Rethinking the Beats Groups, Marginalization and America’s Decentralization Polices

Abstract

Since the cold war had already started and atomic annihilation was impending, America was panicked into bringing about homogeneity and centralization. The government thought that diminution of heterogeneity and propagation of the privileged discourses could guarantee the country against the threat. Opposing this, the Beats strove to bring about difference and heterogeneity in order to guarantee their society against tastelessness and lack of individuality, as inevitable corollaries of such a policy. They identified themselves with the marginalized groups since they knew that they were on the periphery of American society and as humanitarian groups they had not been corrupted by Western capitalism. Their purity, difference from the rest, and natural condition, helped the Beats to fulfill their purpose. Some critics have argued on the contrary that the Beats were insensitive to the plight of those groups and only misused them and some others, adding that the Beats had an ambivalent attitude towards them, hence, the positive and negative aspects of their relation should be considered. This paper examines the second view in relation to America’s decentralization policies.

Key Words: The Beats, America’s Decentralization Policies, Marginalized Groups, Heterogeneity, Homogeneity.