THE BEAT GENERATION: THEY WERE HIPSTERS NOT BEATNIKS

The Second World War ended with an atomic blast and ushered in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The fear of communism spread and Joseph McCarthy stepped into the role of “Grand Inquisitor ” for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Americans wanted to take up life where it had left off before the war years with secure jobs, happy marriages, nice families, well-deserved retirement and a wide variety of consumer goods. The young generation was expected to go to school, get jobs, live moral lives, marry and have children, then take the torch of a prepackaged-life from their parents and pass it onto their progeny. Conformity was safe and the Establishment’s prerequisite for being a good citizen. However, some felt that security and safety were a façade that could be destroyed at any moment. Most Americans tried not to think of their vulnerability even though the world was still reeling from the aftershocks of six million Jews murdered in Third Reich gas chambers, the rape of Europe and the nuclear aftermath of Little Boy and Fat Man killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Out of this silent “escapist ” society rose a group of nonconformists--hipsters--who rejected what they felt were unauthentic, prepackaged lives. They sought spiritual meaning in life instead of going along with America’s newfound affluence and quest for materialism. Their lifestyle was scandalous to conservatives who called them radical, dangerous and bums. Many people of the older generation who had lived through th