The Beat Generation

 

From Left to Right - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs

The Beat Generation – what is that?  The Beat Generation was not a generation at all.  Nor was it a movement in the general sense of the term.  It was more like a flock of like-minded individuals who felt essentially bonded to each other.  They shared a uniquely different and wildly unconventional view of life, more or less, and were usually in agreement about most things, more or less.

The Beat Generation had its origins in 1940’s America and evolved in two major population centers – New York City, New York and San Francisco, California, on the East and West coasts, respectively.  Why these two particular locations?  In my thinking this was due to the fact that both urban centers had a wildly heterogeneous mix of individuals that came from many countries with dramatically different cultural and ethnic roots.  As a result, they were places where the society at large was open to difference, diversity, and behavioral variations.

Greenwich Village in New York City and the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco became the havens for the unconventional, the writers, the artists, those who were made pariahs on account of their differing attitudes, their natural proclivities, their true selves.  They were disillusioned by the cultural norms that they felt were stifling and constricting.  They were the lovers of true freedom, or what they considered to be true freedom.  They felt oppressed by the ridged sexual codes and attitudes of the time.  They sought more from life.  They were hungry for life.  They questioned conventional values.  They made those around them feel uncomfortable; that was not their intention; that was not their goal.  Life called to them; they wanted to enroll in it and give it their all.  They were intrigued by the state and nature of human consciousness – that particular quality that makes us all human.  Many of their cohorts were intrigued by Buddhism and captivated by its underlying principle of being.

I was born in 1944 near the end of that most horrific epoch in human history, World War II, that spanned the years of 1939 to 1945.  The global impact of this war was so horrific that the carnage that resulted from it defies description.  It is estimated that 75 million human beings were annihilated before it came to its conclusion.  This war also had a profound psychological impact upon humanity and the human condition.

The United States mainland was not attacked during this war, and, as a result, its infrastructure was untouched – this gave the country a substantial economic advantage in that its industrial base remained intact.  This was a time of accelerated material advantage that gave rise to many new products spawned by both ingenuity and invention.  This surge in economic activity catapulted the nation into an age of growth and prosperity for many.

Thanks to the forward-looking policies of President Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal, the artistic communities throughout the country were sustained and supported.  However, the war had a dampening impact upon artistic expression.  Once the war had ended, the newfound prosperity had an invigorating influence on artistic expression in the late 1940s and 1950s and 1960s especially within the urban centers.

I grew up in the Bronx, New York in a classic tenement – the kind that populated much of the city.  In my experience, New York has always possessed a boundless energy fueled by the wondrous diversity of its citizens.  My neighborhood was a reflection of this unrelenting presence of life. 

I was enthralled by the power of words and became enamored of writing as a means to tell my stories and I was attracted to poetry as a vehicle of expression for emotional states of being.  It was during this period of time that I was introduced to the Beat community.  In that era, poetry groups and poetry readings were advertised extensively in the Village Voice and there were many of them.  I had the good fortune to find the New York Poets Cooperative that was under the auspices of a renowned local poet – Barbara Holland.  She was interested in my work and appreciated how I arranged the words on paper.  I became her protégé.  She encouraged me to present my work as a featured reader at the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (East Village).  Holland also encouraged me to lead a New York Poets Cooperative group in Brooklyn.  Unfortunately, it did not attract enough poets to succeed.

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in NYC is a major hub of Beat Generation legacy, home to The Poetry Project (founded 1966) where Allen Ginsberg and other contemporaries read.  The church represents the epicenter of the literary tradition that Ginsberg helped establish He later helped create the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder Colorado.

Coincidentally, I was living in Boulder at the time the Naropa Institute was founded (it is now Naropa University), and I had the opportunity to visit it as a guest.  The Naropa Institute was founded in 1974 by the Tibetan llama Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Buddhist teacher and scholar renowned for his book entitled, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.  It was designed to be a place where Buddhist teaching around the study of the mind was integrated with traditional Western liberal arts and artistic disciplines.  It was here that Ginsberg proposed and led a class, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics as mentioned above, that studied Western poetry centered around the beat poetry of his generation that was largely involved in exploring human consciousness.

 

The following are brief biographies of the predominant leaders of the Beat Generation.

