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Beatnik

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105-400: Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms of art, such as literature, poetry, music, and painting. They also experimented with spirituality, drugs, sexuality, and travel. The term "beatnik"

210-400: A checkered shirt. Reading from a prepared text, Kerouac reflected on his beat beginnings: It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it ... Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty? Kerouac's statement

315-415: A community. Hence, making emergence the first step to a social movement. This discontent will act as the chain that links common people together, as they share the same experiences and feelings of oppression. "Within this stage, social movements are very preliminary and there is little to no organization. Instead this stage can be thought of as widespread discontent (Macionis, 2001; Hopper, 1950). " Emergence

420-586: A key element in the art of beats, whether it was the Theatrical Event of 1952 at Black Mountain College or Jack Kerouac typing in 1951 the novel On the Road on a typewriter in a single session on a single roll of 31-meter long paper. Representatives of the movement were united by hostility to traditional culture with its conformism and brightly degenerate commercial component. They also did not like

525-415: A large number of people realize that there are others sharing the same value and desire for a particular social change. This third stage, bureaucratization, is when movements must become more organized, centered around a more systematic model. The set up and system for going about the construct must be more formal, with people taking on specific roles and responsibilities. "In this phase their political power

630-490: A life cycle: they are created, they grow, they achieve successes or failures and eventually, they dissolve and cease to exist. They are more likely to evolve in the time and place which is friendly to the social movements: hence their evident symbiosis with the 19th century proliferation of ideas like individual rights, freedom of speech and civil disobedience. Social movements occur in liberal and authoritarian societies but in different forms. These new movements are activated by

735-401: A mixture of elements of pop art and mysticism. Among other artists and works, one can single out the work The Rose by the artist Jay DeFeo , the work on which was carried out for seven years, a huge painting-assembly weighing about a ton with a width of up to 20 centimeters. Alan Bisbort's survey Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture was published by Greenwood Press in 2009 as part of

840-415: A movement may take before proceeding into decline. Success of a movement would result in permanent changes within the society and/or government that would result in a loss of need for protest. Failure is often the result of the incapability to keep a common focus, and work towards the goal in mind. "Failure of social movements due to organizational or strategic failings is common for many organizations". Such

945-481: A plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity" Sociologist Charles Tilly defines social movements as a series of contentious performances, displays and campaigns by which ordinary people make collective claims on others. For Tilly, social movements are a major vehicle for ordinary people's participation in public politics. He argues that there are three major elements to

1050-474: A quotation here and a photograph there—and it was their job to wrap it up in a comprehensible package—and if it seemed to violate the prevailing mandatory conformist doctrine, they would also be obliged to give it a negative spin as well. And in this, they were aided and abetted by the Poetic Establishment of the day. Thus, what came out in the media: from newspapers, magazines, TV, and the movies,

1155-475: A rational and strategic effort by ordinary people to change society or politics. The form of the resources shapes the activities of the movement (e.g., access to a TV station will result in the extensive use TV media). Movements develop in contingent opportunity structures that influence their efforts to mobilize; and each movement's response to the opportunity structures depends on the movement's organization and resources Critics of this theory argue that there

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1260-492: A rebellion against the middle-class culture of beauty salons. Marijuana use was associated with the subculture, and during the 1950s, Aldous Huxley 's The Doors of Perception further influenced views on drugs. By 1960, a small "beatnik" group in Newquay , Cornwall, England (including a young Wizz Jones ) had attracted the attention and abhorrence of their neighbours for growing their hair beyond shoulder length, resulting in

1365-420: A route would result in the gradual breaking up of an organization, and out of the stages of movement. Co-optation results when people or groups are integrated and shift away from the social movement's initial concerns and values. Repression is another example, when the movement is slowly wiped away from the public platform through means of an outside force, usually being the government. The last route into declining

1470-499: A shared normative orientation; (3.) the sharing of a concern for change of the status quo and (4.) the occurrence of moments of practical action that are at least subjectively connected together across time addressing this concern for change. Thus we define a social movement as a form of political association between persons who have at least a minimal sense of themselves as connected to others in common purpose and who come together across an extended period of time to effect social change in

1575-926: A significant impact on American culture and society as they challenged the norms and values of their time. They influenced many aspects of art, literature, music, film, fashion, and language. They also inspired many social movements and subcultures that followed them, such as the hippies , the counterculture , the New Left , the environmental movement , and the LGBT movement . Some of the more notable figures who were influenced by or associated with beatniks include Bob Dylan , The Beatles , Andy Warhol , Ken Kesey , and Timothy Leary . Beatniks have been portrayed or parodied in many works of fiction, such as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis , A Charlie Brown Christmas , The Munsters , The Flintstones , The Simpsons , and SpongeBob SquarePants . In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced

