Full transcript
0:02so Ginsburg in the work of other beats
0:06were
0:08important um Ginsburg became somebody
0:10that JD mlat of the Y review as you can
0:13see from this quote said was was
0:16important because he's really getting
0:21down to the core of who Americans really
0:26are they're these people who yes on the
0:30surface want to fit in and want to
0:33conform want to be successful but on the
0:36other hand that Americans are really
0:38people who want to be who they want to
0:41be and that there's part of their
0:44mentality that isn't good for them that
0:47uh there's something about the 1950s
0:49that's kind of dangerous because it's
0:52suppressing uh the way people want to
0:54think and then you have uh this federal
0:57judge Clayton horn saying Hey look you
1:00know we can go after
1:02people like Ginsburg if we want but we
1:06won't have any freedom of press or
1:08speech if we reduce the vocabulary only
1:11to stuff that's not offensive so saying
1:14you know yeah this one beat poet and
1:17these beat writers might be offensive
1:19but like where do we draw the line you
1:21know where where are we going to quit
1:22thinking you
1:24know on one hand you have these people
1:28like mclatchy and Horn
1:30saying either you know not really saying
1:34we agree with the ideas that the Beats
1:36have but you know we do agree that they
1:38have the right to express themselves and
1:41that is entirely necessary in American
1:43society and culture that if we really
1:45want to be a nation that can evolve and
1:49change and deal with deal with the
1:51problem we Face we we have to have
1:54artists who hold us accountable for
1:56thinking differently not thinking alike
1:58otherwise we don't have the imagination
1:59to attack problems that fall outside of
2:02the box when it comes to
2:04thinking but you know a lot of people
2:06kind of looked at the beatson and sort
2:08of wrote them off in the 1950s right in
2:11the 1950s the Beats were kind of seen
2:14ultimately as funny as not much of a
2:17joke you know it wasn't like high school
2:19kids across the country started running
2:21away from home on you know um Jack
2:25caroak adventures and you know um how
2:30didn't sell millions of records and make
2:32a ton of money or anything like that um
2:35you know they they kind of remained
2:37outside of of normal society and culture
2:40in a lot of ways they weren't seen
2:42necessarily as a real threat to uh
2:45producing good American citizens in the
2:48future in fact in a lot of ways beats
2:51kind of get neutralized by being made
2:54into into
2:56jokes um if you're a fan of Scooby-Doo
2:59like I was was growing up you probably
3:02recognize Shaggy as a kind of beat
3:04figure right it's totally how he's drawn
3:07and his character is supposed to be this
3:09sort of hair Breen schemer who's more
3:12worried about satisfying his urge to eat
3:16than uh really you know fitting in and
3:20being an asset to the mystery machine's
3:22team um in the ' 50s before Shaggy was
3:25ever invented there was another
3:27fictional character named mayor G crest
3:30who was a character on an early TV show
3:33called The Many Loves of Doby Gillis
3:37and Krebs was drawn to be a beat neck he
3:42played The Bongo he didn't dress in a
3:45way that fit in he talked in an odd ways
3:48he he worked to avoid work and normal
3:52life which was the way a lot of people
3:54saw the Beats they saw them as people
3:56who just didn't have a good work ethic
3:59so you know ultimately really by the end
4:01of the 1950s the Beats seem less
4:05threatening because they've kind of just
4:06become a joke and a lot of their ideas
4:10about standing up to Authority were just
4:13a little ahead of their time again it it
4:15wouldn't be till about 10 years later in
4:17the mid 1960s that the hippies of San
4:20Francisco would look back and begin
4:22drawing on a lot of the Beats ideas and
4:24challenging Authority in normal behavior