Yippies, FSM, Punk

During a class discussion in, Marcus's teacher mentions a political activist group called the Yippies or the Youth International Party. They were a radical group of youth who promoted free speech and opposed the war in the 1960s. The group has been labeled as anarchist and anti-authoritarian, and they were well known for their pranks. One of their beliefs centered around the concept of the New Nation, which called for the creation of alternative, counterculture institutions. In Little Brother, Marcus is trying to redefine the norm and create a new nation--just like the Yippies.

The Free Speech Movement was a student protest that occurred on the UC-Berkeley campus between 1964-1965. The students protested the ban of on-campus political activities and they promoted the students' right to free speech. There was one event where a student was detained in a police vehicle and around 3000 students surrounded the vehicle, disallowing it to leave for 32 hours. This resulted in a mass arrest, similar to what happens in the book at the rave/concert.

Punk rock originated in the mid-1970s in the US, UK, and Australia. The music style is based off of rock and roll, folk, and garage rock and was used by bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. The songs often had anti-establishment lyrics and was organized around a Do It Yourself ethic with bands producing their own recordings. The music style created a subculture of rebelling youth with distinctive clothing styles and anti-authoritarian beliefs. Trudy Doo in the book has a band who plays some sort of punk music, expressing youthful rebellion. I think that Doctorow wants to show how subcultures can still emerge from music and how it can gather a huge mass of people together to support a common cause.