1680-405: A social movement as "a set of opinions and beliefs in a population which represents preferences for changing some elements of the social structure and/or reward distribution of a society." According to Paul van Seeters and Paul James , defining a social movement entails a few minimal conditions of 'coming together': (1.) the formation of some kind of collective identity; (2.) the development of

1785-413: A social movement to improve (or defend) their conditions. There are two significant problems with this theory. First, since most people feel deprived at one level or another almost all the time, the theory has a hard time explaining why the groups that form social movements do when other people are also deprived. Second, the reasoning behind this theory is circular – often the only evidence for deprivation

1890-441: A social movement to organize it must have strong leadership and sufficient resources. Political opportunity refers to the receptivity or vulnerability of the existing political system to challenge. This vulnerability can be the result of any of the following (or a combination thereof): One of the advantages of the political process theory is that it addresses the issue of timing or emergence of social movements. Some groups may have

1995-411: A social movement: Sidney Tarrow defines a social movement as "collective challenges [to elites, authorities, other groups or cultural codes] by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and authorities." He specifically distinguishes social movements from political parties and advocacy groups . The sociologists John McCarthy and Mayer Zald define as

2100-437: A specific purpose or program ... It was many different, conflicting, shifting states of mind. Since 1958, the terms Beat Generation and Beat have been used to describe the antimaterialistic literary movement that began with Kerouac in the 1940s and continued into the 1960s. The Beat philosophy of antimaterialism and soul searching influenced 1960s musicians such as Bob Dylan , the early Pink Floyd and The Beatles . However,

2205-760: A spiritual path in their quests to provide answers to universal questions and concepts. As a result, the Beat philosophy stressed the bettering of the inner self and the rejection of materialism , and postulated that East Asian religions could fill a religious and spiritual void in the lives of many Americans. Many scholars speculate that Beat writers wrote about Eastern religions to encourage young people to practice spiritual and sociopolitical action. Progressive concepts from these religions, particularly those regarding personal freedom, influenced youth culture to challenge capitalist domination, break their generation's dogmas, and reject traditional gender and racial rules. Beatnik art

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2310-457: A stereotype found in cartoon drawings and (in some cases at worst) twisted, sometimes violent media characters. In 1995, film scholar Ray Carney wrote about the authentic beat attitude as differentiated from stereotypical media portrayals of the beatnik: Much of Beat culture represented a negative stance rather than a positive one. It was animated more by a vague feeling of cultural and emotional displacement, dissatisfaction, and yearning, than by

2415-478: A television interview with Alan Whicker on BBC television's Tonight series. The Beat philosophy was generally countercultural and antimaterialistic, and stressed the importance of bettering one's inner self over material possessions. Some Beat writers, such as Gary Snyder , began to delve into Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism . Politics tended to be liberal , left-wing and anti-war, with support for causes such as desegregation (although many of

2520-404: A wish for change in social customs, ethics and values which oppress certain communities. The birth of a social movement needs what sociologist Neil Smelser calls an initiating event : a particular, individual event that will begin a chain reaction of events in the given society leading to the creation of a social movement. The root of this event must be the result of some common discontent among

2625-467: Is bound to fail." Activists too often make the mistake of trying to convince people to address their issues. A mobilization strategy aimed at large-scale change often begins with action a small issue that concerns many people. Popovic also argues that a social movement has little chance of growing if it relies on boring speeches and the usual placard waving marches. He argues for creating movements that people actually want to join. OTPOR! succeeded because it

2730-587: Is claimed that Caen coined the term by adding the Yiddish suffix -nik to Beat as in the Beat Generation. Nik, a suffix was also due to Sputnik craze, the first satellite orbiting the planet and fired up in 1957. Became used in many colloquial synthetics, as in Nogoodnik, etc. However, an earlier source from 1954, or possibly 1957 after the launch of Sputnik , is ascribed to Ethel (Etya) Gechtoff,

2835-432: Is going mainstream, which is generally perceived as an overall success. This is when goals of the movement are taken into society as a part of daily life, making it a 'social norm.' For example, birth control is still a greatly debated topic on a government level, but it has been accepted into social life as a common thing that exists. It is important to recognize that though movements may disintegrate and cease to be active,