Allen Ginsberg played a fundamental and foundational role within the Beat community of artists as a poet and political activist in support of sexual preference at a time when the homosexual community was demonized by the larger society.  His remarkable piece entitled, Howl is a testimonial to his work.

Allen Ginsberg was born in 1926 and died in 1997.  Although he was unconventional and provocative for his time, his writings were well received and influential.

Other well-known and important members of the Beat Generation include, of course, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

 

Jack Kerouac was Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1922.  He became a renowned writer well known for his major work, On the Road (1957).  Other examples of his work include The Dharma Buns (1958) and Big Sur (1962).   In 1974, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was created at Naropa University (formerly the Naropa Institute) in Boulder, Colorado as mentioned earlier.  It was created by Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and others in Kerouac’s honor (he died in 1969).  This school is still very much alive and thriving.

Kerouac traveled extensively and also resided in San Francisco.  City Lights Booksellers founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti became the meeting place for Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs and others.  Although Ferlinghetti was also a poet, he did not consider himself a member of the group, yet he generously supported their efforts.  It was at City Lights where Kerouac devoted his energy to writing.  City Lights Booksellers situated in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco is still extant; I had the opportunity to visit it quite recently (2026).

 

William Seward Burroughs II was a writer and visual artist.  Burroughs was born in 1914 in St. Louis Missouri and died in 1997 at the age of 83.

Like Ginsberg and Kerouac, Burroghs is considered to be a primary contributor to the identity and purpose of the Beat Generation.  His work was considered to be experimental in nature.  He is most remembered for his major work entitled, Naked Lunch.

 

Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs were contemporaries who were young men that lived through the great economic depression of 1929 and World War II – both destabilizing events that exposed the underlying weakness and frailty of the American culture.  Their viewpoint was shaped by their shared experiences during those troubling times.

In many ways the spirit embodied in the Beat Generation was soon to be carried into the Hippie movement of the 1960s, centered in the Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco, that also challenged conventional culture and thinking.  This new era was inspired and energized by the experience of the seemingly endless Vietnam War (1955-1975).

 

In conclusion, although these writers have died, they have left a significant legacy as reflected in their words, their thoughts, their ideas.  Their insights and the conclusions they have drawn have persisted and endured the battering of time.  Collectively, these representatives of the Beat Generation have lived through some of the worst manifestations of humanity’s capacity to do harm to itself.  They have not only drawn a riveting attention to this bleak reality but also have shown a way out of the darkness and into the brilliance that love, compassion, reason, and understanding can provide.  They have demonstrated the sheer power of words and have helped lead the way to a more sustainable way of thinking and being.

 

The End

 

ICE

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.

 

Immersed within

foreboding shades of the past

Gestapo, Brownshirts

the Klan.

 

Hiding Identity

behind masks

with enough armament

to invoke slaughter and mayhem.

 

Enough firepower

to kill innocents,

to intimidate

with mindless intention,

to suppress

protest,

to stifle

conscience,

to murder

goodwill,

to decapitate

community.

 

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.

 

Subject to

the iron will of

despots,

the capricious

whim of

mindless leaders

without any sense of grace,

lacking moral compass

devoid of empathy and compassion.

 

History is rich

with such examples

of horrific and needless

suffering,

where blood and death and anguish

abound.

 

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.

Growing Up - excerpted from the Caravan of Dreams

I must preface this piece with the reality that I do not consider myself to be a spiritual person – I am not even sure what this is supposed to mean. I am an empiricist and, as such, do not consider myself to have a soul; however, I do possess a human brain that is the organ that adequately and necessarily defines my personhood. As a consequence, I do not consider this to be a spiritually-minded conversation, but rather a thoroughly human one.

I grew up in the Bronx, New York during the 40s and 50s. I was born at the tail-end of that horrific conflagration referred to as World War II. Both my parents came from Southern Italy during the diaspora of the early twentieth century. They came through Ellis Island held in steerage in rather inhumane conditions. They eventually moved to the Upper Westside of Manhattan in an area called Morningside Heights (near Columbia University). This was a tough neighborhood that perpetually tested all who grew up there. It was there that my parents met and would eventually marry.

In regard to the issue of race, young Italian males – although Caucasian – were treated very much like the Black males of today. They were disparagingly regarded as Degos and felt the full weight of prejudice and distrust. The New York City police department of those days would not allow young Italians to congregate – the use of the “billy” was often used and without hesitation. My father and his family and my mother and her family were thrust into the barely contained chaos and madness of New York urban life from agrarian communities in Reggio Calabria (across from Sicily) and the Puglia Peninsula on the Adriatic Coast.

