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The Difference Between Rebelling Against the Establishment and Rebelling Against the establishment (small “e”)
Kerouac didn’t like hippies because they were only rebelling against the small e
My Dad was fiercely conservative. A full-blown WASP, albeit of the first-generation sort, his parents having migrated from Russia shortly before 1917.
We used to drink beer at a local dive bar and discuss sundry (and sudsy) topics. During one conversation, I told him I was reading On the Road and greatly enjoying it. I thought he might respond with a funny comment about hippies and the need for underarm deodorant, but no: He said he always appreciated Jack Kerouac and that Kerouac was saying things that needed to be said and that it wouldn’t be fair to lump him in with the hippies.
I don’t remember any other details, but I’ve learned my father was right. Kerouac himself loathed the hippies that he helped spawn.
I think I’ve figured out why Kerouac didn’t like the hippies.
Kerouac was rebelling against the left hemisphere.
The hippies were rebelling with their left hemispheres, at least the ones who didn’t migrate to northern California in the late 1970s and 1980s to live out their premises.
