Yippies, FSM, & Punk

Yippies, or the Youth International Party, represented a group of youths who believed in free speech and the anti-war movements who also spread their messages via theatrical politically-themed pranks. The Free Speech Movement or FSM was also a student led organization that sought to abolish the norm of the time by signing up African Americans to vote and also by attempting to lift the ban on free speech and academic freedom for students'. Punk is a genre of music that took root in local scenes that rejected the association of the mainstream which also emphasized youthful rebellion. The reason why Doctorow mentions these three things in the novel is because Marcus and his group of XNetters represent the students who were Yippies and who took part in the FSM. The idea of operation false-positive was a modern-day twist on the types of things that both groups of students did during their time. Also, this idea of teenagers doing all of this against the government clearly relates to punk music's emphasis on youthful rebellion which is why Doctorow decided to make a punk rock band the leaders of the youth rally in Dolores Park.