Well written article that might have some merit, but being born in 1961 I can only remember being influenced by the general theme of the time between episodes of Sesame Street. And while Sesame Street is an example of the time itself and the marketing of this time, I would say most are enduring American qualities that define us as a culture. No doubt that if Mr. Finkelstein started a movement of hate and intolerance, there would certainly be some American entrepreneur to sell the lifestyle.
The difference however, may be that one had visions of an ideal that actually made a difference in the way we treat each other and the way we tolerate others.
I can certainly say that this 6 year old was impacted in many ways from that "thought" of a Summer of Love and none of them have anything to do with what a car commercial or a hair product had to sell me.

martinlav, Seal Beach , Ca. USA

At the height of the counterculture’s growth, only 10 per cent of young Americans described themselves as “radicals”.

Only 10% radical? That's enough to change the world!

Jason Kennedy, New York, USA

Sarah-Kate Templeton's reported future proposals for disabled babies strikes me as very shocking. I think it is worth a lifetime of pain, sickness or disability to experience just one moment of true love in one's lifetime - from either a parent, sibling, lover or God himself. Those who are sufficiently fortunate to believe and trust in God would not contemplate these actions (even though they may be tempted to if under pressure). Those who are not so fortunate and rely on their own resoures, may place themselves in the position of authority over their fellow human beings - how dare they. Thank you for reporting on this important issue. Regards Mary Fealy

Mary Fealy, Tralee, Ireland

Interesting article. However, does Daniel Finkelstein realise the hugely paradoxical implications of what he is saying ie. Capitalism inaugurated a new era of social dislocation, familial disintegration and a loss of respect for authority - which amounted to an absolute rejection of Britain's Judeo-Christian heritage. Perhaps we should therefore begin to acknowledge the primary responsibility of Capitalism for the decimation of pre-1950s values which, however rigid they may have been, at least gave people a sense of purpose, dignity and stability. The lesson of the Sixties, as described by Mr. Finkelstein, is that there is no point in blaming the Left for the loss of our identity, much less that of our moral sense.

JL, Paris, France

I was eight years old when my big sister came home clutching her trophy copy of Sgt Pepper.

There may well be a single gap, but I don't think it's generational. If it is, then I'm a throwback. I often feel stranded in an alien sea precisely _because_ I want to search for my identity (in a Tolstoyan way) and make something that will be appreciated and will last, surrounded by a society which tells me that only what I consume matters. That I'm less of a man not because cigarette adverts tell me so, but because I don't use a pressure washer to clean a Grand Cherokee five times a week like my builder neighbour.

When I see footage of the Summer of Love, I see people probably incapable of loving the human race in the way the organisers meant the phrase, felling good about themselves because they mistook the self-indulgent rituals for the love. And that's something that's as old as the hills....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

An attempt by the Libertarian right to embrace the Sixties is "In praise of Decadence" by Jeff Riggenbach. It develops your themes of individual liberty coming out of less scrabbling to get by.

JA, London,

Finkelstein's claim that free markets and capitalism led to the abundance of free thinking and to the eventual failure of the Left in the late 1960s is not without merit. Yet, would he be so bold as to make the claim that the current age of capitalism - including gross corporate fraud, multinational manipulation of labor, and destruction of the environment is a success of the Right?

Though abundance may have created a generation of free thinkers, their youth and neglect of power and hegemony is surely noted. Let us now address the actions of the Right after this Summer of Love: government secrecy regarding international affairs, the CIA and MI6 collaboration in the Iranian coup, the US and British involvement in Nicaragua and San Salvador - all in the name of allowing dollars, pounds, and oil to flow "freely" in our global infrastructure. Capitalism has victimized more lives than it has provided for, leaving very little to gloat about.

Chris Rusch, Austin, TX

The essential point to understand is that the hippies didn’t make the comment. It was, surprise surprise, Money that dreamt this up for the ‘benefit’ of the less well-informed, which in those days meant just about everyone. One can best view the era by appreciating that it was in fact master-minded, so in fact not much has changed - it has just become more obvious to more people. The Sixties passed me by, but, since it was me who wrote not just the Beatles’ music but just about everyone else’s as well, especially on the other side of the Atlantic, the extent of my deficit can thereby be appreciated.
It is important to realise that the same psychedelic Master-minds are still around, looking for fresh fields to conquer, and it is they that are the problem, and will be the continuing problem, not the hippies.

