The Counter Culture Movement

Emmett Grogan's piece From Ringolevio has confused me a bit. This text presents the Human Be-In as something that benefited the Haight-Ashbury community in a monetary form. The HIP group had also called in the media. This conflicts with the previous notion I had about the Haight community as being money hating and being against the objectification of them by the media. The video we viewed on Monday gave me those ideas and this text seems to shatter that. I don't know which is correct, the personal interviews which stated they didn't have much money by choice, or Grogan's view that the Be-In was for gain.

I really enjoyed Country Joe McDonald song "I feel Like I'm fixin'-to-die Rag." I like how he appeals to the mainstream culture and their desire to be up on the times and supporting the war. He satirizes the "all American war effort" mentality of being the first to enlist and the honor of going to war for the US. McDonald brings the satire in when he embraces that tone but to the effect of , be the first to send your son off to war and you'll be the first to get him back in a body bag. This song is the last thing Joe Suburb would like to hear because this counterculture artist is telling him that what he is doing is going to end up as his worst fear. That mentality might add to the counterculture's existence because artists like McDonald were more than willing to expose the side of the war that nobody in the mainstream wanted to acknowledge or think about as they sent their boys off to war.