Rebellion
When I chose the topic of rebellion, I knew I had to narrow it down. A certain war, a certain battle. Then my a-ha moment came across and I thought of the Hippie counter-culture of the 1960s. I wanted my generation to understand how the Hippie movement developed and changed through the course of the decade. Hippies rebelled against many things during their rule. Following the conformity of America during the 1950s, the younger generation now known as the Baby Boomers, were successful in rebelling against what the older generations had handed them.
The hippies originally were college-aged students who had began to protest the decision to go into Vietnam. As televised riots began to sweep the nation, the rebellious hippies had changed shape. In the early 60s, the hippies were protesters. By the late 60s, they were shown as dirty and filthy stoners. Both depictions of the hippies fall into the topic of rebellion. Protesters, rebelled against the decision to go to war. Their rebellion can be considered successful because America never received the public support necessary to continue the Vietnam War. The hippies that our generation automatically thinks of (dirty and filthy stoners) rebelled against "The Man", they broke rules. They did drugs. They had free love. They rebelled against what most of the parents expected out of them.
To capture this, I put the images in chronological order. I started with protests and clashes with police (mainly black and white pictures), then moved on to show drug use, free love, and Woodstock. I purposely chose to put the spotlight on certain pictures of each section (protest, drug use, Woodstock) for extra emphasis and to show the transition. For instance the silent majority comic is making fun of the term President Nixon coined. The silent majority was the majority of Americans who were not rebelling, like the hippies but the image pictures the silent majority as fueling the war itself. Images of Woodstock show the hippies doing things that older generations would frown upon, how they are taking rebellion to new levels. The images I chose of Woodstock show rebellion evolving into pure chaos, and captured the views of the American public. A bunch of hooligans who successfully got their case of rebellion across to their target audience. All of these images are placed on a fire-red background to show the aggression of rebellion.
The song I chose to play during my argument is Revolution by The Beatles. The Beatles were very influential during this time period, and became political activists towards the end of 60s. Revolution has lines that mention the Vietnam War specifically and is an Anti-War song. From the clashing guitar chords that kick off the song, to the lyrical content, I felt Revolution was the perfect song for the argument of Hippies being rebellious. Rebellion often leads to Revolution. The song shows how this generation was rebellious by providing their own "revolution" against their older generations' actions.