My parents were shaped by the severe economic depression of 1929 – 1938 and their unavoidable exposure to blatant and corrosive prejudice that was the hallmark of that era. As for myself, I grew up in tenement in a literal sea of tenements in the Bronx. The neighborhood was mixed beyond any attempt at a brief description. The five-story walkup tenement could be likened to a landed ship filled with passengers from around the globe – there were representatives from Germany, Ireland, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Italy, Poland, Armenia, Greece, South and Central America, Puerto Rico and China. We had representatives of the major world religions including Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Blacks were everywhere in evidence despite failed attempts of landlords to block their access to their buildings. Kid Gavilan – the  Welterweight boxing champion of the early 1950s - lived on our block (179th St and Bathgate Avenue).

My father grew up tough – he was a seasoned street fighter and even made an attempt to become a professional boxer. He was a strong-willed character with a sheer and unshakeable determination to survive. He had a well-defined prejudicial viewpoint. However, I never faulted him for that – we just argued extensively about most things. His views did not shape my own simply because the environment I grew up in was extremely diverse. In this way, I was thoroughly inoculated with an extreme dose of reality in all its wondrous manifestations.

Caravan of Dreams

 

So many hearts,

suspended upon

this aching rift of time.

 

We move about

on islands of past remembrances

embrace within the shadows of

desire and loss

longing for love

hoping for reprieve.

 

Our stories

though separate

are somehow the same,

our feelings though genuine

rise up from the same creation.

 

Seeds from the same fruit

carried upon the eternal wind

born of cosmic stellar dust

hurtling through icy

expanses of silence and void.

 

We long for completion,

ache for wisdom and

ride the currents with

hope in our bosom,

dreams in our back pocket,

transient vagabonds.

 

Yet, the spidery arms of

death

will finally catch us,

ultimate reality within this

caravan of dreams.

 

As a writer, I pluck from this caravan the essence of all my characters.  For me, they represent the essence of humanity and are reflections of the panorama of human experience.  The conclusions they reach about living and the actions they take while moving through their own particular time are all legitimate in their own right.  They all part of this wondrous caravan of dreams.  It is here, where fiction merges with reality. 

What criteria will ultimately define whether or not Homo sapiens will continue to exist into the distant future?

 

 

Introduction

From the comic perspective, there is no guarantee that the human species will survive well into the future.  The fact that humans are rational and self-conscious beings with the ability to make choices provides us all with the opportunity to establish universally accepted policies that would help define a more peaceful, harmonious and productive environment for not only ourselves but also for future generations.

 Currently in the year 2025 humanity is plagued by a magnitude of serious and foreboding problems.  Some of these include repeated and destructive acts of aggression between peoples of differing and disparate cultural, or religious, or ideological beliefs.  In spite of the fact that we live in a technologically enriched human environment, supposed racial differences remain a source of intense animosity and hatred.  Along with these kinds of conflicts are the much more ominous wars spawned by empire building and driven by hatred and the desire for conquest.  These kinds of issues have plagued human civilizations for thousands of years with no end in sight.

There is also the steady and inescapable evidence of the ongoing reality of the degradation and destabilization of the natural environment as a direct result of human activity, and the substantial peril of climate change that has the potential to undermine the very future of humanity in both the immediate and more distant future.

All of these factors are clearly understandable and recognizable through a process of reasoned and thorough analysis.  The historic record is clear and the long-term science-based projections regarding the impact of climate change are undeniable.

 

Discussion

Considering all these factors as outlined above, I have formulated a list of societal transformations in thinking that suggest a paradigm shift from the current state of human existence that would hopefully disrupt the seemingly endless cycles of violence and retribution and allow for a more peaceful and harmonious human world.

 

·         In this technological age in which the Internet has radically transformed the access and dispersal of information so that all kinds of data are transmitted and received nearly instantaneously, the boundary between that which is representative of the truth and lies and misinformation has grown indistinct.  It is therefore incumbent upon human societies to reject lies and misinformation disguised as truth and embrace and uphold an acceptance of the truth as embodied in science and other disciplines that base information upon trustworthy, reliable and insightful data.  A definitive emphasis on seeking what is true would advance progress in human affairs and provide for a clear recognition of real problems that need attention and require resolution.  The one very particular and immensely important example of this is that of the reality of climate change.  With this emphasis on the truth, effective leadership could be readily chosen to address the enormity of this issue over those who choose to minimize its importance to meet their own ends and promote hidden agendas.

