Beats. Hippies, The Hip Generation and the American Middle Class. Analysis of Values

8/9/2019 Beats. Hippies, The Hip Generation and the American Middle Class. Analysis of Values

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James L. Spates

and

Jack Levin

Beats, hippies,

the hip generation, and

the American middle class:

an analysis of values’

In March 1967 a discovery of some sociological importance was made by

the American public: in a run-down section of San Francisco, the Haight-

Ashbury district, it was reported that there were upwards of 15,000 young

people, mostly of middle-class parentage, who had purportedly ‘dropped

out’ of American society, and who were actively engaged in fostering an

‘alternative mode of existence’. Media reportage of the phenomenon soon made

it clear that these young people dressed flamboyantly, wore flowers in their

hair, did not work, took significant doses of relatively unknown ‘psychedelic’

drugs, engaged in a large degree of sexual freedom, based their lives on a

‘love ethic’, and supposedly rejected all that contemporary America stood

for, both materially and ideologically. These young people were, of course,

the ‘hippies’.2

There can be little doubt by this time that the hippie movement of the

late 1960s is a phenomenon of some consequence for American society.

Since its initial discovery in 1967, it has been commented on at some length

by both the mass media and social scientists, and its personal effect on a

great many of today’s ‘mod’ youth is patently obvious in terms of both beha-

vioural and belief patterns.

Although media coverage of the hippies gave the appearance that they

had arisen de nova within the United States, the literature on the subject

clearly suggests hat they were only the second phase of a well-established,

continuing American social movement.

3 Thus, it is indicated that in the

‘beat generation’ of the late 1950s the hippies had their distinct historical

antecedents. This cultural connexion is indicated by a number of factors.

On the one hand, it is evident that both beats and hippies shared many of

the same leaders--e.g. Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Neal Cassady and Ken

We gratefully acknowledge the numerous helpful suggestions of Maren Lockwood Carden

during an earlier phase of this research. The paper is based partially on the first author’s

Ph.D. dissertation (Boston University, Department of Sociology, 1971).

Hinckle (1967).This was:the first major article to introduce the hippies to a nation-wide audience

The interest it caused precipitated scores of others.

We use this term to mean ‘a collective enterprise to establish a new order of life’ (Blamer, 1951).

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Beats, hippies, the hip generation and the American middle class

Kesey-as well as dominant forms of their ‘rebellion’-e.g. the use of non-

prescription drugs, sexual freedom, ‘hip’ music and art. On the other hand,

it was often mentioned by key hippies themselves that they saw the beats

as their cultural predecessorsand their life-style as an extension of that left

by the beat legacy (cf. L. Wolf, 1968, p. xv-xlviii; B. Wolfe, 1968, p. 15-34.)

‘The hippie trip’, as Lewis Yablonsky (1968) has called it, however,

appears to have been very short-lived in its fully fledged exposition-from

approximately 1 January 1966 (the opening of the ‘World’s First Psychedelic

Shop’ in Haight-Ashbury) to the middle of 1968. The major reasons for

this brief life-span appear to be two. First, the overbearing media coverage

of the group after their &discovery’ ed to a tremendous influx of people (mostly

young, with a good smattering of social derelicts and those bent on exploiting

the scene) into the relatively structureless hippie communities around the

country in mid-1967. This deluge, through far short of the predictions by

the media, taxed the meagre resources of these fledgling communities to

breaking point. Second, this physical strain was increased by the extremely

individualistic nature of the hippie philosophy. Such individualism, best

illustrated by the ‘do-your-own-thing’ ethic, tended to regard any structured

community activities or future-oriented projects as a direct infringement

of personal rights. Hence, across the country, the literature is full of reports

about the sudden dissolution of hippie clans becausea key leader unexpectedly

‘split’ (left), garbage was not taken out, rent was not collected, and so on

(Neville, 1970, p . 267-S B. Wolfe, 1968, p. 56-72).

Becauseof these factors,l by the end of 1967 the original hippie commu-

nities as such were beginning to crumble. This process continued throughout

the next year and, by mid-1968, various authors were implying that a major

change had ccme over the hippie phenomenon. The original hippies became

highly scattered: some ‘dropped’ back ‘in’, others lived in isolated parts of

the major cities, and most became part of a large-scale exodus to rural com-

munal settlements (cf. Hedgepeth and Stock, 1970; Houriet, 1971). The ‘hip’

populations which remained in the cities thus came to have a decidedly

different composition than the original hippies. Most important, they were

a much more generalized and diversified group, numbering in their ranks

such sub-groups as the ‘drug freaks’, the ‘weekend’ and ‘plastic’ hip people

(both of which were viewed as ‘inauthentic’), the newly arisen group of ‘hip

capitalists’, and perhaps most predominantly, a growing and vociferous

body of political radicals (Neville, 1970, p. 18 ff.). It is this amalgamation of

individuals which has continued to predominate the contemporary hip scene

to the present time.

It could be argued then that these three major groups-the beats, the

hippies, and what could be called the present-day ‘hip generation’-have

1. As well as a number of less significant others, such as the difficulty of psychological adjust-

ment to the new culture, the ‘harassment’ by the outside community, and the introduction

of ‘hard’ drugs, such as ‘speed’ (amphetamines) and heroin.

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James L. Spates and Jack Levin

formed the changing nuclei of the contemporary ‘underground’,l a social

phenomenon whose influence has grown progressively in American society

since its most rudimentary beginnings in the later 1940s.

Any cursory examination of the literature on the underground would

make it quite clear that the stated grounds on which the movement-in all

its phases-has based its existence are, in sociological terms, contra-cultural.

That is, its members have consciously and deliberately re jected the value sys-

tern2 of the larger society within which they exist and have attempted to

substitute in the place of this dominant set of priorities ‘a series of inverse

or counter values in face of serious frustration or conflict’ (Yinger, 1970,

p. 123-4). While this state of affairs is, in itself, of great importance for

American society, it has also become increasingly obvious that the contem-

porary American underground serves as the basic model for a whole series

of related ‘alternative’ cultural units which are springing up, with significant

rapidity, all over the industrialized world, in both market economy and socia-

list countries (Neville, 1970). This situation suggests that serious scientific

attention be paid to the claim, always put forward by the underground and

recently taken up by a growing body of social analysts, among them Charles

Reich (1970) and Theodore Roszak (1969) that the movement is a harbinger

of a major new stage in socio-cultural evolution.

To date, however, because most scientific analyses of the phenomenon

have been of the theoretical or abstract variety, no major comparative body

of empirical data has appeared which could be used either in support of

or in contradiction to these claims. For this reason, it appeared to us that

the bases on which many of these analyses rested had the character of un-

verified assumptions. It was to fill this significant gap in our scientific knowledge

that the present study was undertaken.

We selected a well-defined intellectual model which had previously

been effectively to describe the dominant culture-underground polarity :

the instrumental-expressive paradigm of structural-functional analysis. 3

Using this presentation, the dominant culture, i.e. the American middle class,

had been conceived of as being basically instrumental in its value preferences,

while the underground, in opposition, had been seen as being basically

expressive.

The term ‘underground’ is the most appropriate to categorize this movement for three

important reasons. First, it is the generic term by which the members of the movement

refer to themselves and the social structures which embody their subculture. Second, it is

the term which the rest of society uses most frequently to refer to the members of this group.

And, third, the usage of this term to refer to the youthful members of this group has clearly

taken precedence in the popular idiom over its former usage, which was to refer to organized

crime. Today it is much more common to hear these criminal elements referred to by their

specific names, such as ‘The Mafia’, ‘The Syndicate’, or ‘The Organization’.

It should be noted that we are conceptualizing values according to Clyde Kluckhohn’s

(1951, p. 395-6) famous statement that they are ‘conceptions of the desirable’ which form

the major guidelines for behaviour within a socio-cultural system.

Marks (1969); Pitts (1970); Distler (1970). It should be mentioned, however, that the present

usage which incorporates all phases of the contemporary underground in this model is an

extension of the above authors’ usages, which had been to the hippie phase of the movement

only.

