I believe we should plant a seed of thought when comparing these two events set 60 years apart. If we look at what qualified as “counterculture” in the 60s, we would find a group of people pro-self-development, attempting to achieve peace, communal living, self-sustainability, and, most importantly, pro-love. While the “culture” was the ideology of the American dream, following success, achieving richness, and being a part of a system that involved obtaining more, leading us to a bottomless pit, making us question, “When will it ever be enough? When will there be enough power, enough control?” which side of the coin has allowed us to thrive as a species? The one that has achieved communal living based on love, self-sufficiency, and care for others and nature, or the one that has been the cause of the decimation of millions of people throughout history to achieve power and expansion of territories, relies on what nature has to offer until the resources are scarce and unobtainable, etc. Who, in fact, is the counterculture at the end of the day?

Fast-forwarding to what is happening today, much of the leftist ideology has stemmed from what was called “the hippies” in the 60s. Ideologies that focus more on interpersonal relationships, self-sufficiency, caring about nature and its resources, animals, global warming, etc. And to the surprise of many, the so-called “leftists” are many of the faces who are actively protesting as of now for a better cost of living, available education for everyone, opposing corruption and wars, fighting for the better of all of ourselves. Yet they are still seen as the outcasts, as those who opposed being drafted to a war they did not choose to be in in the 60s.