Beatniks (redirected from beatnik)

Beatniks 

(from “beat” [beat, break]), a spontaneous, anarchically rebellious youth movement (“the insolent generation”; Russian, razbitnoe pokolenie) that arose after World War II, mainly in the USA and Great Britain; devoid of any positive sociopolitical program whatever. This movement was an expression of the dissatisfaction and protest of young people (primarily petit bourgeois) against the standardized ideal of “success” and the hypocrisy of the bourgeois morality of “good conduct” and “decency.” In breaking with the generally accepted traditional bourgeois way of life, the “radicalism” of beatniks was frequently manifested in the violation of elementary norms of the human community.