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The American middle class: the instrumental orientation

Because of its claim to be a contra-culture, the value system of the contem-

porary underground cannot be accurately understood in isolation from the

value system of the dominant American middle-class culture from which

it ar0se.l Among sociologists, there is general agreement that the dominant

value structure of American society is basically ‘instrumental’ in nature.

In his first formal definition of this orientation, Talcott Parsons submits

that instrumental action is behaviour oriented towards achieving ‘a goal

which is an anticipated future state of affairs’ (Pasrons, 1951, p. 48). In a later

work, Parsons and White (1964) characterize the dominant value pattern

of American society as being one of ‘instrumental activism’, wherein all

Americans, regardless of race, ethnic heritage, or religious affiliation, are

predominantly committed to the building of the ‘good society’ through

continual goal-oriented, ascetic effort. This commitment, a product of the

long-term secularization of the Protestant Ethic, has as its primary focus

a ceaselessand generalized obligation to ‘worth-while’ achievement.

In order to achieve most effectively, a person must constantly guide his

efforts in a rational manner. Thus, the more ‘logical’ he can be in his actions,

the more completely aware of the permutations and combinations of any

given situation, the more chance there will be of ‘success’ n his endeavours.

Because of this emphasis it is understandable that the individual in American

society is constantly exhorted to ‘control his emotions’ and ‘be realistic’,

lest his ‘irrationality’ deprive him of the symbols of instrumental success:

increasing wealth, status and power. This second dominant emphasis of the

instrumental pattern has been accurately characterized by Robin Williams

(1961, p. 455-6) as the cult of ‘secular rationality’.

Finally, both the above components of the instrumental pattern are

clearly mediated through a third emphasis-that on economic endeavour.

In American society, each person’s achievements are measured by the position

and remuneration of his occupational role in the economic system (Parsons,

1955). Thus, Williams (1961, p. 418) has noted that a ‘comparatively striking

feature of American culture is its tendency to identify standards of personal

excellence with competitive occupational achievement’. Though it is clear

that American society also recognizes other ‘success areas as noteworthy,

e.g. the professions, there is little question that virtually every American

perceives his social position in economic-occupational terms and that ‘the

values of the businessman dominate and permeate national life’.

These three components then-the achievement, cognitive-rational, and

economic dimensions-can be regarded as comprising the major foci of the

instrumental pattern as it has developed in American society.

1. Both Polsky (1969, p. 149) and Yablonsky (1968, p. 26) have estimated that at least 65-70

per cent of the beat and hippie populations come from the middle- and upper-class seg-

ments of American society, each of which fully subscribe to the dominant value pattern

(see Parsons and White, 1964). Though no estimates have appeared concerning the current

hip-generation phase of the underground, there is no evidence to suspect that these percen-

tages have markedly changed.

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The hip American underground: the expressive orientation

Since 1945, however, there has been an increasing number of Americans,

mostly between the ages of 15 and 30,l duly socialized into the instrumental

pattern, who have reacted quite negatively to it, calling it ‘corrupt’, ‘dehuman-

izing’, ‘inauthentic’,

and ‘alienating’. By and large, these young people

have been members of the different phases of the contemporary American

underground.

In their antithetical reaction to the dominant culture, the members of

the underground say they are exposing the overriding problems which a

virtually total and increasingly instrumental view of the world produces.

To sum up their position: the middle-class value system, by its overbearing

emphasis on all forms of achievement (which produces persons enslaved to

a ‘rat race’), rational behaviour (which qualifies anything not specifically

directed toward the attainment of sanctioned goals of being ‘irrational’),

and economic endeavour (which produces a system of continually expanding

‘exploitation’) has now developed to the point where it continually denies

or repressesother, more vital, human values and needs: the most important

of these being the need of each person to develop his own humanness through

his own personalized life-style; the need to be personally and meaningfully

concerned for the welfare of others; the need to be affective, loving and trustful

with other people; and the need for self-realization and spiritual development

through religious and/or philosophical inquiry (Hedgepeth and Stock, 1970,

p. 15-30, 179-91; Lipton, 1959, Pt IV; Yablonsky, 1968, Chap. I, XVI).

In a word, and in terms of the conceptual model being proposed, the members

of the contemporary underground claim that the extreme form of the American

instrumental pattern neglects the need of all human beings to be ‘expressive’.

In contradistinction to the future-oriented instrumental orientation,

expressive action is present-oriented and ‘cathectic’, an attempt to satisfy

a need-disposition for its own sake ‘rather than subordinating gratification

to a goal outside the immediate situation or to a restrictive norm’. (Parsons,

1951, p. 49, 384). To put it slightly differently, the expressiveorientation values

activity as an end in itself rather than as a means to an end, as is the case n

the instrumental pattern.

As with the dominant American culture, the selection of this ideological

orientation as a basis for behaviour has led to a set of clearly identifiable

value components within the underground. The first element, that of pure

self-expression, has been a dominant and continuing value emphasis of

America’s ‘alternative’ cultures from the very first Bohemian groups of the

1800s. It arose as a primary subcultural concern in reaction to what the early

American Bohemians saw as the ‘oppressive’ and ‘dehumanizmg’ life-style

1. Yablonsky’s (1968, p. 343) data indicate that fully 95 per cent of the hippie population

falls between these two points. Our own knowledge of the phenomenon suggests that this

is an accurate estimation for the current hip generation as well. The beats, from all indica-

tions, probably had the same percentage of members between 20 and 30 years of age.

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fostered by industrialized society. The essential core of the self-expressivevalue

was that the individual should be allowed-indeed, he had an inalienable

right-to live his life in any way he saw fit, without regard for societal custom

and role demands (Parry, 1960, esp. Chap. II-IV).

With the formation of the contemporary underground in the beat years,

this emphasis on self-expression became even more pronounced, finding its

principal outlet in the specific cultural forms developed by the movement

for ‘pure expression’ : drug use, ‘free’ sexual relations, and ‘hip’ music and

art (cf. Lipton, 1959, Chap. IX-XIII; Mailer, 1959, Pt IV; Nuttall, 1968,

Chap. I-III). However, by far the greatest elaboration of this self-expressive

emphasis occurred during the early hippie period under the tutelage of author

Ken Kesey and his band of ‘Merry Pranksters’. During the period 1964-67,

Kesey and his followers spent virtually all their time developing expressive

forms in as many different permutations as they could imagine, and from

this experiment the whole ‘psychedelic’ life-style of drugs, rock music, light

shows, and the ‘do-your-own-thing’ ethic evolved (T. Wolfe, 1968), a behaviour

pattern which, with slight modification, still characterizes the current ‘hip

generation’ (cf. Hoffman, 1969; Neville, 1970).

The second value component, that of concern for others, has also found

secure locus in the underground value system. Beginning with a Bohemian

sub-group movement of socialists in the early 1900s (Hahn, 1967, Chap. VII;

Parry, 1960, p. 285-7), this value has evolved to a position of prominence

within the movement in each subsequent period. Although the beats were

most interested in developing various forms of self-expression, observers

have agreed that they also placed a good deal of emphasis on concern for

one’s neighbour, particularly if he happened to be a beat (B. Wolfe, 1968,

p. 102), and that many had a sincere desire ‘to make a better world’ to live

in (Mailer, 1959, p. 336)-a world which could ‘afford to be just for all men

and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor’.l Like the self-expressive

component, ‘concern for others’ found its greatest elaboration during the

hippie period in the well-publicized ‘love ethic’ (Pitts, 1970; Yablonsky,

1968, Chap. I), an emphasis which found it’s most complete articulation in

the altruistic ‘diggers’, a group which spent its time finding food, clothing

and shelter for the hippie community (B. Wolfe, 1968, p. 62-76). While the

specific ‘love’ locus has apparently atrophied somewhat in the current hip-

generation phase, it is clear that a more generalized concern for the welfare of

oppressed or minority groups has taken its place, as shown by the strong

and growing connexion of the underground with various other contemporary

‘concern’ movements such as civil rights, the anti-war effort and women’s

liberation.2

The third value component of the underground’s expressive system, the

need for affiliation, or close, affective ties with other human beings, has,

1. Henry Davic Thoreau, one of the beat’s chief intellectual mentors, as quoted in McDarrah

and Wilentz (1960, p. 11); cf. Cantor (1969, p. 270).

