party- what a mistake. Now returned to about where I was on the political compass when I was a teenager. Long journey to the same place.
In US terms I am extreme left and libertarian. In UK terms I am moderate left and libertarian.
Then- I believed that society is judged by how it treats its weakest- still do.
Then- I believed that any one was capable of change and improvement- still do.
Then- I believed that a good society would find it in its heart to protect the weakest- still do.
Then- I was a pacifist- still am. I believed in non-violence- still do.
Then I believed in socialist planning- now I believe in gradual agreed moves to care for the weak.
Never a Christian, I believed that the Sermon on the Mount (Most of it anyway) is one of the finest political testaments ever- still do.
Though White, Male, Middle Class, Educated and Wealthy (relatively) believed that the support of the devalued Black, Female, Unskilled, Uneducated and Poor was the main aim of any acceptable politics- still do.
Then I was thin and had long hair and a beard. Now I am fat and have a crew cut and a beard. 
Summary- Just another Aging Hippy.
Currently a member of the Liberal Democrats in UK. Still politically active and still fighting the same battles.
Sometimes I wish that I was still in California in the 60s when it felt possible that the US might become a civilized society. I abhor what has happened to the morals and mores of current US society when thing might have been so different. The prospect looked so good and the outcome has been worse than we would have imagined. Moving back to Europe meant moving back to a society more in tune with 60s idealism.
I feel that my whole political life has been a recapitulation of the same struggles that I was involved with in that hippy era.
Sorry, man. I reject your spectrum and define my own.
In short, I’d be over there with the Punks. Nerdpunk, maybe, but that’s where I wound up when Punk died. It’s not like ‘now’ is any different from ‘then’, really. Society changed a lot between 1950 and 1970… but not so much since then.
I was a hippie, or as much as I could be in rural Maine. The only one in my class to have long hair and a beard. The principle asked me to get a haircut for graduation ceremonies and I refused. Expirimented with drugs a little. Some traits of these early days remain. I resist labels and corrupt government, as well a cooperate mindset that seeks profit without responsibility.
Born in 1960, I have two brothers who are five and six years older than me. We grew up in a town just over the hills from Berkeley, and my two brothers dropped out of high school to join a sort-of commune in 1968 and 1969. So, they were the hippies in the family, with the Beatles posters and Rolling Stone magazine and the marijuana and free love.
I, on the other hand, was a little too far behind the curve to participate, but I did envy them their “freedom” and rebellion. I also learned some from their mistakes and didn’t let my life fall apart when I had the chance (I’ve never smoked or done drugs, and only gotten disastrously drunk a few times).
I think the big message I got from the hippies was not one of rebellion, but rejection–they didn’t want to change the government, they just didn’t want to have anything to do with it. They considered themselves separate from their parents’ world and tried their level-best to secede from it.
Side note on my hippie brothers and the effects of dropping out of high school: One is a professor at a state university, and a world-class expert in ground water resources; he’s participated in the Aral Sea project and other projects in Cambodia and other third-world countries; the other owns a catering company and a string of restaurants.
Sorry. As interesting as these reminiscences are, they do not constitue a Great Debate.
Off to IMHO.
[ /Moderator Mode ]
I graduated from high school in '67. I wore a crew cut all through high school. There was probably drug use among my classmates, but I never saw any of it. The few wild kids I knew were into alcohol and tobacco cigarettes. I dropped out of university life after a year and a half. At the U, I let my hair grow, and I sported a moustache and long sideburns. I grew my hair almost to my shoulders for a few months, but it didn’t look good on me.
Even through college, my only drug use was alcohol. I wanted to smoke pot, but nobody I knew used it. I finally found some about 1970. For a few years, I smoked a lot of pot, and on weekends I’d take LSD, and occasionally speed. I tried downers and opium, but I never liked them.
Politically, I was anti-war, pro-women’s rights, pro-racial equality. I had met a communist or two, and that seemed like a ridiculous form of government to me. I thought LBJ was okay, except for the war. I didn’t trust Nixon at all. He started the EPA, and he opened up to China, but outside of that, he was purely evil. I manned a desk for the Vance Hartke campaign in '70, but since then, my political life has mostly consisted of writing checks and voting. I am still a liberal capitalist.
So, was I a hippie? Only partly. Was I a Jesus freak? Never.
Neither. I was in the military from 1967 onward and they frowned on hippies back then. I listened to all the music, however. I believed in god back then because I was afraid not to.
