Before Hippies There Were Beatniks
by Tyler Woods on Jan. 11, 2010, under Life
Picture by Tom Christopher
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.
beatnik by lklehm
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 distraction—maybe 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.