2.

A cursory examination of the underground press since mid-1968 would clearly indicate this

transference; cf. Hedgepeth and Stock (1970); Libarle and Seligson (1970).

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James . Spates nd Jack Levin

like the other components, been a central part of the American Bohemian

tradition since ts beginning in the mid-1800s. n part, this emphasis s a product

of an iconoclastic out-group protecting itself from a sometimes hostile domi-

nant culture, but it is also clear that the early Bohemians saw this emphasis

as a principal reaction to the ‘alienating’ conditions produced by the instru-

mental industrial society (Parry, 1960). The beats made the emphasis on this

value into a major underground concern with their avowed desire to establish

what Kenneth Rexroth has called the ‘organic community’ as the ‘basic unit

of society’ (Lipton, 1959, p. 295). The hippies then carried this desire to its

‘logical’ extreme, emphasizing that there should be no barriers at all between

people, and that individuals should be totally ‘out-front’ with one another

at all times whether in social, psychological or sexual encounters (cf. L. Wolf,

1968; Yablonsky, 1968). Finally, this emphasis has continued undiminished

into the current hip-generation period, as indicated by the great growth of the

communal movement on the one hand, and the more generalized desire to be

‘together’ at all levels of the movement (cf. Hedgepeth and Stock, 1970;

Houriet, 1971).

The last major value component of the expressive pattern, the religious-

philosophical, at least in the particular form it has come to assume in the

contemporary underground, has developed almost exclusively in recent years.

More specifically, while it can be said that American Bohemians prior to the

beat period had been highly critical of the dominant culture’s value system

and the life-style it produced, it is clear that they viewed themselves mostly

as iconoclasts living within the boundaries of a ‘corrupt’ social structure.

Thus, Lawrence Lipton has remarked on the essential contradiction of earlier

Bohemian rhetoric and their strong desire to partake of the best of American

‘high culture’-refined society, art, music, etc. The beat, however, could not

accept this contradiction. His virtually total repugnance for ‘The American

Way of Life’ forced him to disavow identification with the value structure

completely (Lipton, 19.59, Pt IV). The very extremity of the beat’s ‘disaffi-

liation’ pressed him to develop a value orientation which could legitimize

his expressive preferences, but from a philosophical position grounded outside

of American society.

Thus it was that the beats found great identification with philosophical

systems of the Orient, particularly Zen Buddhism (Lipton, 1958). Because

the valuational preferences of these systems were open enough to include the

underground’s extreme form of expressivism without significant conflict,

it allowed the beats to legitimize their expressive orientation within an ideo-

logical context which was quite distinct from that provided by the dominant

culture. Significantly, the predominant Zen focus of the beat years was enlarged

during the hippie period to include a generalized underground interest in

Oriental religious-philosophical systems of all types4.g. various forms of

meditation, Tarot cards, astrology, I Ching, etc. (Greeley, 1969). Finally,

it is evident that this wide-spread interest for mysticism and the occult is still

a dominant factor in the current hip-generation period (Greeley, 1970).

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Hypotheses

HYPOTHESIS I

In so far as these four components-self expression, concern for others,

affiliation, and religious-philosophical interests-have in fact developed in

reaction to the dominant instrumental pattern of American society and have

come to form the central core of the expressive value structure as t has emerged

in the contemporary underground, we hypothesized that: in all phases of

development-beat, hippie and hip generation-the value orientation of the

contemporary American underground will be significantly more expressive

(and less instrumental) than its middle-class counterpart.

HYPOTHESIS 11

Moreover, while it is clear that the phases of the underground are distinctly

related in their selection of an expressive value structure, there is a good deal

of evidence that these phases were not identical in the extremity of their iden-

tification with these values. This seems o be particularly evident in the gap

between the later phasesof the underground, the hippie- hip-generation periods,

and the earlier phase, the beats.

With respect to all the separate components of expressivism, the hippie-

and hip-generation groups appeared to make significant elaborations and

generalizations to add to those of the beat period. In addition, a number

of authors have commented on what seems, n the terms of the present con-

ceptual model’ to point to a residual emphasis on instrumentalism within

the beat culture. Thus, it is often mentioned that many beats wanted to become

known as intellectuals, if iconoclastic ones. Further, it is clear that there was

a desire among many of the literary beat contingent to become well known

as avant-garde authors (cf. Bangs, 1969; Lipton, 1959; Podhoretz, 1962).

Lastly, the beat culture was pervaded by the philosophy of ‘being cool’ which,

when it gained general acceptance, came to mean essentially remaining sepa-

rate or detached from total involvement in certain experiences, lest one lose

control of oneself and ‘flip’. Hence, the ultimate come-down in the beat

years became to ‘blow your cool’, because if one did so, it meant that one

lost one’s superiority over the ‘square’ (the middle-class American), and

revealed the ‘buried, weaker more feminine part of [one’s] nature’.l Taken

together, these concerns suggest that the beats had not totally gone beyond

1. Mailer (1959, p. 324-6). This aspect of ‘cool’,

as meaning ‘detached’ from things, was repu-

diated by many of the beat leaders in the late 1950% They claimed that this ‘coolness’ was

not what they had meant by the word originally and that it had been distorted by the mass

media (see esp. Bangs, 1969; Kerouac, 1961). However this may be, the point is that the

majority of ‘rank-and-file’ beats subscribed to the ‘cool’ ethic in its ‘detached’ sense during

these years and it remained a dominant part of the scene (Goodman, 1960, p. 175, 282).

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all the elements of the instrumental system, particularly in its rational dimen-

sions (intellectuals and ‘cool’) and achievement dimensions (successas writers).

In contrast to these beat tendencies are the stated opinions of the hippie-

and the hip-generation periods. Both of these groups apparently repudiated

any desire for intellectuality or success.The hippies in particular felt distrustful

of all rational thought and emphasized instead the pure, Dionysian revelry

that is the ultimate extension of pure expressivism. Hence, their main emphasis

was not on being ‘cool’, because hat hindered the full and complete expression

of self at all times, but instead on ‘blowing your mind’, going as ‘far out’

as possible, and continually exploring, as Ken Kesey put it, ‘Edge City’, the

very boundaries of sanity and existence (cf. L. W olf, 1968; T. Wolfe, 1968).

In the light of such differences within the underground, we predicted in

the terms of the conceptual model being proposed that: value orientations

of the underground in the hippie- and hip-generation phases of its develop-

ment (1967-69) will be significantly more expressive (and less instrumental)

than during the beat phase of its development (1957-59).

HYPOTHESIS III

Finally, there is the question of the alleged effect which the American under-

ground contra-culture may have had on the value structure of the dominant

culture in recent years. Because he contemporary underground has survived

so long and has patently affected a large proportion of the American popu-

lation, most observers agree that it is a major social movement in American

history. However, some of them go much further in claiming that the contem-

porary underground represents the most significant attempt at changing the

dominant American instrumental pattern in the country’s history, and that

the life-style offered by the contra-culture, and its adoption by more and more

people, is a clear-cut indication of a major shift in the American value system

towards the expressive pole, a shift necessitatedby the inability of the average

man to cope with the continually increasing demands of an ever-more instru-

mental orientation and the ‘meaningless’ life-style that such a preoccupation

demands (Reich, 1970; Roszak, 1969).

If the underground is having the effect claimed, we felt this trend might

be manifested in a measurable change within the major value priorities of

the dominant middle class over the years of the underground’s ascendency.

Hence, we predicted that: the American middle class from the earliest years

of the underground movement (1957-59) will show a significant shift from a

more instrumental (and less expressive) value orientation towards a less

instrumental (and more expressive) orientation during the later years of the

underground development (1967-69).

The sample

In order to test the foregoing hypotheses, t was decided to sample representa-

tive underground periodicals during the periods 1957-59 (the beat phase) and

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1967-69 (the hippie- hip-generation phases) and to compare this data with that

gathered from a similar sample of m iddle-class periodicals from the same

periods.

