Patrick Barr-Melej. Psychedelic Chile: Youth, Counterculture, and Politics on the Road to Socialism and Dictatorship.

During Chile's late 1960s and early 1970s, the ideals of the hippie counterculture often clashed with Marxist politics. Patrick Barr-Melej's cultural history traces various countercultural currents, including sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and the spiritual movement Poder Joven led by Argentine guru "Silo." The book shows that both traditional conservatives and Marxists derided countercultural expression, with denunciations from right-wing newspapers like El Mercurio often nearly identical to those in Communist publications like El Siglo and Punto Final, though for different reasons: the Left objected to individualism over class mobilization, while the Right saw the counterculture as un-Christian and a threat to social hierarchy.

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Abstract

Hippies don’t necessarily make good Marxists, and Marxists are certainly not always hippies. As Patrick Barr-Melej’s wonderfully lively and illuminating cultural history of Chile during the late 1960s and early 1970s makes clear, the ideals and aesthetics of the “Age of Aquarius” often collided with those of the “Age of Allende.” Psychedelic Chile: Youth, Counterculture, and Politics on the Road to Socialism and Dictatorship traces various countercultural currents: from the unholy trinity of “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” (and their associated hippismo fashion styles) to the organized spiritual movement Poder Joven (Young Power), led by an Argentine guru who called himself “Silo” and preached self-liberation through a mix of Buddhism, anarchism, and Herbert Marcuse. Barr-Melej pays equal attention to Chileans who feared and derided countercultural expression, and he underscores the considerable overlap in objections by traditional conservatives and Marxists. Drawing heavily on printed materials and emphasizing the role of the media, he shows that denunciations of nihilism and libertine sex by right-wing newspapers like El Mercurio were often nearly identical to those by Communist and revolutionary socialist publications like El Siglo and Punto Final, though certainly the political logics behind shared complaints were different. The Left objected to the counterculture’s emphasis on individual self-expression over class mobilization, while the Right saw the counterculture as un-Christian and as a threat to social hierarchy.