The Spirit of ‘67
“The activity of the youth of the nation which has given birth to Haight Ashbury is a small part of a worldwide spiritual awakening… many thousands of young people… will soon arrive in this city. They seek meaning,” the San Francisco Oracle predicted in May of 1967. The prediction soon came true, validating the newspaper’s name. That summer—the Summer of Love—an estimated 100,000 young people flooded Haight Ashbury, seeking peace, love, freedom, and liberation from the traditional values that had come to dominate American culture.
A Human Be-In, or Gathering of Tribes, took place on January 14, 1967, in Golden Gate Park. The purpose of the gathering was simply to join together as a community, to listen to music, and to be. The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane played, and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg spoke and led Hindu chants. It was a peaceful gathering, one that foreshadowed the coming Summer. It also served to fuse the radical political anti-Vietnam War and Free Speech Movement protesters of Berkeley with the more peaceful Haight Ashbury hippies.
The counterculture was born out of the stifling conformity of US 1950s culture. As World War II ended, the United States entered a period of affluence, consumerism, and uniformity. The ‘50s marked the birth of the Levittown suburb, the Leave it to Beaver family, and the overall dominance of a middle-class lifestyle. However, at the same time that society seemed to be becoming increasingly organized and stable, tensions were boiling from underneath: Michael Harrington documented in his book The Other America that over 30 million Americans lived in poverty. The strict gender roles defined by the nuclear family were stifling for many women, and minorities continued to be disenfranchised by the dominant white culture. All of these tensions culminated into a series of political movements and overall cultural revolution that would shape the American mindset for years to come. Many of the World War II generation worked under the assumption that affluence—money—could buy them anything they needed; the Baby Boomers questioned this notion and began the search for something more.
The Summer of Love officially began with a celebration of the summer solstice on June 21. All summer long, young people migrated from around the country to join the scene. People were expanding their consciousness through LSD, exploring Eastern philosophy, listening to psychedelic rock, and collectively flouting the middle-class values of their parents’ generation. They lived collectively in the giant Victorian houses on Haight Street, or slept in Golden Gate Park. They spoke of the values that would change America: peace, love, and freedom. However, the influx of teenagers into San Francisco strained the infrastructure of the city, and sparked conflict with locals.
The San Francisco Oracle described the changing Haight Ashbury scene: “Bohemia is no longer refuge for a few, the third party VP’s daughter wants in too. Hepatitis, hunger, crabs and clap, freak out, then go onto the next scene. Frantic searching, then slow growth, learn to let go, live only on what you need. How long does it take to dig where you’re at and catch on to the next scene?”
Out of the turmoil arose an anarchist theater group called the Diggers. The Diggers organized theatrical protests, such as the “Death of Money” parade, where hippies marched down Haight Street singing, “Get out of my life, why don’t you, babe?” to Chopin’s “Death March,” and carrying a coffin full of stage money. Later, they organized a mock “Death of the hippie/Birth of the free” funeral, marking the end of the Summer of Love.
The Diggers were most revolutionary in their practice of distributing free food in Golden Gate Park. They baked Digger bread in coffee cans and made stew out of stolen vegetables and meat, then distributed it to the hungry. They opened Free Stores, where people could go and obtain necessities free of charge. These stores were advertised through “1% Free” posters, implying that “free people” were still in the minority, and encouraging people to join the movement. The Diggers started a free clinic (predecessor to the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, which currently runs Buster’s Place) to address the growing health issues of the hippie population. They distributed pamphlets through their “Communications Company” to organize their protests, performances, and supply distributions.
This summer marks forty years since the Summer of Love. In a society where “Free People” is an overpriced clothing brand, it sometimes seems as though the revolutionary ideas of yesteryear have died along with the Haight Street hippie culture; however, the Digger legacy lives on:
Aside from the backlash immediately afterward, the main function of the Summer of Love was to shift the Overton Window to the left, politically and culturally. Allen Ginsberg was considered a kook for leading Hindu chants. Today, yoga is a mainstream activity, and meditation is a common stress reliever for hippies and corporate leaders alike. The Diggers were considered radical anarchists for their time because they fed hungry people in the streets and provided free medical care—functions previously filled largely by religious organizations. These two practices are now seen as acceptable community-service and governmental practices.
Forty years after the Summer of Love, the legacy of hippie thought can be found in all aspects of modern American culture.
Devin
