Any oldfags out there who can speak to Tolkien's role in counterculture in the '60s and '70s?
I know he hated the hippies, calling them a "deplorable cultus", and I think I once heard of him referring to them as his "misguided children" (though I can't find sauce on that right now), but I'd like to get some perspective from someone who was around back then. The only perspective I currently have is from my Dad, who was a non-degenerate halfway-hippie, the kind who appreciated Tolkien from his Catholic background as much as for its anti-industrial and anti-war themes, and who carved "Frodo Lives" in the walls of shelters in the Adirondacks during week-long backpacking trips instead of spray-painting it in the cities.
And, perhaps even more importantly, what role does Tolkien play now in counter-culture? It seems like /pol/ embraces him, despite his hatred of nazi ideology, simply for the purity of his Anglo-Saxon mythology.