Cool squares and root causes

I am having trouble with the logic in a piece I read earlier which indicts the baby boomers in part because of the depraved antics of their “leaders.” These people not only caused an entire generation to become dysfunctional, they also drove today’s teenagers into cannibalism and drinking blood:

Cool was indeed oppressive — and let’s talk about what drove the Vampire to drink blood:

Kerouac drank himself to death, essentially slow suicide. (But he was really cool each step of the way! So who cares if he was miserable?)
William S. Burroughs — the muse behind Ginsberg and the rest of the beats — was a heroin addict who killed his common law wife.
Cobain regularly injected himself with heroin, committed suicide, and married Courtney Love (three acts that are all variations of the the same thing).
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson was an alcoholic and a drug addict who committed suicide in 2005.
Mailer had SIX wives and his drinking was legendary.

By definition, baby boomers are people born between 1945 and 1964.

Let’s start with Kerouac. Born in 1922, he had a lot of problems and died an alcoholic. A notoriously right wing alcoholic, by the way. Not only was he not a baby boomer, he was old enough to be the father of every last one of them.

As to the rest, William S. Burroughs (who radiated contempt for coolness and who always wore a suit and tie whenever I saw him) was born in 1914. Thompson was born in 1937, Mailer in 1923, Ginsburg in 1926, and Jimi Hendrix in 1942. They are all too old to be baby boomers. And the other one, Kurt Cobain, was born in 1967, which makes him too young! Why are there no baby boomers in the indictment?*

Now, I realize it is petty to point out the ages of people whose lives constitute an indictment of another generation, for there is no question that they were influential. But did they really cause today’s “vampires” to drink human blood? How? Because they were drunks and drug addicts who wrote? Because they committed suicide?

What about Ernest Hemingway? Was he not simply another alcoholic who committed suicide? True, he was fifteen years older than Burroughs, but wasn’t he at least as influential? He was a great leftist, sympathetic to Castro. and get this:

“Careful reading of Hemingway’s major biographies and his personal and public writings reveals evidence suggesting the presence of the following conditions during his lifetime: bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence, traumatic brain injury, and probable borderline and narcissistic personality traits”

So why isn’t he to blame? And how about beloved playwright Eugene O’Neill, an alcoholic from a drug addicted family? Why isn’t he also seen as having set this country on the road to ruin and spawned the present generation of blood-sucking ghouls?

Oh, I almost forget William Halsted, a knife-wielding drug addict who is considered the father of modern American surgery. What could be more depraved than that bloodthirsty monster?

Obviously, they all must have been very cool, right? Because it’s like, incredibly cool to be an alcoholic and a drug addict.

That’s why this country is so totally into vampirism.

Similarly, most of the country has gone gay because of the influence of the demonic Alfred Kinsey. Talk about cool!

The leaps in logic which are required make me feel like violating Godwin’s Law.

Darwin caused Hitler. And who could be cooler than that?

Actually, another famous American hipster, born in four years before Hitler, Ezra Pound.

I should close with his timeless indictment of usury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3IpkOZjyVw

Perfect poem for the anti-banking times we live in. When will today’s hipsters rediscover him?

But what is cool? Roger L. Simon offers a new definition which is similar to what mine once was:

cool was oppressive. It told you how to be and what to be. In some ways cool was the inverse of itself. It was the enemy of freedom while pretending to be its apostle. Nowadays there is nothing more square than to be cool. So feel free to be whatever you want to be.

Cool when I was a kid meant not being affected by others and doing what you wanted. Being told what to do is not cool. Or does that depend on who does the telling? I had long hair until everyone did, then I cut it short. So I think there’s a definition problem. Then as now I hated anyone telling me what I should think, and I don’t tell others what they should think. Even in the days of the coolness stereotype (which I rejected) I always thought it was cool to be square. So while I can handle it now being square to be cool, I find myself going in circles.

Can a circle be square?

*  Courtney Love is technically a last minute baby boomer, having been born in 1964. But did she in any way inspire that generation? She was five years old at the time of Woodstock, and by the time she became known to the public, that generation was already middle aged. I would argue that she is a Generation Xer, and not a Baby Boomer. But I guess the boomers are responsible for the X kids, because after all, weren’t the parents of the boomers responsible for them?

The rule is that we are responsible for the actions of others, but our own actions are other people’s fault.

The cool people made me be square!


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10 responses to “Cool squares and root causes”

  1. David Swindle Avatar

    You’ve misread my article and are attributing to me arguments that I don’t make. Just a heads up. If you don’t understand an argument that I’m making then by all means get in touch. I’m not difficult to find online.

