Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Alternatives on the Horizon
- 2 What’s Liberalism Got to Do with It?
- 3 How to Address Liberalism’s Faults
- 4 A Variety of Liberalism in Vancouver
- 5 Myths that Might Save Liberalism: Emotional Supplementsto Moral Logics
- 6 Rituals for Radicals
- 7 Magical Feelings as the Source and Aim of Myths and Rituals
- 8 Traditions at the End of History
- 9 The Truth Won’t Save Us
- Notes
- References
- Index
8 - Traditions at the End of History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Alternatives on the Horizon
- 2 What’s Liberalism Got to Do with It?
- 3 How to Address Liberalism’s Faults
- 4 A Variety of Liberalism in Vancouver
- 5 Myths that Might Save Liberalism: Emotional Supplementsto Moral Logics
- 6 Rituals for Radicals
- 7 Magical Feelings as the Source and Aim of Myths and Rituals
- 8 Traditions at the End of History
- 9 The Truth Won’t Save Us
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Sal Paradise, the autobiographical character in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, sums up his journey with the legendary line ‘[m] y whole wretched life swam before my weary eyes, and I realised no matter what you do it’s bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad’. For Paradise, it is pointless trying to leave one’s mark, since, in the end, all will be forgotten. Kerouac’s musings have inspired young people across the Western and Western-influenced world for generations. Life is empty and meaningless so all we can do is seek meaningful experiences in the here and now.
The characters in this book beg to differ. For them it is this nihilist narrative itself that has reached the end of the road. They have found a different way. As Brian, a 60-something trade unionist of East European descent, put it:
‘[When I was younger] I was … very interested in the Beatniks: Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg. Because those people tried to live the American lifestyle but in a different way. And those people were experimenting with ergh … they called it mind-expansion. It wasn’t all drugs. Many of them were Buddhists. … The Beatniks were trying to change the way they felt, hoping that’d bring about a change … I’ve read a lot of novelists and poets and what they do is they show you a different way to perceive things. And it changes your perception. I never found in them anything that would lead to action.
Saul Alinsky, who’s the founder of whatever the group that MVA comes out of … Alinsky was more practical than the Beatniks. … The reason I stick with MVA is, it’s the closest thing. … They actually go to people, find out what they need and put it into a workable format.’
As with so many young adults in the Western-influenced world, many of my friends are inspired by the Beatniks. This is frontier country, and the memory of the Beatniks lingers as a possible alternative to modern life. Some of my friends have experimented with the same mind-altering drugs and philosophies as Kerouac himself.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Saving Liberalism from ItselfThe Spirit of Political Participation, pp. 138 - 158Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2022