2940-508: Is greater than in the previous stages in that they may have more regular access to political elites." In this stage, one organization may take over another one in order to obtain a greater status and formal alliance. This 'taking over' may be a positive or negative move for organizations. Ella Baker, an activist who played a role in the NAACP, had proposed to the students of the student movement to start their own organization. This becomes known as

3045-684: Is in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. Social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change , or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals , organizations , or both. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist

3150-405: Is prior to any sort of organized resistance to the condition of society. Jonathan Christiansen's essay on the four stages of social movement dissects further into the historical sociology of how each stage affects the whole movement. The Civil Rights Movement's early stages are an example of the public display of protest that is utilized to push a movement into the next stages. "It was not until after

3255-473: Is that for most, neither insiders to a movement nor outsiders apply consistent labels or even descriptive phrases. Unless there is a single leader who does, or a formal system of membership agreements, activists will typically use diverse labels and descriptive phrases that require scholars to discern when they are referring to the same or similar ideas, declare similar goals, adopt similar programs of action, and use similar methods. There can be great differences in

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3360-522: Is the direction of contemporary art that originated in the United States as part of the beat movement in the 1960s. The movement itself, unlike the so-called " Lost Generation " did not set itself the task of changing society, but tried to distance itself from it, while at the same time trying to create its own counter-culture. The art created by artists was influenced by jazz , drugs, occultism , and other attributes of beat movement. The scope of

3465-638: Is the social movement. If deprivation is claimed to be the cause but the only evidence for such is the movement, the reasoning is circular. Mass society theory argues that social movements are made up of individuals in large societies who feel insignificant or socially detached. Social movements, according to this theory, provide a sense of empowerment and belonging that the movement members would otherwise not have. Very little support has been found for this theory. Aho (1990), in his study of Idaho Christian Patriotism, did not find that members of that movement were more likely to have been socially detached. In fact,

3570-685: Is too much of an emphasis on resources, especially financial resources. Some movements are effective without an influx of money and are more dependent upon the movement members for time and labor (e.g., the civil rights movement in the U.S.). Political process theory is similar to resource mobilization in many regards, but tends to emphasize a different component of social structure that is important for social movement development: political opportunities . Political process theory argues that there are three vital components for movement formation: insurgent consciousness, organizational strength, and political opportunities. Insurgent consciousness refers back to

3675-814: The Great Depression during their formative years , seeing slightly older people serve in WWII and being influenced by the rise of left-wing politics and the spread of Communism . The name was inspired by the Russian suffix "-nik", which was used to denote members of various political or social groups. The term "beat" originally was used by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to describe his social circle of friends and fellow writers, such as Allen Ginsberg , William S. Burroughs , and Neal Cassady . Kerouac said that "beat" had multiple meanings, such as "beaten down", "beatific", "beat up", and "beat out". He also associated it with

3780-568: The House of Commons to deliver a petition demanding the repeal of the Act, which the government refused to do. Soon, large riots broke out across London and embassies and Catholic owned businesses were attacked by angry mobs. Other political movements that emerged in the late 18th century included the British abolitionist movement against slavery (becoming one between the sugar boycott of 1791 and

3885-535: The Napoleonic Wars entered a period of social upheaval characterised by the growing maturity of the use of social movements and special-interest associations. Chartism was the first mass movement of the growing working-class in the world. It campaigned for political reform between 1838 and 1848 with the People's Charter of 1838 as its manifesto – this called for universal suffrage and the implementation of

3990-467: The Second World War entered a period of radical reform and change. In the post-war period, feminism , gay rights movement , peace movement , civil rights movement , anti-nuclear movement and environmental movement emerged, often dubbed the new social movements They led, among other things, to the formation of green parties and organisations influenced by the new left . Some find in

4095-463: The communist movement , other than the antipathy both philosophies shared towards capitalism. Those with only a superficial familiarity with the Beat movement often saw this similarity and assumed the two movements had more in common. The Beat movement introduced Asian religions to Western society. These religions provided the Beat generation with new views of the world and corresponded with its desire to rebel against conservative middle-class values of

4200-784: The industrialization and urbanization of 19th-century societies. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of expression, education and relative economic independence prevalent in the modern Western culture are responsible for the unprecedented number and scope of various contemporary social movements. Many of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in Kenya, to oppose Western colonialism. Social movements have been and continue to be closely connected with democratic political systems . Occasionally, social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but more often they have flourished after democratization. Over

4305-629: The secret ballot , amongst other things. The term "social movements" was introduced in 1848 by the German Sociologist Lorenz von Stein in his book Socialist and Communist Movements since the Third French Revolution (1848) in which he introduced the term "social movement" into scholarly discussions – actually depicting in this way political movements fighting for the social rights understood as welfare rights . The labor movement and socialist movement of

