American Politics & Pop Culture

The mantra of hippies during the sixties, coined by Timothy Leary, was “turn on, tune in, drop out�. The implication was that you would turn on to drugs, tune into counterculture society, and drop out of mainstream society. The rampant drug use by Wyatt and Billy throughout the movie would suggest that they follow this hippie creed, as well as their search for freedom by dropping out and riding around the country. In “The Ethics of Cultural Opposition� by Timothy Miller, dropping out is described as “the disowning of a life oriented toward work, status, and power; it was a search for poverty, simplicity, and new ideas.� (110) Realistically, dropping out only worked in theory, as even the most free-spirited have to make a living in modern society. As Miller comments, “only a few could be supported directly by hip culture- the dope dealers, a few musicians. So if only for economic reasons, most kept one foot firmly in Establishment society.� (110) Wyatt and Billy’s endeavors were financed through their drug smuggling, so on the surface it appeared as though they had beaten the system and found a way to truly drop out of establishment society. At the end of the movie, Billy suggests that they retire to Florida, to which Wyatt comments “we blew it.� Wyatt had realized that while their journey in search of freedom was successful on a financial level, it was a spiritual failure. As Donald Costello comments in “From Counterculture to Anticulture�, “Captain America’s words ‘We blew it’ are clear in meaning; and they are a warning for a counterculture that can’t really be counter if it accepts the values of the dominant culture into which it enslaves itself.� (190) In the end, as Billy suggests the typical mainstream dream of retiring to Florida, they both realize how trapped they are within the system that they rebel against.