Flower power was a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children. The term later became generalized as a modern reference to the hippie movement and a culture of drugs, psychedelic music, psychedelic art and social permissiveness.
Read more about Flower Power: Origin, Movement, Cultural Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words flower and/or power:
“Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren’t a little flower somebody sewed on.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)
“Being a parent is a form of leadership. . . . Parents make a mistake, along with leaders of organizations, when they are unwilling to recognize the power inherent in the positions they occupy and when they are unwilling to use this power. . . . I do not mean a figure who is irrational, autocratic, or sadistic. I mean leaders who have the strength of character to stand up for what they believe.”
—Abraham Zaleznik. In Support of Families, ed. Michael W. Yogman and T. Berry Brazelton, ch. 8 (1986)