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4410-407: The worker class . Many other social movements were created at universities , where the process of mass education brought many people together. With the development of communication technologies, creation and activities of social movements became easier – from printed pamphlets circulating in the 18th century coffeehouses to newspapers and Internet , all those tools became important factors in

4515-460: The 1950s, old post-1930s radicalism, mainstream culture, and institutional religions in America. By 1958, many Beat writers published writings on Buddhism. This was the year Jack Kerouac published his novel The Dharma Bums , whose central character (whom Kerouac based on himself) sought Buddhist contexts for events in his life. Allen Ginsberg's spiritual journey to India in 1963 also influenced

4620-450: The Beat movement. After studying religious texts alongside monks, Ginsberg deduced that what linked the function of poetry to Asian religions was their mutual goal of achieving ultimate truth. His discovery of Hindu mantra chants, a form of oral delivery, subsequently influenced Beat poetry. Beat pioneers who followed a Buddhism-influenced spiritual path felt that Asian religions offered a profound understanding of human nature and insights into

4725-718: The Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme court decision (1954), which outlawed segregation in Public schools, and following the arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to comply with segregation laws on city buses by giving up her bus seat to a white man, that the American Civil Rights Movement would proceed to the next stage – coalescence." The impact of a black woman, Rosa Parks , riding in

4830-662: The President of the Protestant Association in 1779. The Association had the support of leading Calvinist religious figures, including Rowland Hill , Erasmus Middleton , and John Rippon . Gordon was an articulate propagandist and he inflamed the mob with fears of Papism and a return to absolute monarchical rule . The situation deteriorated rapidly, and in 1780, after a meeting of the Protestant Association, its members subsequently marched on

4935-547: The SNCC, the student nonviolent coordinating committee (1960s). The students could have joined forces with the SCLC, an already existing organization, but that would have been a poor bureaucratizing decision, as they would succumb to old ideologies. New and progressive ideas that challenge prior authority are crucial to social change. The declining of a social movement does not necessarily mean failure. There are multiple routes in which

5040-625: The activity was concentrated in the cultural circles of New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and North Carolina. Prominent representatives of the trend were artists Wallace Berman , Jay DeFeo , Jess Collins , Robert Frank , Claes Oldenburg and Larry Rivers . The culture of the beat generation has become a kind of intersection for representatives of the creative intellect of the United States associated with visual and performing art, which are usually attributed to other areas and trends of artistic expression, such as assemblage , happening , funk art and Neo-Dadaism . They made efforts to destroy

5145-403: The aggregation of resources by social movement entrepreneurs and movement organizations, who use these resources to turn collective dissent in to political pressure. Members are recruited through networks; commitment is maintained by building a collective identity, and through interpersonal relationships. Resource Mobilization Theory views social movement activity as "politics by other means":

5250-464: The approach of traditional culture to hushing up the dark side of American life – violence, corruption, social inequality, racism. They tried through art to create a new way of life based on the ideals of rebellion and freedom. Critics highlight the artist Wallace Berman as the main representative of the movement. In his work concentrated many of the characteristic features of hipsters, especially in his collages made on photocopied photographs, which are

5355-573: The authorities to concede to the movement's demands. Wilkes was returned to Parliament, general warrants were declared unconstitutional, and press freedom was extended to the coverage of Parliamentary debates . A much larger movement of anti-Catholic protest was triggered by the Papists Act 1778 , which eliminated a number of the penalties and disabilities endured by Roman Catholics in England , and formed around Lord George Gordon , who became

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5460-637: The beatnik epicenter of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Among the humor books, Beat, Beat, Beat was a 1959 Signet paperback of cartoons by Phi Beta Kappa Princeton graduate William F. Brown, who looked down on the movement from his position in the TV department of the Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn advertising agency. Suzuki Beane (1961), by Sandra Scoppettone with Louise Fitzhugh illustrations,

5565-414: The being, existence and reality of mankind. Many of the Beat advocates believed that the core concepts of Asian religious philosophies had the means of elevating American society's consciousness, and these concepts informed their main ideologies. Notable Beat writers such as Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder were drawn to Buddhism to the extent that they each, at different periods in their lives, followed

5670-412: The communist regimes of Eastern Europe , developed after trade union activist Anna Walentynowicz was fired from work. The South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo grew out of a road blockade in response to the sudden selling off of a small piece of land promised for housing to a developer. Such an event is also described as a volcanic model – a social movement is often created after

