This week as we read Allen Ginsbergs poem Howl (1955), and William Burroughs The Job (1969).
The texts are both written in the hype of post-World War II USA, at the height of the Cold War, when a culture of paranoia was being fostered by figures such as Senator McCarthy, who manipulated the media to encourage suspicion of anyone who appeared to hold socialist ideals, as they might be a spy of the enemy.
When Howl was released, it went on trial for its explicit ideas, particularly on sexuality. Making something illegal, in a culture of rebellion, was perhaps the best publicity for Ginsberg – in creating paranoia McCarthy was also creating curiosity and suspicion by figures such as Burroughs and Ginsberg of the state itself. This was a time that Berman states ‘the Faustian man became obsolete’,[1] it was perceived that modern economic development had come as far as it could go and it was time for something new.
The ideas expressed in both texts, revolutionary at the time, come across as paranoid and anarchic to the modern-day reader. Burroughs calls the written word a “virus that made the spoken word possible”.[2] He recognized the power that politicians had over people through the press. And now it is the press that manipulates the politicians - anything to sell papers. Politicians can’t survive with the press and they can’t survive without it. People read something and people talk about it. It is still not possible to be openly gay in politics, because the press will write about it. The Leveson enquiry is the result of the press becoming its own worst enemy, and in an age where the line between (anti-)propaganda and press has become blurred, it will be interesting to see the outcome.
We look back at the 60s as a time of hippies and freedom. America did not have to struggle with post-war debt. It was the time of the renewed American Dream, interior design and fashion. Yet Ginsberg’s poem begins “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”.[3] He is alluding to the obsessive society, convinced that anyone who did not share the same ideals must be mad.
The culture of suspicion and paranoia still exists in American society, where since 9/11 Muslims have become a part of racial exclusion. The Suspicions about communism and socialism are embedded into American society and politics, as made clear by the difficulty of Obama passing the recent Health Bill, the Republicans opposing the right to free medicine as a malicious socialist ideal.
But what happened to these drugged up hippies and dreams of freedom, they must look at the young generation now and be bored by their lack of passion, their obsession with watching endless sitcoms and playing fantasy video games, and their obnoxiousness at being bound by the nation and political ideas, of which much of society don’t understand or engage in. Hippy music festivals of the sexual revolution have been corrupted into commercial money-making machines.
After reading these texts, glimpsing the sense of rebellion, excitement, and hope from rebelling against the system, you can’t help but realize that Eagleton’s thoughts on the laziness of our society, who complain but don’t really do anything. There is a lack of real enthusiasm, passion and emotion for anything anymore. There was a time when there was so much hope for the future, and there is a possibility to return to that hope and drive, but we must recognize that the current situation is not sustainable first. The financial crisis gives the chance of rebellion and change, as it is proof that capitalism is not working.
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