What did the '60s do to the world?

[TheAppleCore]

Arguably due to the discovery of LSD, the ensuing re-discovery of psychedelics and spiritual entheogens by the Western world, and hence the counterculture movement of the '60s, countless people saw the world in a new light and reconsidered the fundamental values and beliefs that defined their lives.

What effect did this have on modern history? On culture now, in the 21st century? What are the most important things, whether positive or negative, that the psychedelic revolution did for us? Or, do you think that the "psychedelic revolution" is just an illusion, and that consumption of psychedelics was just incidental to a cultural revolution already in full swing?

 

[Incunabula]

If you didn´t already, Read:
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

Psychedelics drugs (mainly LSD) was a major factor in the "revolution" in ´68. And the world most definitely wouldn´t be the same, if it had never happened.

Actually I don´t think most "normal" people today, has an inkling of how much it´s changed our world.....

 

[donvliet]

the 60s led to LSD being made illegal...

 

[Ismene]

Actually I don´t think most "normal" people today, has an inkling of how much it´s changed our world.....

Then again, the 60s generation repeatedly voted for the most far-right Reagan/Thatcher governments and generally fucked everything for the rest of us.

LSD had no effect on anything really - it gave a couple of people a few interesting trips. That's about it. And that's all we should expect really. The idea that you give Ronald Reagan acid and he becomes a beatnik is bollocks I'm afraid. Anyone who takes LSD stays exactly the same arsehole they always were.

 

[atara]

A really small proportion of people who were around in the '60s actually took LSD -- some of them went on to do great things and change the world, e.g. Steve Jobs and the Beatles -- but most people only heard about it from friends or worse the media. Support for marijuana legalization never reached higher than 20% in the 1960s, which should give you some idea of what most of the country was up to at the time.

The proportion of people who were hippies in the '60s is comparable to the proportion who are hackers today -- plenty of people know about it, some even claim the label, but the vast majority only ever saw the shadow.

 

[huolesoh]

i think it was quite liberating; i think people became more peaceful and things changed like new senses of equality and new freedoms

 

[Mailmonkey]

It gave drug-bores the opportunity to tell young people in the 80's and 90's that drugs and the scene were not as good as they were in the 60's.

Just as those of us who were into the drugs and the "scene" in the 80's and 90's do now to young people.

 

[Splitz]

And I'll tell my children: 'They just don't make nutmeg like they used to'. 8)

 

[AfterGlow]

The Beatles were writing amazing music before they experienced LSD. And in Steve Jobs own words, "LSD reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could." So, they didn't have any LSD induced earth shattering revelations. LSD just helped them with the talents they already possessed.

A really small proportion of people who were around in the '60s actually took LSD -- some of them went on to do great things and change the world, e.g. Steve Jobs and the Beatles -- but most people only heard about it from friends or worse the media.

 

[Mailmonkey]

Steve Jobs was a businessman, end of.

He used the fact that he took LSD to add to the idea of himself as an altruistic creator.

 

[Enter Galactic]

Anyone who takes LSD stays exactly the same arsehole they always were.

I think that's completely wrong. I had Purely Obsessional OCD all of my life until I tried psychedelics. They completely changed my life for the better. They also helped remove the propaganda that the conservative christian culture of my parents instilled in my brain. You have a very pessimistic view of things my friend. Psychedelics don't change everyone, but there are many people that can benefit from them.

 

[Ismene]

I think you're forgetting the part you played in any change you underwent galactic. I agree that if you're the kind of person willing and able to change already then psychedelics can help.

 

[Ismene]

He used the fact that he took LSD to add to the idea of himself as an altruistic creator.

You have to admit saying "I took acid dude, I'm, like, really groovy" sounds better than "I paid terrified 15 year olds starvation wages and worked them till they jumped from the nearest building in despair. Then I gave myself 6 billion in profits I made from the slanty eyed sonsovbitches".