Two criteria determined the selection of titles for the underground-press

sample: first, that the publication be considered of central importance in the

movement; and, second, that it have a high circulation figure relative to other

underground periodicals of that period. During the 1957-59 (beat) period, there

was only one publication which adequately fulfilled the above requirements: the

VilZuge Voice (New York). The centrality of this publication to the beat phase

has been frequently commented upon (Glessing, 1970) and it is clear that no

other publication of the era had circulation figures anywhere approaching the

Voice’s 12,195.l Thus, the Voice comprises the single title sampled for analysis

during this initial phase of underground development.2

For the 1967-69 (hippie- hip-generation) period the following six titles were

selected: the San Francisco Oracle, the Los Angeles Free Press, the East Village

Other (New York), the Fifth Estate (Detroit), the Distant Drummer (Philadel-

phia) and Avatar (Boston).3 The first four of these publications had been of

central importance to the underground since the early months of 1967 when

their editors became part of the original ‘Underground Press Syndicate’, self-

defined as: an ‘informal association of publications of the “alternative press”

. . .

produced in storefronts and basementsby feelthy [sic] hippies, distributed

by unorthodox channels and free-thinking bookstores and from curbs’.4 The

two other titles were the only underground papers of stature in their respective

communities during the period under consideration. 5 Regarding circulation

figures, all the papers in this group were among the most highly distributed in

the underground during the 1967-69 period : ranging in circulation from a high

of 160,000 o a low of 15,000.s

Similar to the underground case, he criteria for selection of titles for the

middle-class segment of the sample were: first, that the publication in question

be one that is geared to a ‘general’ reading audience; and second, that ti be

among the most highly circulated periodicals in the nation. To select specific

1. Figure supplied by the Village Voice. cf. Wittemore (1963, p. 5-6).

2.

The sample was obtained through the use of the microfilm files of the New York Public

Library.

3.

The sample was obtained in one or more of the following ways: through (a) the use of the

authors’ personal collections; (b) a direct visit to the offices of the publication in question;

(c) the ordering of specific issues from the offices of the publication in question by mail;

or (d) the placing of advertisements for certain titles of the sample in the underground papers

or various ‘hip’ organizations throughout the country. It should also be mentioned here

why the Voice was not included in the later sample. After the demise of the beat culture

in the early 196Os, the paper’s ‘tone’ decidedly changed: it became increasingly more ‘liberal’

(as opposed to ‘radical’) and, in the words of a number of critics, ‘staid’. Hence, by the

mid-1960s, it ceased to be regarded as being representative of the underground by its members

(Glessing, 1970; Spates, 1971).

4.

Underground Press Syndicate Directory, p. 17-18, 1969.

5.

On the status of the Distant Drummer, see Burks (1969); on the Avatar, see Conrad (1969).

6.

In addition, this range should be regarded as quite conservative, as it has been estimated

that, because of the high ‘readership-per-copy’ ratio of the underground publications, each

physical paper is read by approximately five to ten different individuals (Burks, 1969, p. 11;

cf. Simmons and Winograd, 1966, p. 69).

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titles, the

Ayer Directory of Newspapers and Magazines,

for 1959 and 1969 re-

spectively, was utilized. The first criterion was met by selecting he periodicals

from

Ayer’s

category of ‘General Readership’ (as opposed to ‘Men’s’,

‘Women’s’, etc.); the second by selecting the first six titles appearing by rank of

circulation figures which were obviously not ‘speciality’ magazines (e.g. Farm

Journal, Holiday, etc.). These criteria were found to be met the by same titles

in both time periods-1957-59 and 1967-69:

Reader’s Digest, Life, Look, True,

Redbook,

and

Cosmopolitan.

The circulation figures for these titles during both

time periods varied from a high of 17,777,417 o a low of 891,615.

In order to investigate the values expressed n these periodicals the para-

graph was chosen as the unit of analysis.

Because he paragraph is defined as a

‘distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea’

(Random House Dictionary of the English Language),

it is particularly useful for

value analysis, the purpose of which is to locate in printed material the various

key ideas held to be most significant by the membersof a social structure (White,

1944, p. 351-3). Thus, utilizing the measures developed, the procedure was to

code each sampled paragraph according to the central idea, or major value

theme, expressed herein.

The specific paragraphs to be coded were selected n the following manner.

In order to select representative issues rom all major periods of a given year,

one issue was first randomly selected or each seasonof the year, thus yielding a

sample of four issues for each periodical in each year.2 Second, a random

sample of two articles per issue was drawn.3 The final step in the selection pro-

cesswas to draw a random sample of three paragraphs per article. This sampling

procedure yielded twenty-four paragraphs (the units of coding) for each title

1.

In a previous study of the underground (Levin and Spates, 1970), the unit of analysis had

been the article. While this procedure yielded useful results, it was felt that more specific

information on these values could be gained by making the paragraph the analytical unit.

2. These seasonal issues were obtained by taking the total number of issues published by a given

periodical in any given year and determining whether the issues fell during the winter, spring,

summer or autumn months. In the case of monthly publications, each ‘season’ corresponded

to the three months which most closely approached the official seasonal division of the calen-

dar. Thus, to take ‘winter’ as an example, it was defined as consisting of the months of January,

February and March. The other seasons were similarly detined. In the case of tri-weekly,

bi-weekly or weekly publications, each season was defined by the official dates given on the

calendar. Hence, ‘winter’ corresponded to 21 December to 21 March; ‘spring’ to 21 March to

21 June; and so on. The only exception to this procedure was when a given issue was published

exactly on the date of a seasonal change. In this case (and it happened perhaps three times

in the course of the study), the issue was considered to be a unit of the ‘new’ season. For

example, if an issue of Look appeared on 21 June of any given year, it was taken to be a unit

of the ‘summer’ group.

3.

Two comments should be made about this procedure. First, all written material within an

issue was considered to be an ‘article’ with the exception of ‘letters to the editor’, fiction,

poetry and advertisements. Second, if an article was not of the above excepted categories,

it was rejected from the selection process only if (a) it had less than three paragraphs (the

number needed for analysis-see below); (b) it was comprised only of captions to photographs;

or (c) it was physically missing from the periodical (this happened once in the case of library

materials). In all these cases the article directly preceeding the rejected unit in the periodical’s

‘table of contents’ was selected as an alternative.

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in each year.l The number of paragraphs for each title has been summarized

in Table 1.

TABLE 1. Number of periodical paragraphs by title for the periods

1957-59 and 1967-69

Title

1957-59

196749

UNDERGROUND PRESS

Village Voice

San Francisco Oracle 1

Los Angeles Free Press

East Village Other

Avatar 1

F h Estate

Distant Drummer 1

TOTAL

216 -

- 72

- 72

- 72

- 72

- 72

- 72

- -

216 432

MIDDLE CLASS

Reader’s Digest 72 72

Life 72 72

Look 72 72

True 72 72

Redbook 72 72

Cosmopolitan 72 72

-

-

TOTAL 432 432

1.

These titles produced the following minor considerations: (a) The San Frugcisco Oracle ceased publishing

in early 1968 and resumed again in atttmtm of that year: hence, there was no summer 1968 issue available;

(b) the Avarcrr began publication in the spring of 1967 and terminated in the summer of 1969, thereby

creating the situation of no available winter 1967 or autumn 1969 issues; (c) the Disfmr Drummer began

publishing in the autumn of 1967; thus, no issues for the tirst three seasens of that year were in existence.

In all these instances the unpublished ‘gaps’ were filled by selecting alternative issues at random from the

1967-69 period.

1.

The only exception to this is the Village Voice. Because it was the only representative unit of

the underground press during the beat years (1957-59), in order to avoid intolerably small

cell frequencies for a major variable of the study, the normal sample of seventy-two para-

graphs per title was trebled. This was done by increasing the sample size to six articles per

issue rather than two, thereby increasing the number of sampled paragraphs per issue to

eighteen rather than

six. This led to a total for

the Voice

sample as follows: number of issues,

twelve (four per year); number of articles, seventy-two (six per issue); number of paragraphs,

or units of analysis to be coded, 216 (three per article).

