Critical Introduction

Hello, readers. We are five undergraduate students at the University of Maryland studying rhetorical analysis. We have been studying 1960’s rhetoric and created this blog, 1960’s Drugs and Psychedelics, to analyze the use of rhetoric on both sides of the debate on psychedelic drugs. We chose these texts because they show the two distinct viewpoints of young people in relation to L.S.D. use and the drug revolution. We are interested in the rise of drugs in that decade and the culture that surrounded it, especially its role in the younger generation.
Our blog features the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane and the article “L.S.D. Users not a Part of the ‘Love Generation’” from an edition of the UCSF student newspaper, both released in 1967. “White Rabbit” glorifies the effects of L.S.D. by comparing a high to being in Wonderland from “Alice in Wonderland”. The article “L.S.D. Users Not a Part of the Love Generation” warns about the potential dangers of L.S.D. use by citing a study done by UCSF psychiatrists that links L.S.D. use with behavioral issues. These two texts use differing appeals to aspects of young people’s minds to argue differing viewpoints on the value of drug use.
Today, drug use is still prevalent throughout the world. Drug laws vary wildly from country to country, and many young people are interested in drug use. For example, recreational marijuana, the most widely used illicit drug in the United States, has already been legalized in several states, but remains a highly controversial issue for the states that have not legalized it. Some states still ban marijuana entirely, and the DEA considers it an extremely dangerous Schedule I drug, meaning it has no accepted medical use and is easy to abuse. Analyzing attitudes on drugs in the ‘60s can help us learn about how modern drug culture and drug laws have developed over time.
We chose to first write about kairos of our texts in order to provide historical perspective for our audience. We then wrote about the audience of both texts, the younger generation, as understanding who the audience was is integral in evaluating the other rhetorical appeals. For the remainder of our posts, we did not follow a particular order.
We hope the readers of our blog come away with a new perspective of the culture and attitudes about drug in the 1960’s and have a further understanding of the popularization of recreational drugs during that period.