The Eternal Rebel: Beatniks and Hippies

 

(This is an excerpt from some recent correspondence – a bit of social history plus some thoughts on rebels and rebellion.)

There was always a kind of narrative among the free spirits of the 1950s (beatniks, jazz musicians, some authors, artists, etc.) that the regular people -- the "squares" -- just didn't get it.  But they were never quite clear about what Mr. & Mrs. America were supposed to "get".  Sure, the idea was to be hip and cool, and rebellious, but proving that their way of life was somehow superior and not just different?  I didn't sense that so much.  I mean, the hippies did the same thing -- You oughta be like us – "Turn on, tune in, drop out" -- but when asked why, there were no clear answers.  What I suspect is that hipness, and all of its cultural clones and manifestations at various times, is self-sustaining only as long as the vast majority are un-hip.  In other words, what's of value is simply being different -- it's self-sustaining on that basis -- and yet there is a certain predictability, if not outright uniformity, in the way subcultures, over time, choose to act out being different.  The hippies did a lot of what the beatniks had done 15-20 years earlier -- starting with sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (or jazz for the beatniks).  But in a paradoxical way, most subcultures depend on the majority culture for support, to some extent -- in other words they really aren't living completely out in the middle of nowhere, off the grid -- although some of the hippie communes came close.  I don't think the beatniks spent much time away from LA or NYC (or the highways connecting the two).

And I'm not saying there weren't alternatives to the world view of the "normal" people.  A lot of the more intellectual beatniks became interested in Buddhism -- Zen especially -- and Hinduism to some extent.  They weren't so hot on monotheism, though -- that was religion for "squares", too hierarchical, too authoritarian, too moralistic, etc.  The Eastern religions were seen as being more along the lines of "doing your own thing".  And this is why they also appealed to the hippies -- with the Beatles making a pilgrimage to India and "love is all you need", the "summer of love" etc. -- all fueled by psychedelics, which were a rarity, but not unheard of, among the beats.  And the few of the old timers made the transition and sort of became icons for the 2^nd time around -- Alan Ginsberg comes to mind, and also William Burroughs.  So what some would call the escapism of the beatniks via alcohol, marijuana, and heroin morphed into hippie-style escapism via marijuana (again) and psychedelics, but also yoga, meditation, and all sorts of New Age practices and modalities.  And a few of them actually did convert and become Hindus or Buddhists -- thinking about Baba Ram Dass and the American Sikhs.  So there was much escaping "from" but also some escaping "to" -- although how long it lasted for most of these folks is another question.  (Some of the last remaining hippies got washed ashore at various Renaissance Fairs.  They're still into marijuana, maybe psychedelics -- Eastern religion not so much.  That takes too much discipline, as it turns out!)

It's a lot easier to escape from than to escape to.  It's basic human nature.  I can tell you what I don't like but may not be certain of what I want (except for less of what I don't like, but that's no help).  The hippies almost had a fetish for being different in every way -- and I imagine it was hard work at times!  Like there were some in Columbia, Missouri who pulled late 1940s cars out of junkyards and put them back on the road because they looked like the car Mr. Natural drives in Zap Comix.  (I kid you not, this really happened.  I saw it with my own eyes. I called them “Freakmobiles”.)  The hippie lifestyle was standardized to a degree I found ironic -- same clothes, same hair, same footwear, same foods (always in the general category of natural, organic, vegetarian... macrobiotic for the true believers), living conditions, etc.  (I think suburban tract houses had more variety in them than most of the hippie pads.)  But this, I think, was a sign of insecurity.  Sure, rebel against the "old folks" -- run away from home, maybe -- but find like-minded people asap!  Strength in numbers, etc.  (And this is still going on -- remember "CHAZ" in Seattle?