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Paul Goodman and the Cult of YouthSterling Fishman aa Departments of Educational Policy Studies and History,University of Wisconsin, MadisonPublished online: 30 Jan 2008.

To cite this article: Sterling Fishman (1975): Paul Goodman and the Cult of Youth, TheEducational Forum, 40:1, 79-85

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Paul Goodman and theCult of Youth

STERLING FISHMAN

PAU L Goodman once wrote in a moment of exultation , "Make room for me, World.I'm here!" Not the cry of a newborn child, but the challenge of a self-proclaimed

giant. The challenge of a man demanding that he be heard. Goodman wrote with thepassion of a romantic and the ego of an exuberant Renaissance man. Don't just standthere gaping, he demanded angrily: argue with me, damn me, join me, but don'tignore me. "I show men their plain duty and they reply that my style is charming. "!

In truth, there is no way to ignore Paul Goodman. He is too large a figure for that.Now, almost four years after his death, he bulks on the American horizon no matterwhich way you turn. Nor has he been ignored. He has inspired innumerable articlesand will soon, for better or worse, become the subject of doctoral dissertations.

The real "Goodman problem" has not been one of neglect, but of knowing how todeal with him, of knowing where to begin. In this regard , there are two basic groupswhich confront the "Goodman problem." The first group consists of writers, culturalcritics, and social commentators who would, if they could, interpret Paul Goodmanfor us. Among these are such notables as Theodore Roszak, George Dennison,Staughton Lynd, Lewis Feuer, and Norman Mailer." The second group is largeralthough less articulate. It includes the throng of liberals and radicals who regarded

Sterling Fishman is a professor in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies and History atthe University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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Paries

And crown thy good with brotherhood

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80 THE EDUCATIONAL FORUM [November

Paul Goodman as one of their culturalheroes , as a leading spokesman of theanti-establishment viewpoint-the anti­war, anti-big business, anti-Johnson, anti­Nixon movements.

With respect to the first group-thecritics and commentators-the "Good­man problem" is one of variety and over­abundance. There is just too much PaulGoodman. For example, in The Makingof a Counter Culture , Theodore Roszakbegins authoritatively by stating that thebest starting point for dealing with Good­man is his sociopolitical novel, The Em­pire City. Yet, within a few pages,Roszak is advising his readers that Good­man's work on Gestalt Psychiatry is reallythe key place to begin." Other would-beinterpreters have been equally as con­founded.

The principle reason for this confusionis that Goodman wrote so much on sucha wide variety of subjects that he doesnot lend himself to brief analysis. He hasserved us an intellectual feast that is toovast and too rich at the same time. PaulGoodman wrote forty books and morethan 200 articles on every conceivablesubject. He puzzles the gourmet whowould just taste each course as it ispassed, and frustrates the gourmand whoattacks each dish with a ravenous appe­tite as though it were the last. For thegourmet the quality is uneven. One courseis brilliantly seasoned while the next istotally flat. His curiosity is aroused andhe cannot leave the banqu et hall becausehe fears that he will miss a luscious tidbityet to come. For the gourmand, theGoodman feast overwhelms him. Further­more, just when it would seem that thelast course had been served by the nowdeceased chef, an exciting new post­humous concoction is shouldered forth to

the already overburdened table. Good­man's Collected Poems appeared in thespring of 1973, two years after his death.'When he cried, "Make room for me,World ," he meant it!

The second reason for the "Goodmanproblem" is that he defies any conven­tional system of sorting and labeling.How can one begin to categorize a manwho joined the stable of liberals and radi­cals down at The New York Review ofBooks, yet who called himself a "neo­lithic conservative"? As a passionatecritic of American society, he attractedarticulate young radicals in the sixtieswhose aim was revolution rather thanmuckraking. Yet Goodman turned on hisown volunteer army when he wrote: "I'vealways thought tearing things up by theroots was senseless. I've always been aconservative anarchist. :"

If dealing with Goodman constitutes aproblem for serious students of his writ­ing, can one imagine the enigma he repre­sents for less earnest readers in search ofa cause and a leader? The latter wanteddesperately to regard him as one of theirown. Although he had already publishedtwenty books and was middle aged beforehe gained a national reputation in the1960s, he was known only to a small, butloyal, readership. Causes which he hadchampioned for years-through the com­placent fifties-became crusades in theactivist sixties. Goodman's fame spreadas a result of his trenchant criticism ofAmerican society and its institutions andhis ardent opposition to the VietnamWar. Youthful and not so youthful cru­saders discovered him in the pages of TheNew York Review of Books and wentfrom there to the paperback stalls wherehis works sold in increasing numbers.