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Coding

The major value-theme of each paragraph was coded in two ways: (a) on an

Instrumental-Expressive Scale-specifically, a semantic differential-type three-

point scale anchored by ‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’; and (b) by means of a

modified version of RaIph K. White’s various ‘Value Catalogues’ (cf. Ginglinger

1955; White, 1944, 1947, 1949).All materials were coded using a detailed set of

definitions of the value-themes and appropriate coding sheets.The instrumental

and expressive polarities were defined, based on their theoretical definitions in

the literature. for all coding purposes as follows:

Expressive Orientation. A piece of written material is expressive n orientation

if the primary focus is not to the attainment of a goal anticipated for the

future (as in an instrumental orientation) but to the immediate (or

present) gratification of needs, desires, etc. The crucial point is that the

action described in the written piece is seen as an end in itself and, as such,

is a primary expression of the qualitative aspectsof self, others, ideals, etc.

Expressively oriented material often has to do with emotions, relationships

to other people, or ideals relating to these areas.

Instrumental Orientation. A piece of written material is instrumental in

orientation if the primary focus is to the attainment of some goal anticip-

ated for the future. The important thing is that the action is seen as

contributing to some ‘later’ goal, not yet existing, or existing only in part.

The action is therefore primarily a means to an end, rather than being

valued for its own qualities (as would be the case n an expressive orient-

ation). Instrumentally oriented material often has to do with cognitive

understanding of a situation, the ability to use skilfully objects (things or

people) in the attainment of the desired end, and the renunciation of present

gratification for the future goal.

Hypotheses regarding expressive and instrumental values were tested in the

following manner. On the basis of the theoretical discussion above, the catego-

ries Self-Expression, Con.sern or Others, Affiliation, and Religious-Philosophi-

cal were treated as aspects of Expressivism, while the categories Achievement,

Cognitive, and Economic became he basis for Instrumentalism. In addition, to

account for values and written material which might fall in other than these

two major areas, the categories of ‘Other’ and ‘Unidentified’ were included.

Categories‘of the value analysis, defined according to dictionary usage,are listed

below.

Expressive Orientation.

Concern for Others.‘These values pertain to the importance or significance which

an individual or group places on the welfare of other individuals or groups;

it usually implies some underlying respect for human beings in themselves

or life in itself.

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AJ?iliative. These values are a product of social life, a product of socialization

by a family or group; they pertain to the needs of people to relate to other

people on a personal level, whether they relate to these others as ndividuals

or groups.

Self-Expressive. These values pertain to the ability or desire of an individual to

represent a state of being or quality of himself in activity, such as an emo-

tional state, like anger, joy, or an expressive, behavioural state such as

‘having fun’, ‘being creative’,

etc. Usually these values focus on the

present moment.

Religious-Philosophical. These values pertain to learning about or contact with

the level of ultimate meaning’ in life, whether on the human (philosophical)

or supra-human (religious) level.

Instrumental Orientation

Achievement. These values pertain to the ability of an individual person to

carry a project to its conclusion. The goal of the project is usually in the

future. They often have to do with accomplishments, either in the individual

or social fields, which are indicative of one’s progress toward the desired

goal.

Economic. These values pertain to the monetary affairs of a group (as opposed

to an individual), such a’: a government or community; they often relate to

such things as expenditures, income taxes, etc.

Cognitive-Rational. These values pertain to the process of knowing, to the pro-

cess of reasoning, or understanding, concerning finite, everyday matters.

They often have to do with an emphasis on mental processes, ike careful

thinking, or getting a formal education, as a primary way of coping with

life situations.

Other

Physiological.

These values pertain to the characteristics of an organism’s

healthy or unhealthy functioning; they most often have to do with simple

(or basic) physical drives or needs.

Individual. These values pertain to the unique qualities or attributes of a person,

to his state of being, to the conditions of his life, etc.

Political. These values pertain to the relationships between a governing body

(e.g. community, state or federal governments; school boards, etc.) and

various other members of the community in a ‘governmental’-type asso-

ciation. The relationship can be on the individual, group, political party, or

even national or international level.

Miscellaneous. These are any other values which cannot be easily fitted into the

above categories. Also, if it is found that two values are equally dominant,

they can be categorized here.

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Unidentified

Unidentified.

These are written materials which have no overt value expressed;

they are, in effect, valueless. They tend, as a rule, to have no clear object or

meaning when interpreted in a random fashi0n.l

Reliability

Five volunteers participated in a reliability check of the Value Category System

and the Instrumental-Expressive Scale. Each volunteer was asked to code a

random selection of forty-five paragraphs, or 3 per cent of the total sample.

Comparing the judgements of the volunteers with those of the coder yielded

a conventionally acceptable level of reliability for the Value Category System.

Using Cohen’s (1960)

k

to control for chance judgements, inter-judge coeffi-

cients of agreement or the value system ranged from 60 per cent to 72 per cent

with a mean coefficient of agreement of 66 per cent. In addition, the volunteers’

judgements were compared against each other by calculating frequency of

agreement. Using a three-out-of-five criterion, i.e. where three out of five coders

agreed, agreement reached 91 per cent. Finally, to determine internal consis-

tency for the Value Category System intra-coder agreement was computed

using Cohen’s k for a two-month interval between time’ and time2. Sixty para-

graphs were coded in this test, or 4 per cent of the total sample. This coefficient

of agreement reached 84 per cent.

To test the reliability of the Instrumental-Expressive Scale, he judgements

of the volunteers were compared against those of the coder. Inter-judge corre-

lation coefficients (Pearson

r)

ranged from 0.72 to 0.85, with a mean correlation

coefficient of 0.79. In addition, the volunteers’ agreement among themselves

was calculated for this scaleby frequency of agreement.Using a three-out-of-five

criterion, i.e. where three out of five coders agreed, agreement reached 98 per

cent. Finally, intra-judge reliability for the Instrumental-Expressive Scale,

recorded as a check on internal consistency, was calculated by comparing the

coder’s judgement at the two different periods. Here the correlation coefficient

reached 0.73.

That a category such as this was needed became apparent during the early stages of the

research. Neither White (1944,1947, 1949) nor Ginglinger (1955) make mention of this problem

in their work. Presumably such material was classified under ‘miscellaneous’. It is felt that the

present arrangement is more accurate in that it allows differentiation between those pieces of

written material which are ‘valueless’ and those which contain values not specifically accounted

for in the major categories.

We should like to thank the following for their generous help in this matter: for the Value

Category System-Joan Atkinson, Barb Dahlberg, Marian Geringer, Wilma Klaus and James

Levin; for the Instrumental-Expressive Scale-Virginia Burnett, Robert Kelley, Suzanne B.

Kelley, John Raimondi and Mark VanTilburg.

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Results and discussion

Hypotheses I, II and III were tested by analysing the results for the Instrumen-

t&Expressive Scale and the Value Category System. We turn first to differences

obtained by Type of Literature on the Instrumental-Expressive Scale.

An analysis of variance of expressivity scores (beat x hippie x hip gener-

ation x middle class 1957-59 x middle class 1967-69) yielded a significant

main effect for Type of Literature (F = 12.03, df = 4/1484, p < O.OOl).l As

shown in Table 2, these mean scores ranged from 0.98 (Low Expressivity) for

the middle-class 1967-69 sample to 1.38 (High Expressivity) for the beat

sample.

TABLE

2. Mean scores of expressive value orientation by type of literature

(beat, hippie, hip generation, middle class)’

Type of literature

Type of literature

Beat 1.38 Middle class 1957-59 1.01

Hippie 1.31 Middle class 1967-69 0.98

Hip generation 1.32

1.

The table can be read as follows: the higher the mean score fhe greater the ‘expressivism’ observed in that

particular sample of literature.

