participate in this counterculture. we just wanted something different and new, and we thought if we just, you know, loved each other, it could solve all the problems of the world. the changing cultural paradigm in the haight, is worlds away from manson s reality of guards and prison politics. he was diminutive, 5 2 tall. so the reports on him from prison is he was always seeking to ingratiate himself with his co-inmates because he had this low self-esteem. by 1966, manson had spent more than half his life behind bars. he describes a life without purpose. i was doing hard time. my life, my mind was being mutilated by concrete and steel.
he found a way to manipulate people. and it was the ultimate manipulation. the haight-ashbury district, a 40-block deteriorating low-rent area of san francisco, began to emerge in january of 1966 as a mecca of the hippies. in their own words, those who are turned on and tuned in. two years before the murders, in the summer of 1967, san francisco was the place to be. kids from around the country flocked to the epicenter of the counterculture movement, looking for free love, free drugs and freedom from society s expectations. the view was you had to deprogram your mind from all the corrupting, racist, materialistic anti-human values of the dominant culture and
people. and it was the ultimate manipulation. the haight-ashbury district, a 40-block deteriorating low-rent area of san francisco, began to emerge in january of 1966 as a mecca of the hippies. in their own words, those who are turned on and tuned in. two years before the murders, in the summer of 1967, san francisco was the place to be. kids from around the country flocked to the epicenter of the counterculture movement, looking for free love, free drugs and freedom from society s expectations. the view was you had to deprogram your mind from all the corrupting, racist,
materialistic anti-human values of the dominant culture and participate in this counterculture. we just wanted something different and new, and we thought if we just, you know, loved each other, it could solve all the problems of the world. the changing cultural paradigm in the haight, is worlds away from manson s reality of guards and prison politics. he was diminutive, 5 2 tall. so the reports on him from prison is he was always seeking to ingratiate himself with his co-inmates because he had this low self-esteem. by 1966, manson had spent more than half his life behind bars. he describes a life without purpose. i was doing hard time. my life, my mind was being mutilated by concrete and steel. i was fed up with the individual
the youth culture s growing sense of alienation is fueled by a series of assassinations that destroyed a promise of peaceful change. manson finds his voice with a generation of kids in search of a leader in what had become leaderless times. he also said things to them that appealed to them. he spoke about the vietnam war. poor kids are fighting a rich man s war. he spoke about the preservation of wildlife. he was a lot older than they were, but that was not a disadvantage. i ll tell you why. they viewed him as a person with a lot of wisdom and they thought they could learn a lot from him. that summer, as drug addiction and homelessness take over the haight, manson takes control. manson claims he foresaw the decline of the haight. kids were od ing out in the