WRITE ON: Truth On A Roll Of Toilet Paper

By PETER S. FERRARA<br>Record Columnist

What great American novel was typed on a roll of toilet paper? That would be On The Road, written by Jack Kerouac in 1957. What made that book important was that it outlined a way of living and seeing that was new. Kerouac invented the term “Beat” to describe a part of his generation that discarded many traditional values and told people to explore their inner selves to find freedom and individualism. He encouraged his peers to avoid the path laid out for them by the “squares” who ran business, government, and religion in favor of living a life of self-imposed poverty and enjoying the freedom that lifestyle opened up.

From Kerouac’s vision came the “Beatniks” of the 1950’s and early 1960’s. They were characterized as “weirdo’s” because they had their own language, customs, dress code, and world view. The Beat Generation arose in direct response to life after the end of World War Two. The world was understandably tired after that long and bitter struggle. Tens of millions had been killed. Europe lay in ruins.

Folks on the home front were seeking peace and tranquility. They became “alienated,” to use a popular term of the day. Alienation was another way of saying that people were turned off by any turmoil or struggle. What they craved was peace and quiet.

Into that environment came the witch hunters and “blacklisters,” led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who warned of “card carrying Communists” in high places in the U.S. government and the Army. While McCarthy never produced the names on his “list,” he did create a climate of fear and oppression that defined the Cold War.

Returning vets just wanted to have a decent job, raise their families, and be left alone.

No surprise, given what they had been through. But the movement McCarthy led reached its tentacles into every part of American life. Conformity in all things was what was being pushed onto the general public, and it was what most of them wanted.

I grew up in this era. I can recall the false sense of calm during the Eisenhower years. The Atomic Age began the first week of August in 1945 with the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. From then on, the danger of atomic attack was real. I recall practicing “Duck and Cover,” where us kids were drilled in climbing under our school desks in the event of a nuclear attack.

It was the sheer folly of such responses to threats that empowered the “Beats” to explore alternatives to the conformist culture they felt we had become. The Beats wore beards and sandals and mini-skirts and black tights. They wrote and read poetry, opened coffeehouses, smoked pot, started underground newspapers, lived in communes, and created the “counterculture” that remains strong to this day. Perhaps the most important thing they brought to the table was the idea that we should “question authority.”

That’s what got them in so much trouble. It’s ironic that the Beats were so emphatic in wanting the rights of the individual to be held above all else, because that belief has been taken over by the counterculture’s biggest opponent: the ultra-conservative, far right wing element of the Republican Party. The phrase “Do your own thing” came from the Beats but has been twisted into “get the government off our backs” by the neo-Conservatives and their champions like Rush Limbaugh.

All this popped into my head as I replaced a roll of toilet paper the other day. I stared at the remnants of the old roll and then at the new roll I was about to put on the dispenser. What was different? Then I noticed the new roll was about 3/4” narrower than the old one. How much less paper was I actually getting on my replacement roll? Enough to represent a significant—but hidden—price increase. This hidden price increase was especially troublesome because the store where I bought the new rolls had taken a few cents off the price and called it a “bargain,” even though the reality was I was paying more for less.

That’s when I wondered how dumb the marketers think we are. The answer is: quite dumb and unaware. They may be right to think this. A problem for me is that we now live in an age when our leaders are “marketed” to us just like toilet paper. Say anything loudly enough and often enough and people will eventually believe you. It’s sad but true, and it happens on all sides of the political world.

Yesterday was “Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day.” I was looking for something new to say on this day when we honor his contribution to the country he gave his life for. Then I remembered the uproar over something Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told a couple of authors during the Obama campaign. Reid said in supporting Barack Obama that he was more electable because he was a “light-skinned” African-American and had “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”

Reid has had to go into full damage control mode, apologizing for the perceived racism in his remark. But was it really racist? I can show you a pile of surveys that prove a large segment of white American voters are more comfortable voting for a light-skinned black who doesn’t talk like a rapper from the ghetto than a jet black person speaking in what some language experts call “Ebonics.”

Harry Reid was guilty of speaking the truth—awkwardly perhaps—and he is being punished for it. Republicans like party chair Michael Steele have compared Reid’s remark to one Trent Lott made in praise of Strom Thurmond. Lott said he was proud of Mississippi for the 1948 Presidential campaign of Thurmond, an arch-segregationist who had said: “All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches.” If we had elected Thurmond, Lott said, the country would not have all the social unrest we face today. If you think those sentiments equate with what Reid said you need to look closer.

The bottom line is that the political world is now just like the marketing world. It is controlled by “sponsors” who use their power and wealth to push their own agendas. Their credo: Do whatever you must to get the public to buy what you’re offering. It’s one of the reasons we are so disappointed and critical of our government.

If Jack Kerouac were writing On The Road now, he’d need an extra roll of toilet paper to finish the job. The public’s knowledge of what matters today is shrinking faster than the toilet paper on my dispenser.