Goodman was skeptical of this sudden

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1975] STERLING FISHMAN 81

fame, especially when it became evidentto him that he was not being understood.He reasoned that those who purchasedhis books were either not reading themor failing to understand him. When hispublisher happily informed him that hisworks were among those most widelybought by young people, Goodman said,"My experience has been that the largerthe [paperback] collection in a pad, themore virgin are the books. To buy booksis part of making the scene.";

For a generation that wanted diatribesand slogans, Goodman's titles were ideal:Growing Up Absurd, Compulsory Mis­Education , Thoughts During a UselessTime. How nicely these fit on the shelfbeside Edgar Friedenberg's Coming ofAge in America, Growth and Acquies­cence and Ivan Illich's Deschooling So­ciety. How easy it was to bracket himwith them.

Goodman thus fell victim on the popu­lar level to an illiteracy which he de­plored and the reversion of speech toslogans and exclamations which he sawas one of the great failures of youth cul­ture. In writing about the beatniks in1956, he said: "One learns to one's frus­tration that they regard talk as an end initself, as a means of self-expression, with­out subject matter.?" To which he addedin 1970: "Since the mass pitch of TV,records, and movies cut down the possi­bility of using unexpected sentences evenmore, finally the only way to communi­cate anything particular is to rely on thevarious inflections of grunts and excla­mations, like a dozen levels of saying'wow,' or on nonverbal means alto­gether. "10

What can one do with this literaryLeviathan, this prolific Pantagruel? Howcan we begin to understand him? Let me

briefly examine one facet, "The Cult ofYouth ," on which Goodm an had muchto say, and suggest a Goodman method­ology.

First, Paul Goodman must be read asif he were a romantic-for indeed he was.As a scholar and social philosoph er, hewas committed to the rationalist tradition,but he was also unafraid of his emotionsand unembarrassed by them. Frequently,his works were inspired by some highlycharged situation or incident, which inturn released a flood of emotional energy.Of course, such a surge of energy cannotsustain a writer for long-unless con­stantly renewed. Thus Goodman's worksare uneven and marked by the ebb andflow of feelings. Within most of his majorworks, however, Goodman reveals themoment of truth when his feelings im­pelled him to write.

With respect to his sympathy for theplight of youth, the moments are many."I remember talking to half a dozenyoung fellows at Van Wagner 's Beachoutside of Hamilton, Ontario, and all ofthem had this one thing to say: 'Nothing.'They didn't believe that what to work atwas the kind of thing one wanted. Theyrather expected that two or three of themwould work for the electric company intown, but they couldn 't care less. I turnedaway from the conversation abruptly be­cause of the uncontrollable burning tearsin my eyes and constriction in my chest.Not feeling sorry for them, but tears offrank dismay for the waste of our hu­manity (they were nice kids) . And it isout of that incident that many years laterI am writing this book ."!'

Passions of this kind separate PaulGoodman from many of his peers. Thefrank revelation of such feelings allowsus to gain an insight into the man which

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82 THE EDUCATIONAL FORUM [November

other writers often deny us.Goodman was also a disciplined ra­

tionalist. His doctoral dissertation at Chi­cago on "The Structure of Literature"testifies to that (although he refused torevise the final draft in accordance withthe wishes of his professors and therebydelayed the awarding of his Ph.D. formany years). And because of his disci­pline, Goodman is more consistent thanmost romantics. Whereas the writings ofRousseau, for example , are consistentlyinconsistent and contradictory-it doesn'tseem to matter-the writings of Good­man are not. He takes a stand or makesa commitment and each moment of pas­sion helps him to renew it.

Ironically, he became increasingly ap­prehensive as he grew older that he wouldbe regarded as inconsistent and therebybe misunderstood. "Most painful is theneed to repeat myself," he wrote. "Butsince there is no continuing communityof readers and I do not know what Ican take for granted, in each book I haveto establish my point of view and saythings I have said before."12

With respect to youth, his feelings im­pelled him to compassion for the plight ofyoung people growing up in an absurdworld. At the same time, he criticizedtheir blind allegiance to anti-intellectualand anti-cultural values. The romanticPaul Goodman keenly felt and sympa­thized with this cruel situation. The moredisciplined Goodman condemns rebelliousyouth as a "know-nothing" generation.They are so consumed by a need to reactagainst the establishment that they be­come prey to mindless fads. They form acult rather than a culture and reject thebeauties of Western civilization as well asits bestialities. "But it won't do. It won'tdo," he wrote . "Willfully ignorant of the

inspiration and grandeur of our civiliza­tion, though somewhat aware of its bru­tality and terror, the young are patsiesfor the 'inevitabilities' of modern times.They no longer know what to claim astheir own and what to attack as theenemy.":"

In this judgment Paul Goodman wasutterly consistent. From his mammothnovel, The Empire City, written in 1942,to his lovely posthumously publishedpoems, he pleads passionately for under­standing the problems of youth while de­crying the mindlessness of their rebellion.

