Beats 3

0:01so caroak and Ginsburg formed the four

0:06of a group of writers and Jazz musicians

0:09and artists living in New York City in

0:13the 1950s and they really saw themselves

0:16as a first group of people to protest

0:18the blandness of the 1950s the

0:21Conformity and lack of social cultural

0:24purpose of middle class life in the

0:271950s they would do what the hippies get

0:31a lot of credit for later in the 1960s

0:33that is they rejected the American dream

0:37you know like the hippies of the 60s the

0:40Beats pointed at the American dream as

0:44essentially a trick right something that

0:48the pursuit of which benefited big

0:50companies and wealthy people that it

0:54asked people to give up their

0:56individuality to conform to fit in and

0:59get along with other people people they

1:01said it was like living a lie they

1:04argued that normal middle class life in

1:06the pursuit of happiness was a sort of

1:09drug of sorts like opiate of the masses

1:13so at a time when most Young Americans

1:17were celebrating the ability to get

1:19married early and Americans of the 50s

1:21were getting married in their early 20s

1:24for the first time in American history

1:26because it was just then

1:27becoming financially VI able to support

1:31a household in your early 20s right so

1:34when other people were celebrating

1:35getting married early when young men

1:39were getting college degrees and then

1:42becoming Company Men Who fit in and wore

1:45the same gray suit that everybody else

1:46wore to get ahead when they were buying

1:48homes and raising kids the

1:52Beats argued that individual Freedom was

1:56important and by that they

1:58meant you didn't have to get

2:02married get a college degree and get a

2:05company job to be successful uh the

2:08Beats wanted the individual freedom to

2:10move where they wanted to move not have

2:13to stay in the same neighborhood because

2:14they were locked to a morgage and a job

2:17and a relationship they wanted to think

2:20the way they wanted to think not just

2:22the way their Elders told them to think

2:25they wanted to be able to you know have

2:29sex outside of marriage and take drugs

2:33without being expected to get along with

2:35other people right so a lot of

2:38communities of these artist

2:41types in places like New York City saw

2:44themselves as little enclaves of

2:47enlightened thinkers living in a nation

2:49of sheeple essentially right uh New York

2:53City and the the Lower East Side there's

2:56a beat Community you can also find

2:58people like this living in San Francisco

3:01and in north beach at the time um and

3:04you know admittedly they were pretty

3:07self-absorbed I mean these are people

3:10who

3:11think that because they're different

3:14they have the ability to see things

3:15other people can't see uh and that they

3:18see the world in a special way that

3:20other people can't so it does breathe

3:24this Outlook sort sense of superiority

3:27that makes it tough to like them it

3:29makes it tough to hear what they're

3:30saying in the

3:311950s

3:33right I think that a lot of these

3:37countercultural communities in New York

3:40and San

3:41Francisco tended to Revere anything they

3:44saw as different and outside of what

3:46they call the straight world and when

3:48they they refer to the straight world

3:50what they're talking about are normal

3:52middle class people right they're not

3:54talking about this necessarily in a

3:57sexual identity they're just saying the

3:59straight world is the world of people

4:01who are conformist and want to fit in so

4:05you know as a group of writers and

4:08artists musicians they tended to Revere

4:11criminal life uh and prison experiences

4:14as a sort of Freedom they said you know

4:17committing crimes trafficking drugs

4:20getting arrested for fighting these were

4:22things that they did because they wanted

4:26to do them and having paid the price of

4:29going to jail was like a badge of honor

4:31like you they were willing to give up

4:34freedom for a time to have the

4:36experience of being who they wanted to

4:39be authentically even if it was illegal

4:42to do so um they liked jazz music

4:45because you know in jazz particularly in

4:47the

4:481950s the normal music rules didn't

4:50apply it was frenetic it was crazy it

4:53was full of energy um there's a lot of

4:57improvisation so you know Jazz was sort

4:59of smart kid music in the 1950s and so

5:03beats liked it because it fed their

5:05sense that they could understand a music

5:08that normal people didn't understand or

5:11like and it helped that it was tied to

5:13Black Culture it was it was black music

5:16you know the Beats revered Urban Black

5:18Culture they this is going to sound

5:20really weird uh and it's going to sound

5:22a little racist because it kind of is um

5:26but you know the Beats thought that

5:27black people were liberated in lived a

5:30life that wasn't restrained that white

5:33people the straight world didn't expect

5:35black people to be normal now of course

5:38what the beats are totally overlooking

5:40in all this is that you know white

5:43straight culture segregated black people

5:47out of normality that that wasn't

5:49necessarily a choice that black

5:51Americans uh made for themselves it was

5:53something imposed upon them but you know

5:55for the Beats they look at particularly

5:58Urban Black Culture

6:00and they say these people are living the

6:03way we want to live without the

6:04expectations of normal white middle

6:07class life and of course as I've already

6:09insinuated drugs were a really big deal

6:12to the Beet culture of the 1950s as they

6:14would be to the hippies of the

6:171960s uh benzidine

6:19marijuana um heroin uh is uh gaining

6:24Acceptance in these circles drugs were a

6:26big deal to the Beats because they saw

6:28them as a way to get away from normal

6:31feelings and away from a normal mind

6:34they revered drug use because of its

6:36mind altering qualities they they felt

6:39like drugs helped them Break Free of a

6:42sort of conditioning that they had

6:45gotten in their their childhoods and

6:47help them see the world in a way that

6:49normal people couldn't see

6:52them um I think I think an irony here is

6:55part of the reason why beats could exist

6:57at all why they could essentially like

6:59for not to be normal was just because of

7:02the sheer affluence of mainstream

7:04culture that he rejected you know

7:06America was happened to be at a point in

7:08time in the

7:1050s that it had enough money that it

7:12could afford to protect people and

7:14didn't follow the rules so the beats are

7:17criticizing mainstream Society but also

7:20really they benefited from the affluence

7:23that uh it helped out a lot too