Allen Ginsberg Capitalism

In the aftermath of World War II, literary scholars such as Allen Ginsberg participated in a celebration of spontaneous creativity and non-conformity known as the Beat Generation. Ginsberg believes that the most respected institutions limit human expression, creativity, and free thought. In fact, he views capitalism as an imprisonment of the spirit. Those who attempt to escape, Ginsberg believes, are the “best minds” of his generation. His work is inspired by William Blake, a visionary poet of the 19th century. Ginsberg’s best minds reject modern society by traveling around the country, consuming drugs and alcohol, and rejecting authority because industrial innovation limits their creativity. In the end, the Beat Generation declines because

The 1940s-1950s marked a turning point in America from rural living to urban living because of the rise of corporate culture, the baby boom, and the pursuit of capitalism. Ginsberg views capitalism as a servant for a way of thinking about the world that imprisons the spirit. In Howl, the reference of the Three Fates is compared to capitalism. Ginsberg writes, “who lost their loveboys to the three old shrews of fate the one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar the one eyed shrew that winks out of the womb and the one eyed shrew that does nothing by sit on her ass and snip intellectual golden threads of the craftsman’s loom” (14). In the context of American capitalism, the individual genius that poets contain is being drawn out and cut. Since society is dominated by profit-driven individuals, those people who are slightly different from the rest are not accepted. Ginsberg, a gay individual himself, admits that all of the outcast people in the world are just as valuable and interesting as the normal citizens. However, capitalism limits their ability to stand out and express themselves. The beatniks are different because they are after a meaning to life, rather than just making a profit. He writes, the best minds are those who are “angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night” (9). Therefore, Ginsburg believes that capitalism is the downfall of America because it creates poverty, a social divide, and hinders free thought. The diverse man is ruled out by politicians and profit-driven