    The artists and activists and suicidal dreamers of the Silent Generation were adopted by the Boomers. Growing up the family book shelf had Burroughs, Ginsberg, and of course Saul Alinsky. When I talk of Boomer culture I’m referring to the culture produced by the Boomer’s embrace of their older siblings and in some cases their young parents’ culture.

    For more of my writings on the nexus of generations, politics, and culture check out the 5 part series I did for Big Hollywood a few months back: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/dswindle/

  2. Eric Scheie Avatar

    Thanks for coming, and I appreciate your comment. I am sorry if I misinterpreted you, but your piece came across as an indictment of a generation based in part on the self-destructive behavior of a few people, led by those you listed.

    That someone is a favorite writer (as Burroughs was and is) does not make him my “leader.” I have trouble with the logic that if I like someone’s writing or music, that he is my leader or I am adopting his lifestyle. Or “culture.” What culture? He came from the same culture as mine: American culture. I may not share all of his opinions or behaviors, but they are not culture. Any more than the habits of O’Neill or Hemingway. Why are a writer’s drinking or drug habits relevant to what he is known for? So what if Jerry Garcia was a junkie? I liked his music.

    I also take issue with the idea that Kerouac, Burroughs, and company “drove the Vampire to drink blood.”

    I have long taken issue with the idea that cultural tastes should be seen as being “on the left” as I don’t see alcohol, suicide, drug taking, sexual hedonism, being gay or liking Hendrix or the Grateful Dead as leftism, or belonging to the left. Sure, the left would like to claim ownership, because they like to control people, but what galls me is the tendency of conservatives to go along with it.

    Not to take issue with you, but I saw the Vampire piece as an attempt to stir up culture war sentiment. I have known too many right wing hippies, right wing punks, right wing deadheads, right wing goths, etc. to buy into it.

    I get tired of it, and I admit, that is my bias.

  3. ScottH Avatar
    ScottH

    Cool? there’s a Mojo song for that:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpgBVYT6aD0

  4. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    I had long hair until everyone did, then I cut it short.

    I was a bit more extreme. I shaved my head. My first total clip was done in a biker enclave in one of the dodgier regions of Northern CA. Around ’71 or ’72.

  5. David Swindle Avatar

    You’re reading a bit much into stuff that isn’t there. For example, my link to Rob Taylor’s vampire piece was more just to promote his piece and compare bipolar to vampirism, not to make some comment about Boomers causing blood fetishists. But I can see how you would make that misinterpretation.

    Your confused, defensive reaction is similar to some, but not all, of the boomers who have read my piece.

    “I have trouble with the logic that if I like someone’s writing or music, that he is my leader or I am adopting his lifestyle.”

    I didn’t say you were. I’ve got Burroughs books on my book shelf too.

    “I have long taken issue with the idea that cultural tastes should be seen as being “on the left” as I don’t see alcohol, suicide, drug taking, sexual hedonism, being gay or liking Hendrix or the Grateful Dead as leftism, or belonging to the left. Sure, the left would like to claim ownership, because they like to control people, but what galls me is the tendency of conservatives to go along with it.

    Not to take issue with you, but I saw the Vampire piece as an attempt to stir up culture war sentiment. I have known too many right wing hippies, right wing punks, right wing deadheads, right wing goths, etc. to buy into it.”

    I share your sentiments.

    You’re going to love my new column that’s going to debut soon. Its predecessor was the conclusion of that debate with Mary Grabar: http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/29/the-marijuana-and-conservatism-debate-part-2-counterculture-%E2%80%93-by-frontpagemag-com/

    I’m a counterculture conservative — my book shelves intermix Robert Anton Wilson and Aleister Crowley with Thomas Sowell and Ann Coulter. Stay tuned. You’ll like what’s coming down the pipeline soon.

  6. Captain Ned Avatar
    Captain Ned

    Another 1964 child here, born of parents who still remember the privations & rationing of WWII. No way in hell am I a Boomer (other than liking late-’60s music).

    The sooner the 68’ers (referring to the summer of 1968) are gone from our polity, the sooner we can return to a rational political culture.

  7. Eric Scheie Avatar

    David, I am sorry for missing your point to the extent I did. I will look forward to your new column

  8. David Swindle Avatar

    Oh it’s no biggie. Misinterpretations happen in the blogosphere – just one of the side effects of the medium.

    Look forward to hearing your thoughts on my future pieces.

  9. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    Hmm. Pound at different times espoused Fascism, Il Duce’s genuine brand,and C.H. Douglas’ cranky theories of Social Credit, which Pound summed up to the effect that any government worth it’s salt would be paying dividends rather than levying taxes.

    Was Pound really so cool?