In order to test the significance of particular mean differences, he Newman-

Keuls procedure for multiple comparison of mean scoreswas applied. As shown

in Table 3, this procedure uncovered significant differences between the middle-

class samples and all phases of the underground. Other mean differences were

not significant.

1.

Though not reported here, these findings were obtained in a 5 x 2 analysis of variance.

designed to ‘control’ for the influence of length of article. Results indicate that shorter articles

tended to be more expressive (2 = 1.28) than longer articles fi = 1.05) (F = 11.83, d’ =

l/1484, p < 0.001). This may be due in part to the tendency of many expressively oriented

articles-such as reviews of movies and music, jokes and anecdotes-regardless of type of

literature, to be given shorter exposition than more instrumentally oriented articles such as

news items, biographies, and the like, which often entail long explanations of facts, terms,

events. etc.

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TABLE 3. Matrix of the difference between the means of types of literature

(beat, hippie, hip generation, middle class)’

Type of

literature Beat

Hip

generation

. .

Beat

Hippie

0.067 - / -

Hip generation 0.069 / 0.002 / -

-I -I

Middle class, 1957-59

Middle class, 1967-69

0.3771 0.3101

0.308’

___-

O&81

0.336l 0.3341

Aass, 1957-59 class, 1967-69

-

i -

I----

- -

I

1

0.026 I -

1.

p < 0.05.

To shed additional light on the foregoing results, let us turn now to the

analysis of the Value Category System by Type of Literature for Hypotheses I,

II and III.

HYPOTHESIS I

In line with Hypothesis I, Table 4 presents a chi-square analysis of major value

orientations in the underground press and middle-class magazines which indi-

cates that the value concerns of the underground press were significantly more

expressive and less instrumental than their middle-class counterparts (x2 =

52.30, df = 1,p < 0.005). Indeed, these data indicate that a full 75 per cent of

the value themes in the underground press samples were devoted to expressive

topics. In marked contrast, the middle-class magazines devoted almost equal

attention to expressive (52 per cent) and instrumental (48 per cent) concerns.

Findings shown in Tables 3 and 4 lend support to the notion that the under-

ground is indeed a well-established contra-culture, an ‘alternative’ system of

values which exists within the dominant structure of American society. To put

this in a slightly different way, the results obtained here strongly suggest hat,

in order to be properly understood, the contemporary underground must be

comprehended on its own terms, i.e. as a functioning socio-cultural unit based

on an ‘authentic system of expressive values’ (Parsons, 1951, p. 49). Thus it

would appear that it is no longer sociologically viable (if indeed it ever was) to

deal with the underground solely as a ‘contra-meritocracy’, or as a product of

‘the generation gap’ or ‘youthful rebellion’. In fact, the continuing inability of

most analyses o deal with the implications of this extreme emphasison expressi-

vity has been the chief reason why underground members have continually

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claimed that virtually all interpretations of their movement have missed the

central meaning of their life-style: ‘expressivenessor its own sake’ (Davis, 1967,

p. 14).

TABLE 4. Summary o f value orientations as percentage in the underground press

and middle-class magazines’

Value orientations Underground Middle-class

press magazines

Expressive 15 52

Instrumental 25 48

- -

TOTAL 100

100

(N = 957)

(418) (539)

1.

x’ = 52.30; 4f = 1: p -C 0.005 (onetail). Since the hypothesis focused on the relationship between the

‘Expressive’ and ‘Instrumental’ orientations only, the ‘Other’ and ‘Unidentified’ categories were omitted

from the present discussion. This procedure is followed in Tables 5 and 7 as well; the data crtn be found

in spates (1971).

Perhaps part of the reason for this problem can be observed n the sociolo-

gical literature itself. Hence, in most discussions of the instrumental-expressive

dichotomy it is quite noticeable that the part of the thesis which pertains to

instrumental patterns is amply documented and illustrated, while that which

pertains to expressive priorities is not. This situation is partially explained if it

is realized that in most caseswhere this paradigm is elaborated it is the author’s

purpose to explain behaviour of an instrumental nature (most of these analyses

having to do with behaviour in the modern ‘instrumental’ West).

However, there may be an important consequence of such a perspective

in the long run: namely, that the central instrumental focus of such analyses

may produce an implicit tendency on the part of the observer to regard

expressive behaviour as merely ‘residual’; i.e. as what people do when they are

not being instrumental. Thus, when ‘truly’ expressivebehaviour (‘non-residual’)

does develop, as appears to be the casewith the contemporary American under-

ground, the analyst is poorly equipped to deal with it on its own level, accus-

tomed as he is to seeing most behaviour through ‘instrumental eyes’.

This observational problem has been recently noted by Distler (1970), and

one suspects hat, if wide spread, it may be in large part responsible for the

inability of most social analysts to interpret the essenceof the contra-culture.

For this reason, the contemporary underground offers a unique opportunity for

social theorists : a chance to observe a large-scale social systemwhich legitimates

the majority of its behavioural patterns on purely expressive grounds. A careful

theoretical exposition of this ideology, then, might provide the means to fully

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develop the ‘neglected’ expressive side of the dichotomy mentioned above and

to eliminate the necessity of having to deal with expressivity in ‘residual’ terms

in future analysis.

If the data are highly indicative of the structural imperatives of the under-

ground value system, however, they are less enlightening regarding those of the

dominant culture. In this respect, t will be observed that, rather than finding a

clearly distinguishable split between the instrumental and expressive orienta-

tions, as the sociological literature (particularly the functionalist literature)

would lead one to expect, it was found that the two dominant values of the

middle-class culture occured with roughly equal frequency. In fact, the actual

ratio regarding these values is even more remarkable in that it indicates a

reverse of the expected direction of value preference.

One possible explantion of this finding is that the sample of middle-class

magazines tself was n some way responsible. It could be argued that three titles

selected or the middle-class segment of the sample were somewhat more spe-

cialized than the others, True being directed to a male audience, and Redbook

and

Cosmopolitan

to a feminine audience.

Since in American society the

women’s role has traditionally been defined as being more expressive han the

men’s, the imbalance of two women’s magazines to one men’s may have had

the effect of making the total middle-class sample appear more expressive than

the generalized dominant culture actually warrants.

A sub-analysis of the data determined that if

only Reader’s Digest, Life,

and

Look

had been sampled as representative indicators of the values of the

dominant culture,2 a finding more in congruence with the claims of the socio-

logical literature regarding the instrumental nature of American society would

have been obtained: expressivism = 47 per cent; instrumentalism = 53 per

cent.

In addition, one other factor might be mentioned to account for the

unexpectedly high incidence of expressivism in the middle-class data: namely,

that all forms of literature as art forms, regardless of cultural grouping, tend

to fulfil a somewhat expressive function for their respective readerships.

Certainly, this built-in tendency towards expressivity is what Charles R. Wright

(1959, p. 16-23) meant when he claimed that ‘entertainment’ was one of the

four principal functions of the literature of mass communication.

HYPOTHESIS II

As can be seen from Table 5, the results obtained in a chi-square analysis

of the major value orientations in the underground press during the beat

and hippie- hip-generation periods indicate no significant difference with

1. As an indication of this, True was also found to be listed in the ‘Men’s’ category of Ayer,

while Redbook and Cosmopolitan were to be found in the ‘Women’s’ category. In contrast,

the other titles of the sample were only listed in ‘General Readership’. See Ayer Directory of

Newspapers and Magazines for 1959 and 1969 respectively.

2.

As it would be methodologically reasonable to do, they being the three highest circulated

‘General Readership’ magazines in the nation.

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respect to expressive and instrumental orientations between the two contra-

cultural phases (x2 = 0.351;

df

= 1; p > 0.05). In particular, virtually

identical frequencies of occurrence of both expressivism and instrumentalism

were represented in each period, with approximately three-quarters of all

paragraphs indicating an expressive orientation (77 per cent for the beat

period; 74 per cent for the hippie- hip-generation period). These findings

fail to support Hypothesis II-that the hippie- hip-generation phase of the

underground would be more expressive and less instrumental than the beat

period.