Henry Percy, London, UK

wow, talk about seeing the past through rose colored glasses.

I lived in Berkeley during those days of flower power, studied political theory and went to jail for 2 weeks for trying to close the Oakland Draft Center along with 500 others.

you are so close to your own mirror you cannot see the forest for the obsession with capitalism.

the early days of the 60's was not about consumerism, or status, or warfare - a hopeless hiccup in a war based economy. We struggled against the war in Viet Nam until Jackson State and Kent State terrorist killings by the government. Eventually the body counts and napalm ended with the victory of the Viet Cong... and then they have slowly come to prefer the US to former allies China and Russia... duh, anyone looking at their history of national struggles against China especially would have predicted this.

loads of money can buy love today but not good health care, housing or schooling. don't forget to thank the CIA for helping bring us drugs.

Dan, Bostown, Massamemory Lane, US

So what if a few individuals coined the phrase, "summer of love". If true, this was just reflective of what was happening for years preceding the summer of 1967. And yes, economic times set the stage for the counterculture, but, some of us genuinely did not want the perceived and sometimes real, banal, consumer lifestyles which are parents were already living coming out of the war years and into the 50s, especially in North America. And the songs of two of the giants ( Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix ) from that period will endure for decades, if not centuries if the human species hasn't been chucked-out by its host, the Earth by then. And I would say that Jimi and Joni were certainly part of the summer of love, as well as being artists who's ART was not a by-product of business ( capitalism ), rather, in their case, business was a by-product of ART. Very diffucult to find in times subsequent to this period and especially today in an time of incredibly rigid and unfettered CAPITALISM.

Robert Meunier, London,

Good article. One thing you might have noted was that before the Sixties most people didn't have cars, after it they did. Control of a little personal bubble that can go anywhere causes huge changes in a man's attitude.

Bascially consciousness is determined by the means of production, however. Marx was right.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

A very nice, variegated and parti-coloured write up, giving a brief synopsis of 60's, the golden era of Hippies and "Flower children". A new counter-culture was born , which defied all the norms and so called sacrosant and puritanical ethics of a genteel and cultured society. They lived in communes with free flowing bohemian life styles , sharing food, drugs, ciggies and free love too. They were anti-nazis, anti-nukes and anti-capitalists too. But why the cult and movement of hippies and 'worshippers of love & peace', got petered-out. Perhaps the changing times, which brought out the essence of "gross consumerism" The advent of free markets, globalisation and brand values, brought about the most 'happening' changes in the society.The equation of 'love' and 'peace' was redefined in value of $, Pounds and Euros. If loads of money and moolahs could buy love and peace, this trend could stay on for ever. We are again going back to times, showing a slow down in pace of life.The truth is out.

Sandy, New Delhi, India

Perhaps the real significance lay in the subsequent myth that some of the overwhelming majority who had not participated (or even been aware of the event at the time) might have wanted to catch up with those who had tasted freedom from inhibitions, and this could be the indirect cause of much subsequent bad behaviour.

The seeds of the paradigm shift were propagated somewhat earlier with the shedding of reverence for the parental generation, disseminated through popular culture, for example by the lyrics of Tom Lehrer and books such as The Catcher in the Rye.
From other perspectives social changes pursuant to the war is also important.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

"...the gulf yawns between those who grew up in the years before the Beatles and those who grew up after it. "

I was born in 1966. Do I get to straddle the abyss,please, please?

Charles, Newcastle, England

For most people the summer of love and its ethos made little difference - but for some of us - the lucky ones - all the difference in the world.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

Very good article but Mick Jagger pointed out much the same thing.
In a very early TV interview he was asked why the Stones were so popular. His reply was "well people have got a lot more money in their pockets now. They want to go out and have a good time."

Simple as that really..

B Wood, Leicester,

"a discreet series of events in a small district in one city" - I think you mean "discrete" - the summer of Love was hardly discreet!

Toby, Sydney,