[Institution Affiliation]
The 1960’s and 1970’s were a time in the United States of America that will forever remain in the minds of many people. Long held values were broken and drugs, sex rock took over the minds of the youths. Melvin and William (1992) attribute the cause of the drastic rebellions to the governance system, Vietnam War, law enforcement and authority.
The counter-culture of the 1960’s and 1970’s broke the norms of long held values especially among the youth. It was first witnessed in the United States of America and United Kingdom. It later spread gradually in the western countries. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, young youths from the United States learnt of social norms that took place in the 1950’s and political conservatism of the cold war (Gair, 2007).
Additionally, some of the anti-war movement’s goals and objectives were to end the involvement of United States in the Vietnam War but also to end the deteriorating traditional values of the United States society (Melvin & William, 1992). Groups began to emerge in protest of these issues. These groups wanted to shatter the whole previous culture that was subjected to them by the government a factor that led to use drugs, disobedience and mass protest campaigns to achieve their goals (Gair, 2007). Tension developed amongst these nations a factor that led to many controversies and unanswered questions.
In 1960’s, formation of counter-cultural groups took center stage a scenario that was seen as the beginning of a revolution against Vietnam War, Women’s Rights, Black’s Rights, Sexual freedom, nuclear arms, drug use and Civil rights.
Hippies, one of the counter-cultural groups were founded in the 1960’s with grievances on law enforcement, Vietnam War and authority. In order to air their views, they resulted to use of drugs, disobedience and protests. Melvin and William (1992) explains that the Hippies went to an extent of using their own lives as a way of showing their social and political beliefs through music, personal life style, speech, debates and art.
Among the terror groups that emerged during the counter-culture were The Weather Underground, Black Panthers, and the Symbionese Liberation Army. Each of the counter-culture group had its own grievances and they all resorted to violence and drugs as a sign of dissatisfaction. These groups publicly expressed their views and concerns through music, fashion and complicated lifestyle (Elshaw, 2000).
The Weather Underground group was a radical left-wing militant that was formed in the year 1969 from a group of Student’s Democratic Society (SDS) that came from well educated backgrounds. The group’s grievances included an equal democratic society for all. Melvin and William (1992) assert that this group moved into collectives and trained how to use weapons with the sole purpose of attacking the wealthy and powerful in the society.
Black Panthers Party was an organization that was formed in the year 1966. It advocated for the rights of African-American. Other grievances raised by the group included freedom for the black people, employment, robbery against the black community, need for basic needs such as housing, clothing and food, exemption of blacks from military, end of police brutality to the black, freedom for the blacks held in prisons and justice.
Just like The Weather Underground, Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a left-wing militant that was founded between the years 1973 to 1975. This group was involved in many crimes that involved kidnappings, murder, bank robberies and assassinations. Melvin and William (1992) assert that SLA resulted to criminal activities due to rampant police brutality, political repression, economic exploitation and involvement of the United States in Vietnam War
The Black Panthers, Weather Underground (WHU), and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) used violence means to ensure their views and grievances were considered. The tactics used by these radical groups included bombings, robberies, kidnappings, violence and assassinations of prominent personalities (Isabelle, 2013).
Today, religion has become a motivator to terror organizations. However, a combination of religion and terrorism is not a new phenomenon as it has been witnessed in many parts of the world. Juergensmeyer and Kitts (2011) states that some terrorists who commit crimes in the name of religious are motivated by defensive motives, others are inspired by religious beliefs, and others do it for predominance of faith. For instance, a popular terror organization in the United States known as the KKK was formed in 1865 as a charitable organization. Later on, it changed to a violence organization. KKK believes that Christian religion dictates their rights to claim superiority over other religions (Juergensmeyer & Kitts, 2011). In addition, religion and violence is more active in Islamic religion mostly in Pakistan, Somalia and other Middle East countries.
With respect to America, the KKK (Klu Klux Klan) terror group formed their grievances and goals around religious doctrine. Majority of the KKK group viewed themselves as true Christians. The terror groups holds that Africa-Americans, Catholics, Jews, gays and other religions do not deserve civil rights. Due to this reason, the terror group has been committing crimes with an aim of reversing the civil rights that were granted to the Africa-Americas.
In the 1970’s, eco-terrorist groups began to form with an aim of protecting the environment. Generally, the main agenda and goals of these groups were to utilize the concept of mass property destruction to stop destruction of the environment. Mostly, the groups target companies involved in the destruction of environment such as forestry institutions, manufacturing companies, medical research laboratories, and government institutions. Among the most pro active and prominent groups include Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front use a wide range of tactics to achieve their goals and objectives. They include fire bombings, vandalism, arson, assaults, in case of the ALF theft, stealing of tested animal species from research centers etc. However, the United States government has maintained that no matter what the motive is, terrorism remains to be terrorism. Most importantly is that no deaths towards people have occurred since the onset of these groups.
These groups have similarities and differences. For instance, they are similar in the sense that they use non-conventional methods and tactics to achieve their goals and objectives. With regard to eco-terrorist groups, they differ in the sense that they don’t use non-conventional methods against human life.
References
Elshaw, G. (2000). The Depiction of late 1960's Counter Culture in the 1968 films of Jean-Luc Godard. Victoria University of Wellington.
Gair, C. (2007). The American counterculture. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press.
Gournay, I. (2013). French encounters with the American counterculture, 1960–1980. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 72(2), 260-262.
Juergensmeyer, M., & Kitts, M. (2011). Princeton readings in religion and violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Small, M., & Hoover, W. D. (1992). Give peace a chance: Exploring the Vietnam antiwar movement ; essays from the Charles DeBenedetti memorial conference ; [conference held in Toledo, Ohio on 4 - 5 may 1990]. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