TABLE 5. Summary of value orientations as percentage in the underground press

during the beat and hippie- hip-generation periods’

Value orientations

Beat

Underground Press

Hippie-hip generation

Expressive

Instrumental

TOTAL

77

74

23

26

-

loo

100

(N = 418)

(146)

(272)

1.

x’ = 0.351; df = 1; p > 0.05 (one-tail).

In order to comprehend these result a sub-analysis was performed based

on the following rationale. The original assumption concerning the current

phase of the underground press-that which arose during the hippie- hip-

generation period (1967-69)-was that it constituted a homogeneous group

of literature. The observations of certain writers suggest, however, that this

assumption may not have been warranted and that a range of sub-types might

exist within the current underground. While these sub-types agree on a rejection

of the dominant culture’s instrumental pattern and the substitution of an

expressive one, the vociferousness of that rejection and extremity of identi-

fication with the alternative appears to vary considerably. Two of these sub-

types which are clearly mentioned in the literature are the ‘pure hippies’ and

the ‘radicals’ (Dreyer and Smith, 1969, p. 11-13, 21-6; Mungo, 1970,

Chap. VIII-IX; Neville, 1970, p. l-68, 151-99; B. Wolfe, 1968, p. 135-44).

In this light, various observers of the underground press have suggested

that two of the papers here sampled, the

San Francisco Oracle

and

Avatar,

reflected the apex of the (pure) ‘hippie style’ more clearly than others. For

example, Burton Wolfe has characterized the

Oracle

as the ‘pure hippie

newspaper’, designed specifically to serve the growing body of hippies within

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the contra-culture (1968, p. 144; cf. Glessing, 1970, p. 40-l). Similarly, Neville

(1970, p. 168) has stated that

Avatar

was the ‘East Coast equivalent’ of the

Oracle

and Conrad’s (1969, p. 49) study indicates that the Boston-based

paper was the voice of the area’s ‘hippie sub-cultures’.

An internal analysis to determine differences with respect to value orien-

tations between the underground periodicals sampled during the hippie-

hip-generation period found that expressivism and instrumentalism did indeed

vary significantly within the total sample (x2 = 20.29; df = 5; p < 0.01).

More specifically, the San Francisco Oracle and Avatar represented he extreme

expressive end of this continuum.

As a consequenceof this set of findings, a post hoc analysis was conducted

comparing the differences between the expressive and instrumental orien-

tations in the beat period sample and the ‘pure hippie’

(San Francisco Oracle;

Avatar)

segmentof the contemporary underground press. As shown in Table 6,

the results of this analysis indicate that the ‘pure hippie’ sub-type of the contem-

porary underground press was significantly more expressive (and less instru-

mental) than its beat counterpart (x2 = 3.39; df = 1;

p < 0.05).

More speci-

fically, consistent with Hypothesis II, the ‘pure hippie’ representatives devoted

a full 86 per cent of their interests towards the expressive alternative, while

their beat counterpart was devoting 77 per cent to the same orientation.

This data indicates that there may not have been a shift toward greater

expressivism within the spectrum of the entire underground movement during

1967-69 period, but only within one sub-type of that spectrum: the ‘pure

hippies’.

TABLE

6. Summary of value orientations as percentage in the underground press in the

beat period and the ‘pure hippie’ sub-type of the hippie- h ip-generation period1

Value orientations

Underground press

Beat

‘Pure hippie’

Expressive 77 86

Instrumental 23 14

-

TOTAL 100 100

(N = 247)

(145)

(102)

1.

XI = 3.39; df = 1; p < 0.05 (one-tail).

These findings bring up another consideration of some importance:

whether the decision to separate the hippie- and hip-generation phases of the

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contemporary underground-1967 to mid-1968 and mid-1968 to 1969 respec-

tively-was emprically warranted. If the reader will remember, this division

was based upon the observations of a number of analysts concerning the

decline of the original hippie communities during 1968 and the subsequent

emergence of a more generalized and politicized hip population during the

same period. This position is usually based on the presumed ‘radicalization

of hip’ which began en masse with the violent confrontation of various members

of the underground with the forces of the dominant culture at the Democratic

Convention of August 1968, and continued in a series of ‘engagements’

throughout 1969.

One way of ‘testing’ this assumption in the present context would be to

compare the value structure of each ‘phase’ of the 1967-69 period-hippie

(1967 to mid-1968) and hip generation (mid-1963 to 1969)-in a chi-square

analysis, with the expectation that the hip generation phase would be more

instrumental (and less expressive) than the hippie phase because of its deeper

concern with political radicalism, and orientation which, by necessity, would

demand some concern with specific goals and their attainment, rational thought,

and the future-all instrumental priorities.

This analysis, however, failed to show any significant difference between

the assumed phases on the instrumental-expressive continuum (x2 = 0.023;

df = 1; p > 0.05). Indeed, the amount of emphasis placed on expressivism

was virtually identical in each period-74 per cent for the hippie period;

73 per cent for the hip-generation period.

These results suggest that there is, and perhaps has been for some time,

a misconception of some importance within the literature-both popular

and social scientific-about the current manifestation of the contemporary

underground: that is, it has spoken, either implicitly or explicitly, of an over-

all shift during the 1967-69 period from ‘hippie’ to generalized ‘radical’.

However, the above findings indicate that no such over-all shift, at least as

indicated by dominant value preferences, has occurred. Why might such a

misconception be widespread?

The answer may lie in the well-known ability of the American mass media

selectively to emphasize certain phenomena, while disregarding other, perhaps

equally important ones. In the present case, what may have happened is the

following: in early 1967 the media discovered the hippies. Because of their

iconoclastic life-style, psychedelic garb, jargon, music and drugs, the hippies

were a ‘find’ for a novelty-seeking communications network. That is, they

possessed all the ingredients of the mass-circulated, general interest story:

youth, sex, rebellion, controversy, etc. In short, the hippies made good copy.

Hence, by mid-1967, all forms of the American mass media, even the movies,

had dealt at some length with the topic. Consequently, this coverage created

the widespread impression that the whole spectrum of dropped-out, rebelling

American youth was hippie. This impression was buttressed by the fact,

also much supported by the media, because of their popularization of hippie

symbols (drugs, ‘mod’ clothes, long hair, etc.) that by the end of 1967 all

underground members looked, dressed and talked like hippies.

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In retrospect, however, this single term for the entire contemporary

underground may be seen as a misnomer. While there certainly was a sub-type

within the contra-culture which came close to fulfilling the ideal-typical picture

painted by the media of the hippie, it is now evident that this was not the

only type of person prominent within the movement at the time. In this respect,

there is strong evidence to suggest that at least one other sub-type co-existed

with the pure hippie contingent in the underground since 1967-the radicals.

Not only is this conclusion warranted on a re-examination of some of

the literature on the movement (cf. Keniston, 1968; Simon and Trout, 1967;

Thompson, 1969), t is also suggestedby present results. It will be remembered

that the above sub-analysis clearly delineated a pure hippie sub-type within

the current underground press, as represented by the

San Francisco Oracle

and Avatar. In contrast to these papers, at the instrumental end of the conti-

nuum, stood the

Los Angeles Free Press

and Detroit’s

Fifth Estate,

both of

which were founded, and have continued, as major spokesmen for the poli-

tically radical element of the movement since at least 1966 (Burks, 1969,

p. 11 ff.; Neville, 1970, p. 164-5). Using these two papers as representative

of a radical sub-type l and comparing their concerns with solely political

matters to those of the pure hippie papers, it was found that during 1967-69

the radical titles devoted fully 38 per cent of their total output 2 to politics

while the pure hippie papers, in contrast, devoted only 15 per cent of their

space to the same topic. 3

In addition, one other factor might be mentioned which speaks against

an underground phase division between 1967-69. If the presumed shift had

occurred, one would expect to find a noticeable upward swing in the percentage

of material devoted to political concerns throughout the underground press

as a whole during this period. Our data, however, indicate no such shift.

Concerning political values only, the underground press of the 1967 to mid-

1968 period devoted 27 per cent of its total content to this item, and, in almost

identical fashion, the same set of titles devoted 25 per cent of their total

content to this concern during mid-1968 to 1969.

