ABSTRACT
Liberation and empowerment were well under way by the end of 1968, and during the next few years the first would confront the culture, and the second would attack the Establishment. Commentators have discussed the origins of the counterculture. Most have mentioned that throughout American history there have been misfits, those who do not fit into the mainstream. In earlier times they might have been roamers, drifters, mountain men, or utopians at communities such as Oneida, New Harmony, or various Shaker or Hutterite settlements. The first value of the counter is that they rejected the values of mainstream culture. By the end of the sixties the counter was already having a subversive impact on the culture. Hippies had infiltrated the very foundations of the Establishment- government, business, universities, religion, even the US Armed Forces. "Everything is being attacked", said a government official late in 1969.