5775-424: The dead wall window of our civilization ... Kerouac explained what he meant by "beat" at a Brandeis Forum, "Is There A Beat Generation?", on November 8, 1958, at New York's Hunter College Playhouse. The seminar's panelists were Kerouac, James A. Wechsler , Princeton anthropologist Ashley Montagu and author Kingsley Amis . Wechsler, Montagu, and Amis wore suits, while Kerouac was clad in black jeans, ankle boots and

5880-410: The end of the 1990s the emergence of a new global social movement, the anti-globalization movement . Some social movement scholars posit that with the rapid pace of globalization, the potential for the emergence of new type of social movement is latent—they make the analogy to national movements of the past to describe what has been termed a global citizens movement . Several key processes lie behind

5985-429: The figures associated with the original Beat movement, particularly Kerouac, embraced libertarian and conservative ideas). An openness to African American culture and arts was apparent in literature and music, notably jazz. While Caen and other writers implied a connection with communism, no obvious or direct connection occurred between Beat philosophy, as expressed by the literary movement's leading authors, and that of

6090-567: The growing movement for popular sovereignty among the middle classes – people began chanting "Wilkes and Liberty" in the streets. After a later period of exile brought about by further charges of libel and obscenity , Wilkes stood for the Parliamentary seat at Middlesex , where most of his support was located. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768, a mass movement of support emerged, with large demonstrations in

6195-608: The growth of the social movements. Finally, the spread of democracy and political rights like the freedom of speech made the creation and functioning of social movements much easier. Nascent social movements often fail to achieve their objectives because they fail to mobilize sufficient numbers of people. Srdja Popovic, author of Blueprint for Revolution, and spokesperson for OTPOR! , says that movements succeed when they address issues that people actually care about. "It's unrealistic to expect people to care about more than what they already care about, and any attempt to make them do so

6300-501: The history of social movements. Urbanization led to larger settlements, where people of similar goals could find each other, gather and organize. This facilitated social interaction between scores of people, and it was in urban areas that those early social movements first appeared. Similarly, the process of industrialization which gathered large masses of workers in the same region explains why many of those early social movements addressed matters such as economic wellbeing, important to

6405-438: The ideas of deprivation and grievances. The idea is that certain members of society feel like they are being mistreated or that somehow the system is unjust. The insurgent consciousness is the collective sense of injustice that movement members (or potential movement members) feel and serves as the motivation for movement organization. Organizational strength falls inline with resource-mobilization theory, arguing that in order for

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6510-605: The impact that they have in the social realm is success in its own way. It sparks the notion in new generations that the possibility to organize and make change is there. Sociologists have developed several theories related to social movements [Kendall, 2005]. Some of the better-known approaches are outlined below. Chronologically they include: Deprivation theory argues that social movements have their foundations among people who feel deprived of some good(s) or resource(s). According to this approach, individuals who are lacking some good, service, or comfort are more likely to organize

6615-601: The importance of culture. One advance on the political process theory is the political mediation model, which outlines the way in which the political context facing movement actors intersects with the strategic choices that movements make. An additional strength of this model is that it can look at the outcomes of social movements not only in terms of success or failure but also in terms of consequences (whether intentional or unintentional, positive or negative) and in terms of collective benefits . John Clellon Holmes John Clellon Holmes (March 12, 1926 – March 30, 1988)

6720-428: The insurgent consciousness and resources to mobilize, but because political opportunities are closed, they will not have any success. The theory, then, argues that all three of these components are important. Critics of the political process theory and resource-mobilization theory point out that neither theory discusses movement culture to any great degree. This has presented culture theorists an opportunity to expound on

6825-491: The jazz/ hipster slang of the 1940s, peppering their works with words such as "square", "cats", "cool" and "dig". At the time the term "beatnik" was coined, a trend existed among young college students to adopt the stereotype. Men emulated the trademark look of bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie by wearing goatees , horn-rimmed glasses and berets , rolling their own cigarettes, and playing bongos . Fashions for women included black leotards and long, straight, unadorned hair, in

6930-490: The key to joining the movement was having a friend or associate who was a member of the movement. Social Strain Theory, is the "proposal that pressure derived from social factors, such as lack of income or lack of quality education, drives individuals to commit crime." This theory is also subject to circular reasoning as it incorporates, at least in part, deprivation theory and relies upon it, and social/structural strain for

