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My daughter gave me a copy of The Portable Beat Reader for my birthday. I randomly opened it to this quote from Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums :
i've been reading whitman, you know what he says, cheer up slaves, and horrify foreign despots, he means that's the attitude for the bard, the zen lunacy bard of old desert paths, see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, dharma bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and there have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, tv sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, i see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up into the mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of 'em zen lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures
I realize I see everything through the lens of bitcoin nowadays, but this passage had me thinking about fiat and debt slavery. It was written long before "Nixon's surprise". It's a stretch to see the beats as precursors of bitcoin. It's likely wishful thinking on my part. On the other hand, John Perry Barlow was influenced by them.
@carlosfandango knows more about this stuff than me. I hope he chimes in.
56 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 10h
How low the mighty have fallen...I do want my refrigerator.
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27 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 OP 10h
That was my first thought too.
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And my internal combustion engine car
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The beats are downstream so much of American cultural attitudes today--arguably all of the "subculture."
Dharma Bums was a treat for me in my senior year. It (and I reckon On The Road) inspired me to leave for university with nothing but a ruck sack, only to return four years later with nothing besides. I'm glad to reread this passage this am.
Absolutely tragic Kerouac drank himself to death. I would have loved to see him mature more in his writing.
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Jack couldn’t drive a car
His mother drove him cross country
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 OP 9h
Yowza. Actually, Neal drove.
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Thanks for the correction, I guess that is less embarassing for Jack
from wikipedia:
For the next six years, Kerouac continued to write regularly. Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone on the Road", he completed what is now known as On the Road in April 1951, while living at 454 West 20th Street in Manhattan with his second wife, Joan Haverty.[45] The book was largely autobiographical and describes Kerouac's road-trip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady in the late 40s and early 50s, as well as his relationships with other Beat writers and friends. Although some of the novel is focused on driving, Kerouac did not have a driver's license and Cassady did most of the cross-country driving. He learned to drive aged 34, but never had a formal license.[46]
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all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume,
but this passage had me thinking about fiat and debt slavery
Slowly Bitcoin will teach more people to go back saving and not spending on crap things. As I said in this old post from 2022 - #105268
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