A Word on our Behalf

1 propose to defend my generation. It requires defense from such hackneyed assaults as the recent CBS television presentation “Generation Without a Cause.”

Senator J. William Fulbright and Walter Cronkite conspired to take two half-hour looks at Rutgers undergraduates and Greenwich Village beatniks, and came up with the judgment that this generation is “conforming, complacent, and cautious.” Our cup runneth over. From North Beach bistros and bagel shops to Beacon Hill, we are labeled, psychoanalyzed, second-guessed, worried-about, apologized-for, tried, judged, sentenced, and executed. We are accused of apathy, silence, and lack of commitment. We don’t care, or we care only about ourselves. We belong to Jack Kerouac or Nelson Algren or Charlie Parker or the Ivy League. We swathe ourselves in J. Press, find affirmation in a Scotch bottle, worship the dollar sign, and keep our sex life antiseptic.

JL

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John Leonard

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1 propose to defend my generation. It requires defense from such hackneyed assaults as the recent CBS television presentation “Generation Without a Cause.”

Senator J. William Fulbright and Walter Cronkite conspired to take two half-hour looks at Rutgers undergraduates and Greenwich Village beatniks, and came up with the judgment that this generation is “conforming, complacent, and cautious.” Our cup runneth over. From North Beach bistros and bagel shops to Beacon Hill, we are labeled, psychoanalyzed, second-guessed, worried-about, apologized-for, tried, judged, sentenced, and executed. We are accused of apathy, silence, and lack of commitment. We don’t care, or we care only about ourselves. We belong to Jack Kerouac or Nelson Algren or Charlie Parker or the Ivy League. We swathe ourselves in J. Press, find affirmation in a Scotch bottle, worship the dollar sign, and keep our sex life antiseptic.