 

·         A universal acceptance of the unavoidable reality that life on planet Earth is fragile – this remarkable planet that sustains us is, after all, suspended in a hostile cosmic environment and dependent upon a thin layer of atmosphere that provides life-giving oxygen and the myriad and complex ecological interrelationships that sustain all of life.  The continued sustenance and abundance of living organisms on earth requires a viable natural environment that is absolutely dependent upon the willingness and determination of humanity to protect it.  Since human activity over the recent past has seriously disturbed the delicate balance that sustains life, it has become imperative to implement universally accepted and ecologically sound policies to protect that atmosphere from the onslaught of poisons and other substances that imperil life on the planet and modify human behavior so that it becomes more congruent with long term survival of the living world.  At the heart of this attitude shift is an acceptance of the nature of reality and incorporation of the unmistakable role of science in uncovering the tangible aspects of the multi-faceted and  intertwined ecological relationships that maintain the living world. 

 

·         A universal acceptance of the reality that all people regardless of skin color, or cultural and ideological differences, or sexual orientation are all members of the same species, Homo sapiens, and are all deserving of the same level of respect, caring, compassion, and rights.  This recognition of the fact that all people are equal members of the human family would require the abandonment of cultural mythologies rooted in so-called racial differences and a universal acceptance that race is in fact an erroneous construct that has little congruence with reality.  Such an acceptance would ultimately undermine noxious and destructive policies that have such a myth as its operating principle – a system of belief that justifies untold wars of aggression and violence that ultimately creates an enormous burden of unnecessary suffering.

 

·         A universal acceptance of the value of the Commons.  The Commons refers to the sum total of those aspects of everyday life that are necessary to serve and maintain community life such as an adequate supply of good nutrition, drinkable water, clean air, access to adequate and dependable health care etc.   The current emphasis placed on the individual and individual rights has led to a distribution of economic resources in many societies that is skewed disproportionately towards those with considerable wealth.  This has led to a diminishment of the emphasis placed upon the pivotal importance of the Commons.  As a result, many communities find themselves bereft of the essential materials and services that are required to sustain and maintain the Commons.  The result of this imbalance has led to a great deal of unnecessary suffering and instability.   

 

·         Traditionally, public education has focused upon the necessity to transfer information in areas of learning that include such disciplines as language, mathematics, history, literature and science to young minds.   However, the predominance of the Internet as a near instantaneous provider of information of all kinds has diminished the value of this approach to some extent.  In the modern era, it is imperative that education has an additional focus - to introduce young minds to the nature of reality and to encourage attitudes that embrace the principles as outlined above.  In addition, public education should also introduce the young to the skills required to explore their own thinking and discipline their minds to understand their own motivations, potential, imagination, creativity and ultimately how to control their own behavior.   The development of such skills would be of unfathomable use in later life – opening up the possibility to use reason, intellect and sound judgment in analyzing and evaluating the immediate environment.

Conclusion

Admittedly, the details (as outlined above) of the paradigm shift suggest an enormous transformation and disruption in the ordinary lives of humans.  I am not proposing that these changes are achievable in their totality.  However, the clear and present danger of doing little or nothing to mitigate the eventuality of a major and catastrophic change in climate may provide sufficient motivation to address this overriding issue with creative and effective resolve.

In order to be effective, any agreed upon strategy to avoid the more serious and devastating aspects of climate change would necessitate a worldwide initiative(s).  If collective action were applied on a worldwide scale, such a unified approach would represent the first time any such action was ever attempted in the entire history of human civilization.

This would represent an enormous first step in approaching the paradigm shift as outlined above.  If this were to happen, the door would be flung open to the possibility of a truly peaceful and harmonious human world.

 

Questions

Since I do not look upon my point of view and perspective as any final word on this subject, I would like to end with the following series of questions –

·         Are you satisfied with the current state of humanity?

·         If not, what kind of scenarios do you envision for humanity in the near and distant future if nothing has changed?

·         If not, what kind of better world would you envision if humanity was to undergo a major transformation – how would it manifest itself?

