Jack Kerouac: Lamb, Not Lion (1958)

The Beat Generation is not vandalism. As the man who suddenly thought of the word ′′ beat ′′ to describe our generation, I'd like to say something about it too, before anyone else in the literature field starts thinking it means ′′ thug ", ′′ violent ", ′′ neglectful ", ′′ without roots ". How can people be ′′ rootless "? And ′′ careless ′′ of what? Do you wish? ′′ Thug ′′ why isn't he dressed up?

Beat doesn't mean tired or exhausted, but rather blessed, the Italian word for Beatific: being in a state of bliss, like Saint Francis, trying to love all my life, trying to be completely honest with everyone, practicing patience, kindness, cultivating the joy of the heart. How can anyone do this in our crazy modern world of multiplicity and millions? Practicing a bit of loneliness, taking a ride alone once in a while, to bring the most precious among the golds inside of itself: the vibrations of sincerity.

Being stoked doesn't mean being beat. You can stand alone, but you don't have to be rude. Being beat isn't a form of old and exhausting pointlessness. It's rather a form of spontaneous concordia. What kind of culture will you end up having if everyone, with gloomy faces, said all the time: ′′ I don't think this is entirely correct "?

Let's start from the beginning. After publishing my Beat Generation book, I was asked to explain what ′′ Beat ′′ meant on TV, Radio, and people everywhere. They were under the impression that Beat was just a useless hectic hysteria. ′′ What are you waiting for?" They asked me. I replied that I was waiting for God to show his face (later I received a letter from a 16-year-old girl that said it was exactly what she was waiting for too). They asked: ′′ How can this deal with crazy Hipsters?" I replied that even those crazy, happy Hipsters, with their highs, with their girls and with their slang language, were God's creatures, willing here, in this infinite universe, not knowing why. And moreover I have never heard of God, of the First Cause, of the soul, of where we are-going as much as among the boys of my generation: and not only among the intellectual boys on their behalf, but all together. In the unfortunate eyes of my interlocutors there was the question: ′′ But why?" Preacher Billy Graham has half a million followers. This generation has many more and their bond is tighter.

20's Lost Generation didn't believe in anything, so it went in its cynical direction, criticizing and destroying everything and everyone. That generation is the corpus of our current ruling class, and it's looking with eyes full of disapproval of everything, and turns faith into superstition. Lost Generation destroyed. The Beat Generation is rebuilding it all over again. Lost Generation believes there will be some justification for all the horrors of life. The first of four Noble Truths is: all life is suffering. Yet I hear them talking about how it's not all in vain, if you only believed, if you only let the sacred flow incessantly out of that secret source of deep happiness.

′′ Man, I enjoy everything!" so many vagabonds told me this on the sidewalks of the ' 40 s, when Beat was blooming like an ethereal flower between squalor and craziness back in the day. ′′ But why?" I wanted to ask him. ′′ You don't have a penny, or a place to sleep ". The answer would have been: ′′ Man, you have to be high, that's all." Then I'd love to see these same characters tomorrow, all exhausted and destroyed, dwelling on a bench of the park, refusing to talk to anyone, filling their heads with ideas.

And they've all been there, at night, bop musicians were in the bars playing, the rhythm was great and you'd see hundreds of heads hanging around in the smoky, nodding to music: ′′ Yes, yes, yes, yes ′′ was what their nodding heads said, so thoughtfully, so beautiful, so mystical. Even the musicians waiting their turn to do a solo, listening nodding, yes. I've seen a whole generation say yes. (I also saw addicts saying No with their dirty looks).

I don't think the Beat Generation will become a stupid gang of drug addicts and thugs. My best friends Beat were all kind, good guys, passionate, sincere (′′ Now give me 5 minutes of your time and listen to what I'm about to say!")... Such a tender worry! Such a heartwarming human hope: that everyone can be in touch and can be welcomed, and that everything is going well thanks to this mysterious union of minds. Every drug will disappear. That was a trend like gin. In the Beat Generation, instead of the Lost Generation champagne bottle wrapped in silk socks, you found old pads in a closet, or an old cockroach in a chest of drawers, all covered in dust. Nothing surprising: Drugs stayed around some drug addicts for medical metabolism problems before it was advertised by the ruling class. Then it got out of hand.

As for sex why not? An interviewer asked me if I thought sexual passion was wrong, I said ′′ No, it's the gateway to heaven ".

Only bitter people destroy life. The Beat Generation will be the cuteness generation (As the great Pinky Lee would say, him who loves children, and all generations are children).

I just hope there won't be a war that will hurt all these wonderful people, and I don't think there will be. There seems to be a Beat Generation around the world, even beyond the Iron Curtain. I believe Russia wants a share of how much America owns - food and clothes and other useful things of any kind.

I prophesy that the Beat Generation, which is deemed insane nihilism as a new trend, will become the most delicate and sensitive Generation in America's history, and consequently can't do without doing good. Everything that is wrong happens will turn out to be a meddling of evil. If in this Generation there's a quality that I've noticed, stronger than any other, it's the sincere will not want to hurt others. I had a dream where there was a Lion and a Lamb, and I didn't want the Lion to eat the Lamb, and the Lion approached me and licked my face, like I was a big puppy dog, and then I I took the lamb and he kissed me. This is the Beat Generation dream.