Before Hippies There Were Beatniks
http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2010/01/11/before-hippies-there-were-beatniks/
by Tyler Woods
Jan.11, 2010
I was really glad to read some of the comments from the story about
hippies, and I have come to realize that hippies never did die; we
just get older and wiser. Sometimes we have to dress up and show up,
cut and comb our hair, sober up and fess up, but in all reality, we
are still here and when a cause is needed, count on us old hippies to
still attempt to generate change and not conform to what everyone
else tells us to. I am grateful for the hippy movement supporting the
ability to walk in the truth rather than blindly accepting what the
establishment tells us to believe in, and these feelings got me thinking….
What the heck did we do before the hippies arrived on the scene to
tell us we did not have to conform? That we could speak out against
societal norms and find our way to our own truth. That it was okay to
have an emotion that did not need to be squelched through the frantic
reaching for Prozac or other pharmaceutical drugs to help us conform
to society; that a bad hair day did not require Cymbalta (or the
newest anti-depressant), and that we did not need Facebook or Twitter
to say peace man and have a good day.
Well daddio, like, it was the hip and cool beatniks. A writer named
Jack Kerouac in 1948 coined the phrase "beat generation" to describe
a group of struggling poets and writers all of whom were loosely part
of a new bohemian group of people who were simply tired of conforming
to society and its closed mindedness. It was sort of like being
spiritually liberated. World War II had just ended and the
anti-communist fever was running rabid. Basically, if you did not
conform you might be branded a communist, but the beat culture
believed if you did not conform you were simply hip and not
brainwashed into the McCarthey Era.
The "beat generation" wrote books, songs and poetry as a form of
expression. They were artistic, creative and alive in a country that
was feeling dead. They engaged in casual sex, did drugs, dressed
differently, men grew goatees, men and women wore berets and
participated in non-American religion, and practiced Zen Buddhism.
The word beatnik came up in the mid 50s. It was a term that was used
for those who embraced the way of the beat generation. The term meant
beaten down so to speak and was used in the Jazz music culture. Young
beatniks would gather in coffee shops, dress in black, some wore
turtlenecks and sandals and all were loaded and ready to read their
improvisational poetry to the sounds of finger clicking and bongo
drums in cafés.
It was sometime during the 60s that these creative free thinkers
transformed into what we now call the hippy generation. Styles
started to change, causes got bigger and things started to shift.
Beatniks moved out of coffee shops and into the streets and college
campuses. Beatniks helped introduce the right to have a free voice
and choice. Many rock and rollers were influenced by the beat generation.
It is impossible to talk about the beatnik culture in under 500 words
but there are a few good reads if you want to read more. Beat Culture
and the New America, 1950-1965, by Lisa Phillips is one of them. I
clearly could not even begin to give this generation fair say in the
space provided, but one thing is for sure, up until recently, there
seemed to always be a generation that fought for a cause. A
generation that made a difference in the world of the day. Sure, we
catch little hints of the older generation's ideals here and there
and of the current generation's concerns and awareness about global
warming and going green. They are quiet; seemingly nothing like the
generations before, but maybe a powerful generation will visit again,
perhaps once they come up for air and look away from their cell
phones, Facebooks, handheld games and whatever other weapons of mass
distractionmaybe they will pay attention and realize we are ready
for another change…. Until then, we shall remember the beatniks and
hippies and remember them as cultures that not only wanted change but
created it.
.
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