·         And finally, what would you propose we do collectively to fulfill this dream?

Ode to Existence - Revisited

 

Ode to Existence

Revisited

Enmeshed and so often, entrapped

within this human world

distraction the norm,

conversation distilled into

a kind of relentless babble

born on the wings of bits and bytes,

joy equated with pleasure

and childish excitement,

happiness to be forever

pursued and hoarded like treasure,

a synthetic world of trinkets

and idle possessions,

heirlooms acquired,

building vast fortunes

of synthetic and finite illusions,

all with little consequence

all with little meaning.



And yet,

the reality of existence

moves along its

indefatigable path,

within the boundaries of

the wondrous cosmos.



Surrounded by the matrix

of the living world,

passengers aboard this fabulous spaceship

Earth,

caressed by capricious winds,

greeted by morning mist

tossed upon perilous water,

enlivened by sunlight,

subdued by nightfall,

intimidated by fearsome storm,

forever surprised by the intrinsic beauty

delicate intricacies of nature’s tendrils

that reach into every corner and crevice,

every delicate spring blossom,

every blade of undulating grass,

every tree no matter how massive or

diminished,

every creature within its domain,

every idle thought that triggers

perception,

every substantive or meaningless dream.



Surrounded by this most amazing

universe,

this most fabulous galaxy

decorating the heavens with

innumerable stars,

witness to the dance of the planets,

subtleties of light and dark,

to the wild configurations of

shape and form and texture and color.



Blessed with this most awesome capability

of the sentient mind

to uncover the mysteries of

the nature of things,

to explore the vast and inner terrain of

self,

to find meaning,

to explore possibilities,

to appreciate detail and

discover function,

to search for truth

and find it,

to know peace

and appreciate the essence of love.



Life is a voyage and a journey,

bounded by explosive birth

and the finality of death,

constrained by the

vagaries and vicissitudes

of unfolding time,

life is to be affirmed

by wrapped attention,

life is to be possessed

from moment to moment and

neither squandered nor abandoned.


Finally, I would like to finish on this optimistic note regarding humanity’s future -

There is a deep-seated and persistent hunger that manifests itself globally; this hunger is for a more equitable, just, peaceful and saner world. There are many communities throughout the planet that are working towards this goal in innumerable ways. These organizations are clearly growing in size and number and are becoming more and more interconnected. If this trend continues, it offers significant hope for meaningful change, for it may ultimately expand the idea of family beyond the rigid boundaries of genetic affiliation to encompass all of humanity. This is my fondest desire, for there is so much needless suffering in this somber world that humans have created for themselves.

There is a formidable wealth of imagination, ingenuity, intelligence, generosity and potential that is bound up in the lives of billions of humans whose lives are unnecessarily cut short or minimalized by poverty, disease, conflict, war and scarcity – all of which are wholly preventable.

If that cumulative potential were only released; if war was only made obsolete; if the untold wealth diverted to weapons and instruments of death was only redirected towards enhancing human progress, what a different world we would have. If those who have been taught to look elsewhere for salvation would only look to each other for answers, what a different world we would have. If only all of us would find peace within ourselves and reflect on the well spring of our own behavior, what a different world we would have. If only humanity would speak the word love and truly mean it and accept the implications of this kind of surrender, what a different world we would have. If only we would comprehend the emptiness of greed, prejudice and mindless acquisition, what a different world we would have. If only we would remove the blinders that obstruct our minds and see the beauty inherent in diversity and the universality and interdependence of all of life, what a different world we would have. This is my fondest wish.

Song of the Future

The howl of ignorance,

the call of stupidity

thunders through the halls of government,

the crude and inexorable advancement

of the lie in public spaces,

supplanting intelligence

making a mockery of science

disbanding the common good

condemning compassion and

sentencing the future to an

abyss of misfortune and

needless suffering

on the thunderous wings of

violence and greed.


Is this the song of the future?

Where truth is perpetually

put on trial

and peace is sacrificed on an

altar fashioned from the

bones of the innocent

lost to the lunacy of war and

ruthless ambition.




Is this the song of the future?

Where what lies ahead is

treacherous terrain

filled with foreboding and grief,

where children are taught

to honor what is destructive and hateful,

where the intellect suffers

from a profound lack of nutrition.



Is this the song of the future?