What we equate with acid, hippies, and garish polyester prints actually began as a theatrical way of protesting bans on free speech and the Vietnam War. When the hippies got hold of it, it definitely transformed.
This episode traces the fascinating history of "flower power," from its political origins in 1960s anti-war protests to its transformation into a mainstream cultural phenomenon. Josh and Chuck explore how poet Allen Ginsberg inspired Berkeley students to use flowers and whimsy as nonviolent protest tactics against everything from free speech restrictions to the Vietnam War, culminating in the iconic image of an 18-year-old placing a daisy in a soldier's gun barrel. They then examine how the movement got commercialized and diluted in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, eventually becoming just another fashion trend that upset the original activists so much they literally held a funeral for the hippie movement in 1967.
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