"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind" "Blowin' in the Wind" has been described as an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement. In Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song, and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something which captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.
How many roads must a man walk down, Before you call him a man? How much experience does it take before a boy becomes a man? Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail, Before she sleeps in the sand? The white dove is a symbol of peace, how far must peace be pursued around the globe before it is realized? Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly, Before they're forever banned? This is a reiteration of the previous line from the combatant's perspective. The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind. The chorus states a simple metaphorical truth: answers are all around us and easy to perceive if we simply try. They are not always easy to grasp, or to catch hold of much like things cast upon the wind, but not impossible to those committed to it. How many years can a mountain exist, Before it's washed to the sea? Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head, Pretending he just doesn't see? Where the first stanza was focusing on the relative short duration of human behavior, Dylan looks here at the less mutable, things that at least seem more constant. The solid image of the mountain, juxtaposed with slavery and intolerance, give permanence to these two very human behaviors. This makes them seem less mutable. The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind. While the answers are all around us, in the face of such unchangeable images, they become less tangible, less reachable. How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died? Dylan is grieving in this stanza. The song was first performed in 1962, when the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam was beginning to heat up. Dylan and others were beginning to protest in earnest the US's involvement Nam, and the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. and equal rights for all. Dylan with this song was trying to focus attention on answers rather than reactions. He states in a published interview in the June edition of Slip Out! journal, "I still

say [the answer is] in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some[time]...the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know [it]." The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind. The answers are there, easy to find, easy to grasp, if only people try.

Flower power is a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles. Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children. By 1965, hippies had become an established social group in the U.S., and the movement eventually expanded to other countries, extending as far as the United Kingdom and Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil. The hippie ethos influenced The Beatles and others in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, and they in turn influenced their American counterparts. Hippie culture spread worldwide through a fusion of rock music, folk, blues, and psychedelic rock.
Hippies opposed political and social orthodoxy, choosing a gentle and nondoctrinaire ideology that favored peace, love and personal freedom, expressed for example in The Beatles' song "All You Need is Love".