I was straight arrow, didn’t drink, or smoke (anything). I joined the Air Force in 1965. I was a virgin when I got married.
Ten years later was a totally different story. I was divorced and I had discovered mind expanding substances.
I came to realize that war is wrong, that it came down to a mass sacrifice of our young. To me, no different than the Mayans dropping children into the the sacrifical well weighed down with gold. I still feel that way.
I don’t really drink much. My mind fits better now, so no longer needs expanding. I never did smoke (anything, well, I tried, I just didn’t like it).
I’m not politically active, other than exercising my right to vote.
I still dwell on philosophical issues, but I’m not out changing the world, heck, I can hardly get motivated to change the sheets! 
Neither. I was a couple years too young to be a hippie. Besides which, “hippie culture” had not reached small-town Ontario in its heyday - in fact not much of the outside world reached that place. It was stuck in its own time warp. Here’s an example: my mother and her friend were buying albums for me and for the friend’s daughter, for our birthdays. It came down to The Monkees’ “Headquarters” and The Mamas & The Papas “If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears.” I got the Monkees one because they looked less like hippies on the cover. Hippies were something you saw on TV. My parents would never have let me become one, even if I’d wanted to. I’d never met a jesus freak.
The topics of religion and politics never, ever came up among anyone I knew or was related to, or in school. I have no stand on any political spectrum because politics is something far beyond my realm of experience. I have no idea what stripe my parents or any relatives were, if any. My main goal has been to get away from my family and out of poverty. Those are the things I rebelled against. It took 40 years to achieve. So I’ll be over here, working and paying my taxes.
Born in 1953. I was sort of a junior hippy in high school: long hair, jeans, peace symbols. I was pretty ‘experimental.’ Some might say reckless. It must’ve made me stronger because it didn’t kill me.
Like David Crosby (I think) said: We were all about peace, love, drugs and Stop the War, and 3 out of 4 ain’t bad. Something like that.
Went ino the Army in 1971. Found out that there were plenty of hippies in there, too–they just had short hair and all wore the same clothing. There were more peaceniks in the military than in civilian life. Kind of makes sense if you remember what was going on at the time. I’m pretty sure McGovern carried our unit at about the 85% level–at least among the enlisted personnel.
I can’t recall any Jesus freaks either in the civilian world or in the military.
Born in 1952. Was never really a hippie, but was strongly antiwar and am still quite liberal – getting even more so as I age. The point of government is to even the playing field, not to protect those who have all the privilege, and creating jobs is not the be-all and end-all of society.
I was basically a Hubert Humphrey liberal, a man who really epitomizes liberalism at its best.
Neither. I had long hair in college, but was politically conservative. I never did any drugs (though they were all over) from personal dislike. I wore jeans, button shirts, and moccasins with no socks (even in Boston winters.)
I was mostly a Tech Tool.
I was in my twenties from '65 to '75, and spent the first half of that period at Ohio State, which had a huge counterculture population.
I had friends who were hippies (we **never **used that word); I had friends who were conventional middle-of-the-roaders, I had friends who were bikers and friends who were speed freaks and a few who were dealers. And I had friends who represented the early Gay Liberation movement.
I also had friends who, like me, were Randroids (we **never **used that word). This was during the Nathaniel Branden period, and we spent a lot of time listening to lectures on tape. I **never **introduced them to my other friends.
The hippies went to great lengths to convince everyone that they were making substantial and permanent changes in society, that they were the wave of the future. But I always knew that they represented merely another form of conformity.
I think the one thing that was a constant in this period was paranoia. Except for the middle-of-the-roaders, everyone was paranoid of something. I knew several people who had to go into hiding because they’d been busted for drug possession or dealing. And gay bars were routinely busted, with horrible consequences. I think it’s telling that Nixon was our president during this period.
But I miss the hippy trappings of the late '60s. The simple act of getting dressed was so much fun. And the music - the anticipation of the next Beatles album, or seeing the bands live when they came to town. Even the anti-war protests were fun (I was more opposed to the draft than the war).
I don’t know what kind of lasting effect any of this had on today’s society. People today are just as conformist and anti-intellectual as they were then, depending on what kind of subculture they’re a part of. I think I would have been surprised, back then, at the idea of the religious right taking over the country (I actually believed that organized religion was a thing of the past), and I still hold on to the hope that somehow reason will prevail.