Beatniks
(Chime)
Once upon a time, three wise men stood in the square arguing.
One contended that the world is the way it is because this is the best way to be, otherwise it would not be this way. And it would be best that people understand and accept this.
The second countered that the world is the way it is because some people used force to gain and keep control of the rest of society for their own selfish benefit. And it would be best for people to recognize and resist such force.
The third replied that the world is the way it is because, people create mutual understandings about their interactions with and expectations of each other in order to simplify living together. And it would be best for people to recognize this process and understand that these understandings can and do change over time and place.
A woman stopped to listen for a moment. On her hip, she held a baby. She carried a jug of water in her other hand. On her head was a basket of freshly picked berries. And in her pocket was a dust rag.
She said nothing, for she and her sisters had come to believe that were she to speak, the men would either be incited to violence or would crumble into insecure helplessness.
This is the way her world was. Yet she dreamed that one day she too would have the opportunity to stand in the square to talk social philosophy with men who could then be her equal.
Welcome back to Kevin Alan McGill’s What It Is
(Chime)
Okay so, let’s take this podcast for a cruise.
That first story represents the four foundational paradigms of Sociology. Sociology and other Social Philosophies provide the theoretical basis for what you will discover in these episodes.
Social Philosophy represents a new kind of philosopher. Previous Philosophers had spent a couple thousand years contemplating what God had intended. These new Philosophers left God behind to study people instead, to reveal us to ourselves.
And that bring us to The Beatniks, another profound influence on me.
Beatniks was the name given to a group Poets and Storytellers, Folk Singers, Musicians and Artists plying their trade in the 1950s and early 60’s.
They would get together in coffee houses, jazz clubs, around kitchen tables to work out their visions for a better world.
For this episode, we’re going to steer along that Beatnik path with a couple of Beatnik-type poems. The first is called My Definition.
(Chime)
Unknowing, Unquestioning,
I am being ejected
from indecipherable self-less life.
Self-less – having no self.
My life has been unity,
an abstraction,
an inwardly unexplained event,
a dictionary without words.
Then, the universal human big bang.
Cut the cord, the capsule separates
Now entering external space.
Self requires the external.
My lungs now fill with what I will learn is air.
I cry out with the first awakenings of still undefined self,
yet the beginning of “me”
through myriad “you” exposures
I will soon look into your eyes
and begin my wanderings towards
my self-distilled “dictionary of self”.
You, for better or worse, will continue yours.
(Chime)
Let’s continue with a poem called Unsustainable
Too small too tall;
Too dark, too light;
Too soft too hard;
Too thick too thin;
Too narrow too wide;
Too be, can’t be!
Mirror, Mirror
Sobs on the wall
Goldilocks grieving
Just not right at all
We are all Ugly.
How can this be?
Where’s the real in this reality?
On display,
Milk-less Madonnas’
Gallery-framed Breasts
No sagging? No squirting?
Condemned in absentia!
Where’s the renaissance in that?
The Mona Lisa Mystery?
Inadequate Dentistry?
Mother Mary without stretch marks
Holy Jesus with bleached skin.
And a nose job.
Smiling Bhudda, a garden gnome,
needs to lose weight.
The Prophet?
Apparently, pictures spoil the effect.
The only thing we know for sure about Socrates?
He was ugly, … uhhh … gleeee.
Cute may have saved his life.
Acne is worse than baby-killing.
Big ears are for elephants.
No nose is good nose.
And wrinkles? Oh, the shame!
Beauty is skin deep,
“Fill it with Botox”
stretched-skin deep.
Beauty unattainable unsustainable
Evil idol devouring its own.
(Chime)
Okay so, such are the words of a Storyteller Poet who has learned the value of a poem, the worth of a story.
And hey, please like, subscribe, comment respectfully, etc, and if you are looking for more “people in this world” content, head over to my website kevinalanmcgill.com.
Thank you for listening. Please come back to explore more What It Is.