During the 1950's America was still recovering from the devastating effects of WW2. Events like The Second Red Scare, otherwise known as McCarthyism caused people to live under fear of communism. McCarthyism led the idea of false accusations of communism onto other people without any evidence to support their claim. People everywhere were scared of the wretched communists, scared that the person living next to them for 15 years as a neighbor was in fact a communist, scared that their 2nd grade teacher was in fact a communist.
Because of this fear, many people were led to idea of conformity, encouraged by political figures such as President Eisenhower. And during the 50's, anything that political figures encouraged was among the norm. People took this literally and anybody who was different than the regular customs of the surrounding society, they were automatically a communist!
To go against this idea of conformity, the Beat Generation thus rose to express their ideals among society. The Beat Generation was a group of American writers, producers, and artists who experimented with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, interest within the Eastern religious culture, rejection of materialism, and the idealizing of means of expression.
Now in the new era, many people think that the Beat Generation is long gone, but to think otherwise, it is easy to see their marks on American History. Their influence can be seen on the Hippie movement of the 60's and 70's. Their presence led to a new development of the time's literature and music which is what led to today's results. Beatniks such as Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey led to the icon of psychedelic bus travels. But apart from the LSD and free formed life away from 'the man,' there were also beatniks with a different purpose. Such as Jack Kerouac who was against the idea of 'flower children' as he perceived that they lacked a sense of sincerity within their spiritual pursuits. Many beatniks experimented with Eastern religion and philosophy, leading to ideas such as 'make love, not war' and a new attitude towards different sexuality and more freedom of expression. More hippies equaled more bisexual or homosexual movements, leading to today's more open and accepting community.
Some of the most long lasting affects we have today from the Beat Generation include the revolution of the music industry. Throughout the 60's and 80's, the pop and rock music industry underwent a new reform. Popular music essentially came from the poems of beatniks. For example, the Grateful Dead's music was inspired and traveled with Ken Kesey's Kool-Aid tests, Allen Ginsberg was Bob Dylan's favorite poet, Pink Floyd and The Soft Machine rose to fame after events such as the International Poetry Festival. There are endless connections between the beatniks and music from the times. The sparse and libertarian style of the beatnik's works influenced the music industry to adopt a new freer style, both lyrically and melodically.
Of course, with every movement, there is an opposing side. One of the more notable critics of the Beat Generation was Norman Podhoretz, a student of Columbia who was acquaintances with Kerouac and Ginsberg. in 1958, and article called 'The Know-Nothing Bohemians' was published expressing discontent with this new movement. 'There is a suppressed cry in those books [of Kerouac]: Kill the intellectuals who can talk coherently, kill the people who can sit still for five minutes at a time.' 'The Bohemianism of the 1950s' is 'hostile to civilization; it worships primitivism, instinct, energy, 'blood.' For Podhoretz, 'This is the revolt of the spiritually underprivileged.'
The Beat Generation can't be said to have very impacting effects on America in all fields. The Beat Generation led a new wave of reform within social and cultural aspects of society. It can be said that the Beat Generation was like the Lost Generation, where people who couldn't fit in with the norms of society would naturally find themselves as a beatnik or hippie. The most influential effects from the Beat Generation arose from the Hippie movement from the 60's and 80's and the influence within the musical industry and rise in consumerism.
Effects of the Beat Generation:
* Spiritual liberation, sexual 'revolution' or 'liberation,' i.e., gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women's liberation, black liberation, Gray Panther activism.
* Liberation of the word from censorship.
* Demystification and/or decriminalization of some laws against marijuana and other drugs.
* The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form, as evidenced by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other popular musicians influenced in the later fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets' and writers' works.
* The spread of ecological consciousness, emphasized early on by Gary Snyder and Michael McClure, the notion of a 'Fresh Planet.'
* Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in writings of Burroughs, Huncke, Ginsberg, and Kerouac.
* Attention to what Kerouac called (after Spengler) a 'second religiousness' developing within an advanced civilization.
* Return to an appreciation of idiosyncrasy as against state regimentation.
* Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures, as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from On the Road: 'The Earth is an Indian thing.'
The essence of the phrase 'beat generation' may be found in On the Road with the celebrated phrase: 'Everything belongs to me because I am poor.'
Principal writings of the Beat Generation
* On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
* Junky by William S. Burroughs(1953)
* Howl and other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (1956)
* Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)
* The First Third by Neal Cassady (1970)
* Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson (1983)
* Dinners and Nightmares by Diane Di Prima (1961)
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