Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

as their primary political and cultural identity. Rather than a full-fledged social orpolitical movement, Yippie was a brief, if powerful, political and cultural fad.The cultural phenomenon of the Youth International Party, however, managed toaccomplish much during the few short months that Yippie existed. With the Festival ofLife the Yippies proved that they could use the media to do advertising work that had thepotential to pull thousands of participants to a street demonstration. At the Yip-In andduring Convention week in Chicago they established that a diverse crowd of participantscould feel communitas as together they embodied their political opinions and culturalchoices for an audience of mainstream America. As evidenced by the numerous letterssent to President Johnson, the Yippies showed that their mass street performances couldindeed provoke this audience into political action. But the Festival of Life was the lastmass Yippie action to attract major media interest. While some Yippies still madeheadlines individually, the Youth International Party never again flourished with thesame national passion.The violence in Chicago had serious consequences for both the Yippies and theirassociates in the New Left, and contributed to the disintegration of these movements. Theanti-war movement felt pressure to make every demonstration as attention-grabbing asthe Festival of Life. Jerry Rubin notes that the New Left “fell into a very American trap:We had to produce more and more. The Movement had to produce more and morestimulation for society out there to keep the Movement going. And where do you go afteryou’re bombing? I mean there’s nowhere to go from there [sic]” (Morrison 289). Thusthe Yippies and their Leftist colleagues fell into a trap of their own making: once they205