No question in my mind that the most unfortunate aspect of the 60's was the diversion of young people's energy into drug use...using drugs to entertain themselves. I was not touched in any way by that, as I chose not to use drugs. I will never forget Joan Baez's brilliant comment on the whole thing...

"It's silly to make marijuana illegal. Of course...it's silly to smoke it too."

That got both the establishment AND the hippies mad at her, but she was absolutely right on both counts.

A secondary unfortunate aspect was the promotion of sexual promiscuity ("free love"), which is simply not a very good idea. I wasn't much affected by that either.

When you line up all the good ideals that inspired people in the 60's next to that, the 60's still comes out looking pretty good to me.