 

[ozchems]

lol you should see Tregaron!! weirdos haha

 

[effingcustie]

Pretty much nothing, unfortunately

 

[effingcustie]

You have to admit saying "I took acid dude, I'm, like, really groovy" sounds better than "I paid terrified 15 year olds starvation wages and worked them till they jumped from the nearest building in despair. Then I gave myself 6 billion in profits I made from the slanty eyed sonsovbitches".

hahaha bluelight needs a 'like' button

 

[Termino]

Of course there were more things going on than in the 60's besides psychedelic drugs... how about the feminist movement, civil rights, assassinations of MLK & JFK, Vietnam/cold war, fear of nuclear annihilation, space race/landing on the moon, television going from black & white to color, first Superbowl, Woodstock, Manson Family crazyness, and overall cultural upheaval. The 'psychedelic revolution' was far more than just LSD, it encompassed an expanded way of viewing and interacting with, well, everything! It was as if everything (or human consciousness) had reached the end of one line or timeflow and had to shift to the next one. This shift took many years but was actually extremely rapid as far as such things go, which is why there was such confusion and confrontation.

 

[Sepher]

Then again, the 60s generation repeatedly voted for the most far-right Reagan/Thatcher governments and generally fucked everything for the rest of us.

LSD had no effect on anything really - it gave a couple of people a few interesting trips. That's about it. And that's all we should expect really. The idea that you give Ronald Reagan acid and he becomes a beatnik is bollocks I'm afraid. Anyone who takes LSD stays exactly the same arsehole they always were.

Kinda this. No matter how you look at the counture-culture, that's all it was, a personal counter to popular mainstream culture as expressed in the 'democratic' capitalist economies of the West, but mostly America with the U.K. riding the back of it. It almost certainly was responsible for individuals discovering they could unshackle themselves from prevailing cultural norms and bring meaning to their own lives independently of it, but not in a way that was ever really carried through into position of power. Indeed, it is perhaps the knowledge gained that that kind of power is bullshit you wouldn't want to aspire to anyways that's at the heart of that. It never was big enough to influence things on a properly global level in a way that made real differences to ordinary people's everyday lives I don't think, and where it did threaten to do like in Paris '68 the wind was soon knocked off of their sails.

It gave drug-bores the opportunity to tell young people in the 80's and 90's that drugs and the scene were not as good as they were in the 60's.

Just as those of us who were into the drugs and the "scene" in the 80's and 90's do now to young people.

Hahahaha, yes. But that is a statment of objectively verifiable fact though, isn't it. They were better in the 80s!

 

[TheAppleCore]

I suppose the reason I asked the question was that I was really just wondering what I'd see if I looked into a crystal ball, and was shown what the world would be like if Albert Hoffman had never stumbled upon that fateful psychoactive.

Not that anyone could ever answer that question for me.

 

[acidclouds]

I wrote an essay 'What was the impact of LSD on the counterculture in 1960s America?' a few years ago for uni.

Here are a few snippets of what my history books said:

Music

In addition to the lyrics, LSD also greatly influenced the sound and format of sixties rock. Artists used electronics to create strange, drawn-out, warping sounds that reflected the effects of LSD. The echoed, rising crescendo of Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’, for example, was designed to mirror psychedelic sensory distortions. The depth of the psychedelic experience inspired artists to create increasingly layered and complex music. While The Beatles’ first album took less than 10 hours to record, Sgt. Pepper’s took over 700. Standard 3-minute songs were ill suited to the long, flowing LSD experience. Instead, bands such as the Grateful Dead played 30-minute songs that flowed smoothly into one another. ‘Acid rock’ groups were also quick to embrace the electric guitar. ‘Plugging in’ to electrics mirrored the ‘monumental stimulus’ and ‘high voltage charge’ provided by psychedelics.

Questioning Values

DeGroot, for example, writes that ‘for most people who sought rebellion through drugs, the crusade went no further than their own heads. Taking LSD was a selfish act which allowed escape from reality.’ However, some historians such as Nick Bromell have recognised that the ‘insight into the world’s instability provided by pot, acid and rock had political consequences.’ ‘After getting high or tripping, 60s users realised that their belief in a core self was naïve, that their faith in stability was foolish, and so they were fully prepared to see through everything.’ In other words, the reality altering effects of LSD helped to foster the questioning of established ‘truth’, ‘reality’ and social norms that was a defining feature of the counterculture.