The second key to understanding PaulGoodman is this: Goodman believed inthe power of ideas. Unlike many of hiscritics, he believed that ideas can shapehistory and are not merely the casualnoise made by the thrust of great his­torical forces. Goodman not only rejecteda Marxist approach to history, whichrelegates ideas to the role of "conscious­ness raising," but he rejected any kindof dialectical approach. How could anysignificant improvement in the humancondition occur when every new ideamerely represented a reaction to whathad preceded it? How could the putrefy­ing corpse of capitalism magically pro­duce a new socialist society that wouldbe a thing of beauty to behold, as theMarxists foretold? The dialectical processhad to be transcended, according toGoodman. Great ideas and great visionsmust guide us to the future. These visionscould not be the result of any blind ob­session to be rid of the present or thepast.

In analyzing history, he saw the dialec­tical process as the great impediment toreal progress. History had been the storyof incomplete and unsuccessful revolu­tions; reformers and revolutionaries who

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1975] STERLING FISHMAN 83

had reacted powerfully to the evils theybeheld, but who failed in the final analysisto project a new transcendant vision.They were too busy fighting history tomake it.

He described the problem of con­temporary youth in exactly these terms .In their obsession to fight the establish­ment, youth had been controlled by theirenemy. Those who "dropped out" pri­marily to make war on the corruptedworld in which they lived were con­demned to have their values and culturedetermined by that world. Goodman de­scribes many examples of how this blindreaction leads to mindless obsessions. "Ihave previously mentioned a young hip­pie," he wrote, "-it was at Essalen­singing a song attacking the technologicalway of life, but he was on lysergic acidand strumming an electric guitar pluggedinto the infrastructure of California....I couldn't make anybody see why thiswouldn 't dO."14

Ultimately Goodman judges the revolu­tionaries of the sixties harshly becauseof their commitment to reaction ratherthan reflection. "It seems clear by nowthat the noisy youth sub-culture is notonly not grown-up, which is to the good,but prevents ever being grown-up.":"

The third and last key to understand­ing Paul Goodman derives logically fromthe previous two. As a romantic-rational­ist who believed in the power of ideas,Goodman came naturally to believe in thepower of imagery as well. What betterway is there for a passionate man todescribe his ideas than through visualimagery. This aspect of Goodman is fre­quently overlooked. To read him purelyas an academic sociologist or philosopherof social change rather than as a poetor a seer is not to read Paul Goodman.

Thus, the importance of the belated pub­lication of Goodman's book of collectedpoetry. This is not merely an appendixto a rich life of causes, but is central tounderstanding the man. "The voice ofthe poetry is persuasively the man him­self . . . ," writes his friend, George Den­nison."

Nor was it by chance that Paul Good­man chose Franz Kafka as the subject ofone of his earliest works. Kafka was notwidely known in America in 1947. Al­though Goodman did not read Germanwell, he searched what he could of Kaf­ka's writings and published an unusualbook entitled Kafka 's Prayer. In it Good­man searched for meaning in theaphorisms and parables of the Czech."... all art is prayer,' :" Goodman wrote,both for the writer and the audience.Goodman answered a parable with aparable. In an absurd world, the imageryof an aphorism or parable represented asearch for meaning. This made a strongimpression on Paul Goodman.

For instance, halfway through Grow­ing Up Absurd (the title itself is Kafka­esque) , Goodman presents us with aparable that is central to understandingthe entire work. "So imagine as a modelof our Organized Society : An apparentlyclosed room in which there is a large ratrace as the dominant center of attention.And let us consider the human relationspossible in such a place."18 Goodmanthen subtly suggests how the rat race inan "apparently closed room" determinesthe values and human relationships ofeveryone in the room-those who arerunning the race, those who are disquali­fied from running it, those who havedropped out, and those who are trying tostop the rat race. In every instance, how­ever, the rat race is the dominant factor

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84 THE EDUCATIONAL FORUM [November

in the lives of those who are in the room.And there is no escape from the room­or is there? Goodman has told us that therat race takes place in a room that is"apparently" closed. Does this suggestthat there is some means to escape thepervasiveness of the rat race? If one doesescape, is there just another bigger ratrace in a larger room? This, accordingto Goodman, is the plight of youth. Itis being trapped in that closed spacewhether it joins the rat race or rejectsit. And yet the room in which it istrapped is only "apparently" closed.

The book in which this parable oc­curs, Growing Up Absurd, made Good­man famous when it appeared in 1960.At that time he was fifty years old andalready the author of twenty books. Yetthe manuscript for Growing Up Absurdwas rejected by three publishers beforeRandom House brought it out. When itspublication was finally imminent, Good­man wrote a poem dedicated to youthand the publication of this work. Thepoem was a cry of pain as well as a pleafor action. Goodman, the optimistic be­liever in the power of ideas, leaves uswondering if there is any hope:

SENTENCES FOR GROWING UP ABSURD

What I will I can'tand what I wish I mayn'twhat I ought I won'tand what I must I don't.It's a non life I leadpast midway to the gravein my city of New Yorkin nineteen fifty-nine.