7035-680: The late 19th century are seen as the prototypical social movements, leading to the formation of communist and social democratic parties and organisations. These tendencies were seen in poorer countries as pressure for reform continued, for example in Russia with the Russian Revolution of 1905 and of 1917 , resulting in the collapse of the Czarist regime around the end of the First World War . In 1945, Britain after victory in

7140-399: The mass petition march. However, the movement was careful not to cross the line into open rebellion; it tried to rectify the faults in governance through appeals to existing legal precedents and was conceived of as an extra-Parliamentary form of agitation to arrive at a consensual and constitutional arrangement. The force and influence of this social movement on the streets of London compelled

7245-508: The more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations . On the other hand, some social movements do not aim to make society more egalitarian, but to maintain or amplify existing power relationships. For example, scholars have described fascism as a social movement. Political science and sociology have developed a variety of theories and empirical research on social movements. For example, some research in political science highlights

7350-815: The most famous beatnik venues were the Six Gallery in San Francisco, where Ginsberg first read his poem " Howl " in 1955; the Gaslight Cafe in New York City, where many poets performed; and the City Lights Bookstore , also in San Francisco, where Kerouac's novel On the Road was published in 1957. Beatniks also traveled across the country and abroad, seeking new experiences and inspiration. Some of their destinations included Mexico, Morocco, India, Japan, and France. Beatniks had

7455-420: The movement and its aims later came to use the term, and it is the term by which they are known to history. Caution must always be exercised in any discussion of amorphous phenomena such as movements to distinguish between the views of insiders and outsiders, supporters and antagonists, each of whom may have their own purposes and agendas in characterization or mischaracterization of it. Social movements have

7560-403: The movement who went on to become one of its chroniclers, believed that the news media saddled the movement for the long term with a set of false images: Reporters are not generally well-versed in artistic movements, or the history of literature or art. And most are certain that their readers, or viewers, are of limited intellectual ability and must have things explained simply, in any case. Thus,

7665-468: The musical term "beat", which referred to the rhythmic patterns of jazz , a genre that influenced many beatniks. Beatniks often were stereotyped as wearing black clothing, berets, sunglasses, and goatees, and speaking in hip slang that incorporated words like "cool", "dig", "groovy", and "square". They frequented coffeehouses, bookstores, bars, and clubs, where they listened to jazz, read poetry, discussed philosophy, and engaged in political activism. Some of

7770-417: The name of that purpose. The early growth of social movements was connected to broad economic and political changes in England in the mid-18th century, including political representation , market capitalization , and proletarianization . The first mass social movement catalyzed around the controversial political figure John Wilkes . As editor of the paper The North Briton , Wilkes vigorously attacked

7875-489: The nature of his "divine vision". The origin of the term beat being applied to a generation was conceived by Jack Kerouac who told Holmes, "You know, this is really a beat generation ." The term later became part of common parlance when Holmes published an article in The New York Times Magazine entitled "This Is the Beat Generation" on November 16, 1952 (pg.10). In the article, Holmes attributes

7980-584: The new administration of Lord Bute and the peace terms that the new government accepted at the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years' War . Charged with seditious libel , Wilkes was arrested after the issue of a general warrant , a move that Wilkes denounced as unlawful – the Lord Chief Justice eventually ruled in Wilkes favour. As a result of this, Wilkes became a figurehead to

8085-558: The past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent . Modern movements often use technology and the internet to mobilize people globally. Adapting to communication trends is a common theme among successful movements. Research is beginning to explore how advocacy organizations linked to social movements in the U.S. and Canada use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. Mario Diani argues that nearly all definitions share three criteria: "a network of informal interactions between

8190-547: The phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York City at that time. The name came up in conversation with John Clellon Holmes , who published an early Beat Generation novel titled Go (1952), along with the manifesto This Is the Beat Generation in The New York Times Magazine . In 1954, Nolan Miller published his third novel Why I Am So Beat (Putnam), detailing

8295-533: The relation between popular movements and the formation of new political parties as well as discussing the function of social movements in relation to agenda setting and influence on politics. Sociologists distinguish between several types of social movement examining things such as scope, type of change, method of work, range, and time frame. Some scholars have argued that modern Western social movements became possible through education (the wider dissemination of literature ) and increased mobility of labor due to

8400-450: The reporters in the media tried to relate something that was new to already preexisting frameworks and images that were only vaguely appropriate in their efforts to explain and simplify. With a variety of oversimplified and conventional formulas at their disposal, they fell back on the nearest stereotypical approximation of what the phenomenon resembled, as they saw it. And even worse, they did not see it clearly and completely at that. They got

