Aldona Jawłowska drogi kontrkultury

from action, accumulating new experiences and ideas from
day to day. They are formed anonymously and collectively
by an experiencing community. They are not final and
closed visions, but, on the contrary, they leave room for
trying out new ideas. In the utopianism of the movement
lies at the same time its weakness and its strength since
the animation of imagination enabling it to transcend
current structures of thought and reality meets the expectations
of our times.
In our reflections on the evaluation of the significance
and perspectives of the movement we come to the conclusion
that it is directed against the bases of capitalism and
reflects the changes taking place within the social classes
and strata in the West. The increase in the number and
importance of the salaried and hired workers with higher
education, stratification within the so-called white-collar
workers leading to the formation of narrow privileged
groups connected with the governing machine, and the
great number of workers deprived of the possibility of
influencing decisions, even those directly concerning their
own environment, must lead to the uncovering of new
conflicts within Western societies. Groups with highly developed
aspirations and social awareness are in a situation
inconsistent with their image of the position they should
hold in the social hierarchy, a situation below the standards
considered suitable for people with their social and
cultural functions. A significant consequence of the movement
is the unmasking of this conflict, bringing the crisis
into the daylight, shaking the unviolable values of the
system, exciting imagination in the direction of new visions
of social order. The movement has a chance of developing
in this form if it is able to encompass broader circles
of society and to find a wider social front. This is only
possible, however, if one has a crystallized ideology. The
value of the movement also lies in the fact that it reveals
the danger inherent in uncontrolled technological development,
onesided thinking and personality formation. Its
value lies in the return to the basic humanistic values lost
in a materialized society submitted to the rules of operational
thinking.