These results imply that the various observers who assumed that the

contra-culture during 1967 to mid-1968 was completely hippie were in error.

Similarly, those who tend to see n the mid-1968 to 1969 period only a highly

radical element were also mistaken. Instead, it appears that what was originally

postulated to be two phases of underground development at the beginning

of this study was, in fact, only one continuous phase, containing within it

a much more diversified population structure and complex of social relation-

ships than was initially thought.

1.

It should be mentioned that, like the ‘pure-hippie’ group, the ‘radical’ sub-type is significantly

more expressive (and less instrumental) than their 1967-69 middle-class counterparts (Reader’s

Digest, Life, Look) when subjected to statistical analysis: x2 = 2.91; df = 1; p < 0.05

(one-tail).

2.

That is, including not only ‘Instrumental’ and ‘Expressive’ concerns, but ‘Other’ and ‘Uniden-

tified’ as well.

3. These figures are arrived at by analysing the ‘Political’ value category contained under the

general rubric of ‘Other’ as described in the ‘Methods’ section of the paper.

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While it cannot be argued that important changes n community structure,

confrontation tactics, and population growth have not occurred during the

1967-69 period, it could be maintained that these changes were superficial

in relation to the underground value structure as a whole, which has ap

parently remained constant throughout this period. Hence, we suggest that

any future analysis of the movement consider both the pure hippies and the

radicals as continuing ‘members in good standing’ of the contemporary

underground. 1 That is to say, it no longer appears accurate to speak in terms

of discrete hippie- and hip-generation phases when analysing the 1967-69

underground. Rather, it seems as if there has been one continuous ‘hip

alternative’ during this period, with the pure hippie contingent getting the

bulk of dominant culture publicity from 1967 to mid-1968 and the radical

contingent the same attention from mid-1968 to 1969.

HYPOTHESIS III

As indicated in Table 7, there appears to be no significant difference in terms

of expressive and instrumental orientations in the middle-class literature

from 1957-59 to 1967-69 (x2 = 0.08;

df

= 1;

p

> 0.05). More specifically,

virtually identical dominant culture attention (approximately half) was devoted

to expressivism (1957-59 = 53 per cent; 1967-69 = 51 per cent) and instru-

mentalism (1957-59 = 47 per cent; 1967-69 = 49 per cent) in each period. 2

These results then fail to support Hypothesis III, which predicted a shift

from more instrumentalism (and less expressivism) during the early period

(1957-59) to less instrumentalism (and more expressivism) during the later

period (1967-69).

TABLE 7. Summary of value orientations as percentage in middle-class magazines

by time periods (1957-59, 196769)’

Middle-class magazines

Value orientations

1951-59

196749

Expressive

Instrumental

53

51

47

49

TOTAL

100 100

(N= 539)

(272)

(263

1.

x' = 0.08; df = 1; p > 0.05 (onetail).

1.

In fact, these results suggest that a whole range of sub-types might exist within the contra-

culture varying between these two ‘poles’.

2.

Results consistent with the above were found when Reader’s Digest, Life, and Look alone

were used as indicators of the middle-class position.

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Taking these results at face value, they clearly contradict the opinions

of many underground analysts-particularly those of Reich and Roszak-who

tend to see the underground as a major new stage in Western socio-cultural

evolution, ‘spreading with amazing rapidity’ and already in the process of

changing our ‘laws, institutions and social structure’ (Reich, 1970, p. 4).

The results obtained here, to the contrary, indicate that if the alternative

culture’s highly expressive value structure has had any e ffect on the value

system of the dominant culture, it is not yet observable in that culture’s

magazines, as the latter have remained virtually stable over the period covered

by the analysis on the instrumental-expressive dimension.

This finding is not without support from the literature. For example,

in a study of changes n American college students’ concepticns of the ‘good

life’ over the last twenty years, Morris and Small (1971) report little change

with regard to conceived value priorities. One would assume that if a major

value change were under way in the dominant culture, it would perhaps be

most noticeable at the student level, since this is the cohort from which most

underground members come, and the group to which the movement has

closest ties.

Similarly, Carter (1970) found that instead of turning the increasing

leisure time and shorter working week of contemporary American life towards

more expressive activities, which one would expect given the Reichian thesis,

many American workers were opting instead for more instrumental behaviour,

such as extended overtime and dual job-holding. In addition, Carter indicates

that, in the light of his findings, ‘an over-all increase in the amount of work

activities rather than a decrease’ s to be expected in the America of the near

future. He thus concludes that ‘those who choose to work as an integrating

force in their lives will probably choosemore of it’ and that the idea of increasing

‘non-work activities’ is a ‘myth’ applying only to members of the contra-

culture. l

Such social indices are clearly supportive of the major functionalist

stand on value systems: namely, that once these systems are firmly established

within a societal structure, they become the most resistant element to signi-

ficant social change (Parsons, 1961, 1966). Specifically, if American society

has a stabilized relationship of expressive and instrumental value priorities,

it would be expected to maintain this balance over time, being relatively

impervious to other shifts, such as the formation of a contra-culture, elsewhere

within the system.

The present results also suggest hat the widespread modification in accept-

able appearance and attitudes in American society towards the hip pole in

recent years-longer hair for men, beards, brighter clothes, psychedelic argon,

rock music, and the use of non-prescription drugs-may not be so much an

indication of a significant change in value allegiance towards expressivism

as opposed to instrumentalism, as a shift towards simply more attractive

1. Carter (1970, p. 65). Perhaps this ‘myth’, as well as that pertaining to the hippie- hip- generation

phase ‘shift’, is also a product of mass-media ‘selective perception’.

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fashions. In other words, these findings could be used to argue that American

society as a whole, despite its outward appearance of a change to a more

hip, liberal life-style, has only adopted the symbols of ‘hip-ness’, primarily

as a result of widespread media exposure and commercialization, without

the corresponding ideological commitment of the contra-culture to the expres-

sive value system.l Hence, American society may be as deeply committed

as ever, perhaps deeper if Carter’s observations are correct, to an instrumental

value system and life-style, surface observations notwithstanding.

A second interpretation of the present results is also feasible, however.

This would be that the very stability of major socio-cultural values implies

that when they change, they do so very slowly. If this is true, it is equally

possible that the prophesized change toward an expressive set of values-what

Reich has called the ‘Greening of America’-may indeed by under way,

but that the present sample was unable to detect such a shift becauseof (a) the

nearness n time of the two periods sampled (1957-59 and 1967-69) and (b) the

inability of literature as a cultural indicator to reflect such a shift quickly.

Such an alternative interpretation of results suggests that another analysis

of the dominant culture’s value structure conducted at a later time might

reveal that this change had occurred (or was occurring).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GANGS, Lester. 1969. Elegy for a desolation angel. Rolling stone, November 1969, p. 38.

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sociology. New York, N.Y., Barnes & Noble.

BIJRKS, John. 1969. The underground press: a special report. Rolling stone, October 1969,

p. 11-32.

CANTOR, Norman F. 1969. The age of protest: dissent and rebellion in the twentieth century.

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CARTER,

Reginald. 1970. The myth of increasing non-work vs. work activities. SocialprobIems,

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COHEN, Jacob. 1960. A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and psycho-

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CONRALI,

Peter. 1969. Utopian structures: informal structure and symbiosis in an urban

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1.

Thus, for example, in 1967, if an individual appeared adorned with and speaking in the symbols

of the ‘hip’ life, a sociologist could have been fairly sure that he was ‘hip’-i.e. that he was

a contra-cultural member who strongly identified with the alternative expressive life-style and

value system. Today, in 1972, in observing a similar ‘hip’-looking individual, the sociologist

could not be sure of much of anything about his life-style and value commitments .

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GINGLINGER,G. 1955. Basic values in Reader’s digest, Selection and Constkllation. Journalism

quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, winter 1955, p. 56-61.

GLESSING,Robert J. 1970. The underground press in America. Bloomington, Ind., Indiana

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Documents

Beats. Hippies, The Hip Generation and the American Middle Class. Analysis of Values