8505-406: The role of exceptional levels of deprivation, grievance, or social strain in motivating mass protest—Resource Mobilization perspectives hold "that there is always enough discontent in any society to supply the grass-roots support for a movement if the movement is effectively organized and has at its disposal the power and resources of some established elite group" Movement emergence is contingent upon

8610-496: The second great petition drive of 1806), and possibly the upheaval surrounding the French and American Revolutions . In the opinion of Eugene Black (1963), "...association made possible the extension of the politically effective public. Modern extra parliamentary political organization is a product of the late eighteenth century [and] the history of the age of reform cannot be written without it. From 1815, Britain after victory in

8715-525: The series Greenwood Press Guides to Subcultures and Countercultures . The book includes a timeline, a glossary and biographical sketches. Others in the Greenwood series: Punks , Hippies , Goths and Flappers . Tales of Beatnik Glory: Volumes I and II by Ed Sanders is, as its name suggests, a collection of short stories, and a definitive introduction to the beatnik scene as lived by its participants. The author, who went on to found The Fugs , lived in

8820-707: The soundtrack of the beat movement was the modern jazz pioneered by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie , which the media dubbed bebop . Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg spent much of their time in New York jazz clubs such as the Royal Roost , Minton's Playhouse , Birdland and the Open Door, "shooting the breeze" and "digging the music". Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis rapidly became what Ginsberg dubbed "secret heroes" to this group of aesthetes. The Beat authors borrowed much from

8925-400: The stereotype was absorbed into American culture: "Beat Generation" sold books, sold black turtleneck sweaters and bongos, berets and dark glasses, sold a way of life that seemed like dangerous fun—thus to be either condemned or imitated. Suburban couples could have beatnik parties on Saturday nights and drink too much and fondle each other's wives. Kerouac biographer Ann Charters noted that

9030-654: The streets under the slogan "No liberty, no King." Stripped of the right to sit in Parliament, Wilkes became an Alderman of London in 1769, and an activist group called the Society for the Supporters of the Bill of Rights began aggressively promoting his policies. This was the first ever sustained social movement: it involved public meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets on an unprecedented scale and

9135-454: The term "Beat" was appropriated to become a Madison Avenue marketing tool: The term caught on because it could mean anything. It could even be exploited in the affluent wake of the decade's extraordinary technological inventions. Almost immediately, for example, advertisements by "hip" record companies in New York used the idea of the Beat Generation to sell their new long-playing vinyl records . Lee Streiff, an acquaintance of many members of

9240-832: The underlying motivation of social movement activism. However, social movement activism is, like in the case of deprivation theory, often the only indication that there was strain or deprivation. Resource mobilization theory emphasizes the importance of resources in social movement development and success. Resources are understood here to include: knowledge, money, media, labor, solidarity, legitimacy, and internal and external support from power elite. The theory argues that social movements develop when individuals with grievances are able to mobilize sufficient resources to take action.The emphasis on resources offers an explanation why some discontented/deprived individuals are able to organize while others are not. In contrast to earlier collective behavior perspectives on social movements—which emphasized

9345-410: The wall between art and real life, so that art would become a living experience in cafes or jazz clubs, and not remain the prerogative of galleries and museums. Many works of artists of the movement were created on the verge of various types of art . Artists wrote poetry and poets painted, something like this can describe the processes taking place within the framework of the movement. Performances were

9450-428: The way that is done, to recognize who is and who is not a member or an allied group : It is often outsiders rather than insiders that apply the identifying labels for a movement, which the insiders then may or may not adopt and use to self-identify. For example, the label for the levellers political movement in 17th-century England was applied to them by their antagonists, as a term of disparagement . Yet admirers of

9555-529: The way we had heard the word "beat" spoken on street corners on Times Square and in the Village , in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America—beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction. We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer. It never meant juvenile delinquents , it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out

9660-446: The weekend parties of four students. "Beat" came from underworld slang—the world of hustlers, drug addicts, and petty thieves—from which Allen Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. "Beat" was slang for "beaten down" or "downtrodden". However, to Kerouac and Ginsberg, it also had a spiritual connotation, as in " beatitude ". Other adjectives discussed by Holmes and Kerouac were "found" and "furtive". Kerouac felt he had identified (and

9765-474: The well-known owner of a San Francisco Art Gallery. Objecting to the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to The New York Times to deplore "the foul word beatnik", commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man." In the vernacular of the period, "Beat" referred to Beat culture, attitude and literature; while "beatnik" referred to

