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

straight-laced emphasis on community organizing, letter-writing, and participation inpublic demonstrations, the Yippies encouraged a wide variety of different kinds ofactions, which also reflected their endorsement of the hippie philosophy of do-your-ownthing.You are the Revolution.Do your thing.Do your thing.—Abbie Hoffman (Revolution 10)Three distinct elements of Yippie movement philosophy emerged at the PentagonMarch. First, there was Mobe’s network organization of a wide range of Leftist groups,which the Yippies appropriated for their own non-hierarchical network. Second, therewas the New Left’s concept of participatory democracy that advocated for individualresponsibility and direct action, which the Yippies used to encourage active individualparticipation in the struggle against the political status quo. And finally, there was thephilosophy of do-your-own-thing, an idea that emerged from the hippie countercultureand was put to use by the Yippie movement to spur their members to a wide andwonderful variety of possible public political actions. With the addition of the Yippies’particular love of theatricality, which will be discussed in the next section, these elementsare central to revolutionary action-theater, the Yippies’ networked participatory streetperformance form.79