Heavy silence has grownaround me like a walland I feel earlyshut in my narrow room

where I lie waitingfrom the rectangle of skythe spades of stony earthto hurtle rattling down.

In this unpleasant plightI have composed a bookto show how youth is thwartedby the world we made.May they who read be stungby wrath I never feltfor me but for these kidsCreator spirit come."

The question remains: what then is theoverall significance of Paul Goodman?Will there be a Goodman renaissance orwill his popularity slowly wane until hebecomes a period piece whose works willoccasionally be dredged up to display asartifacts of a bygone age?

Goodman foresaw his own fate. Heonce wrote that the United States doesnot require censorship of the press be­cause the written word counts for so little.Only a rigid totalitarian system needscensorship to suppress dissent. In a "de­mocracy" such as ours, the dominantideology is so spongy and elastic that itmerely absorbs its rebels and critics likesome giant jellyfish. Their darts andarrows are not broken, but can neverreally find a target-s-one piece of proto­plasm is like every other one. The impli­cations are ominous despite Goodman'scautious optimism. We shall never reacha Brave New World or 1984. An evenmore cruel fate has befallen us.

In a poll which I took among a recentgroup of thirty-five upper level collegestudents, I discovered that only two orthree claimed to have read anythingwritten by Paul Goodman. I suspect thatonly about that portion of this year's

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freshmen have even heard of him. Forbetter or worse, the seventies haveswallowed the sixties without experienc­ing the slightest pang of indigestion. Theplasticity of the "American system"makes it not only flexible, but virtuallyinvulnerabl e to its critics.

This is not to say that Paul Goodmanis now sentenced to perpetual obscurity.He is too important to be permanentlyshelved in the unlit recesses of ourarchives. Although he will cont inue to in­spire a loyal coterie , I doubt if he willever regain his earlier popularity. Hismessage will be gainsaid by others whowill be more current. Unfortunately, hisfull range of commentary and criticismwill elude future intellectual historians,who will be half-blinded by his meteoricrise to fame in the sixties. He should findhis real place in the history of Americananarchism, not as one who went into thewilderness to found a Utopian com­munity, but as one who believed in theslim possibility of Americans finding theirway out of a wilderness that was becom­ing more impenetrable every day.

With respect to the history of educa­tion, Goodman will be numbered amongthose well-intentioned, anti-establishmentfigures who emerged in the sixties to de­cry the evils of our schools. One's pointof view will determine how seriouslysuch critics are treated and how well theysucceed. As a group they cannot beignored. Goodman' s place among themshould be preeminent , despite his beingsuperseded by more radical or outspokencritics on such issues as deschooling or

deadministering. He steadfastly refused tocompromise his principles in order tocurry favor with a counterculture whichdemanded conformity. One can onlyhope that Goodman's serious commit­ment to Western culture and scholarshipand his unflinching integrity will be recog­nized. These were his unique and endur­ing attributes.

NOTES

1. Quoted in "From the Paul Go odmanCanon," an unpublished paper by RobertWegner.

2. See Theodore Roszak, Th e Making of aCounter Cultu re (Ga rden City : Doubleday,1969), Chapter VI; George Dennison, "AMemoir and Appreciat ion," in Paul Good­man, Collected Poems ( New York : RandomHouse , 1973); Staughton Lynd, " If NotNow, When?," Liberation 7 (June 1962);Lewis S. Feuer, The Conflict of Gen erations(New York : Basic Books, 1969 ) ; and Nor­man Mailer, "The Steps of the Pent agon ,"Harper's 236 (March 1968).

3. Roszak, Counter Culture, pp. 178 and186.

4. Goodman, Poems .5. Paul Goodman, New Reformation:

Notes of a N eolithic Conservative (NewYork: Vintage Books, 1969).

6. Wegner, "Goodman Canon."7. Goodman, New Reformation, footnote

to p. 105.8. Ibid ., p. 105.9. Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd

(New Pork : Random Hou se, 1956) , p. 175.10. Goodman, New Reformation, p. 105.II. Goodman, Gro wing, pp. 34-35 .12. Goodman, New Reformation, p. 117.13. Ibid., p. 107.14. Ibid.15. Ibid ., p. 85.16. Goodman, Poems , p. xxii.17. Paul Goodman, Kafka 's Prayer (New

York : Vanguard, 1947 ) , p. 6.18. Goodman, Growing, pp. 159-60.19. Goodman, Poems , pp . 331-32 .

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