For my generation, the inner turmoil of the neuro-hormonal passage into adulthood was coupled with the outer turmoil of social and political upheaval that sprung from the fertile fields prepared by the previous group called the Beats, or Beatniks. The most famous beatnik in history was a fictitious character, a stereotypic beatnik. Maynard G. Krebs, of the television sitcom Dobie Gillis, was a beatnik character played by a Catholic schoolteacher, turned actor named, Bob Denver. Younger people will remember Bob as the character Gilligan of the television sitcom, Gilligan’s Island. I enjoyed the Maynard character of Dobie Gillis because he didn’t go with the flow, liked Jazz, not popular music. Musicians the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk were praised on a regular basis on the show by Maynard and led to their popularity. Whenever anyone mentioned work, Maynard would say “WORK?” trying to avoid it as much as possible because he was living a life of simple pleasure and exploration of creativity and sensuality. He appeared to be in a perpetual state of what psychologist James Marcia would term identity diffusion yet his free spirit appealed to me at the time when I was being pressured to conform within my family and pulled to rebel from without. He was bucking the system and was the comedic foil for the straight-laced Dobie Gillis.
Beatniks arose among the Silent generation, but their voices were not silent. I heard them, growing up as a small child in New York City, the birthplace of the Beat culture, my friends heard them too, and for Halloween we played the culture out in costume, just as children played out my adolescence on October 31, in costume, for Trick or Treat in my neighborhood. The Maynard beatnik character was the inspiration for Bob Dylan when he was writing his material, especially the song, When Dogs Run Free. The Maynard character, in the later years, of the show became the prototype figure for the first hippies of my generation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_G._Krebs).
Some, such as Michael Lewis,PhD., believe that the nature of personality assumes a set of characteristics that endure, are stable and remain consistent across place, tasks, and people’s interactions, but with little consistency. This has led him to the conclusion that looking at behavior in context may be the best way to understand the changing nature of personality growth and development and the narratives that we construct around ourselves, others and goals. Lewis believes that behavior and psychological adjustment are the result of transitory situational influences and that the past does not relate to the present as far as children’s behavior in predicting how they will behave later in life. My past behavior and that of my friends, as manifested in adolescence and emerging adulthood seems to bear Lewis’s idea out. We were raised to be like Dobie Gillis but slowly transformed into something akin to Maynard Krebs when puberty began, much to our parents chagrin.
From the standpoint of my generational experience, many in my cohort, self-included, have since made shifts again in thinking and behavior, as we have made our impact on the former Dobie Gillis world. It seems to us that the only thing that is permanent is change. I hope at this stage in my cohort’s lifespan that the change we experience and help effect is more of a synergy of the stable nurturing we received from our predominately World War II generation parents combined with generation X, and the eclectic electronic musical generation Y and Z? Notice I did not mention the preceding generations, My generation still doesn’t trust anyone over thirty and we have trouble sometimes believing that we have past that milestone.
Our storm and stress, turmoil period appears to have settled down, we are nested into occupations and raising families. Now entering traditional “retirement” we will continue, as a group, to redefine and challenge stereotypes related to age and gender roles. Maynard G. Krebs never had a chance to grow up, but then did Dobie Gillis, before the show ended it’s run in 1962? It is my hope that my generation will in the end be recognized for “growing up”, for demonstrating maturity. The heroic narrative we constructed for our generation of pursuing peacemaking, was rocked by our inability to establish long-term marital bonds and our propensity to pursue gratification at others expense. Will we be able as a cohort to realize that we need not throw out the “baby with the bath water” and challenge everything society holds dear? Can we remember echoes from past generations, the values of the faith of our fathers,integrity, honesty and commitment before we pass? I hope so.
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