9870-439: The whites-only section of the bus (although she was not acting alone or spontaneously—typically activist leaders lay the groundwork behind the scenes of interventions designed to spark a movement). This leads into coalesce because now the common dilemma and source of oppression is being pinned down, allowing for organizations and appearance to the public eye to be established. The Polish Solidarity movement, which eventually toppled

9975-553: The word "beatnik" is traditionally ascribed to Herb Caen from his column in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958, where he wrote " Look magazine , preparing a picture spread on S.F.'s Beat Generation (oh, no, not AGAIN!), hosted a party in a No. Beach house for 50 Beatniks, and by the time word got around the sour grapevine, over 250 bearded cats and kits were on hand, slopping up Mike Cowles' free booze. They're only Beat, y'know, when it comes to work ..." It

10080-476: The word Beat as being to mean beatific...People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, buggies, and finally, I was called the "avatar" of all this. In light of what he considered beat to mean and what beatnik had come to mean, Kerouac said to a reporter "I'm not a beatnik. I'm a Catholic", showing the reporter a painting of Pope Paul VI and saying "You know who painted that? Me." In her memoir Minor Characters , Joyce Johnson described how

10185-682: Was a Bleecker Street beatnik spoof of Kay Thompson 's Eloise series (1956–1959). In the 1960s comic book, the Justice League of America 's sidekick Snapper Carr was portrayed as a stereotypical beatnik, down to his lingo and clothes. The DC Comics character Jonny Double is portrayed as a beatnik. In San Francisco, Jerry and Estelle Cimino operate their Beat Museum , which began in 2003 in Monterey, California and moved to San Francisco in 2006. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth used fiberglass to build his Beatnik Bandit in 1960. Today, this car

10290-482: Was a product of the stereotypes of the 30s and 40s—though garbled—of a cross between a 1920s Greenwich Village bohemian artist and a Bop musician, whose visual image was completed by mixing in Daliesque paintings, a beret, a Vandyck beard , a turtleneck sweater, a pair of sandals, and set of bongo drums. A few authentic elements were added to the collective image: poets reading their poems, for example, but even this

10395-478: Was an American author, poet and professor, best known for his 1952 novel Go . Considered the first " Beat " novel, Go depicted events in his life with his friends Jack Kerouac , Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg . He was often referred to as the "quiet Beat" and was one of Kerouac's closest friends. Holmes also wrote what is considered the definitive jazz novel of the Beat Generation , The Horn . He

10500-707: Was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts and died in Middletown, Connecticut . Holmes was more an observer and documenter of beat characters like Ginsberg, Cassady and Kerouac than one of them. He asked Ginsberg for "any and all information on your poetry and your visions," (shortly before Ginsberg's admission into the hospital) saying that "I am interested in knowing also anything you may wish to tell... about Neal, Huncke, Lucien in relation to you..." (referring to Herbert Huncke and Lucien Carr ), to which Ginsberg replied with an 11-page letter detailing, as completely as he could,

10605-525: Was coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in 1958, as a derogatory label for the followers of the Beat Generation , a group of influential writers and artists who emerged during the era of the Silent Generation 's maturing, from as early as 1946, to as late as 1963, but the subculture was at its most prevalent in the 1950s. This lifestyle of anti-consumerism may have been influenced by their generation living in extreme poverty in

10710-708: Was fun, funny, and invented graphic ways of ridiculing dictator Slobodan Milosevic . It turned fatalism and passivity into action by making it easy, even cool, to become a revolutionary, branding itself within hip slogans, rock music and street theatre. Tina Rosenberg , in Join the Club, How Peer Pressure can Transform the World , shows how movements grow when there is a core of enthusiastic players who encourage others to join them. Sociologists distinguish between several types of social movement: A difficulty for scholarship of movements

10815-444: Was later published as "The Origins of the Beat Generation" ( Playboy , June 1959). In that article, Kerouac noted how his original beatific philosophy had been ignored amid maneuvers by several pundits, among them San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen , to alter Kerouac's concept with jokes and jargon: I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"...the vision of

10920-407: Was made unintelligible by making all of the poets speak in some kind of phony Bop idiom. The consequence is, that even though we may know now that these images do not accurately reflect the reality of the Beat movement, we still subconsciously look for them when we look back to the 50s. We have not even yet completely escaped the visual imagery that has been so insistently forced upon us. The origin of

11025-574: Was the embodiment of) a new trend analogous to the influential Lost Generation . In "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation", Kerouac criticized what he saw as a distortion of his visionary, spiritual ideas: The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late Forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way—a vision gleaned from

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