Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society

But its constituent parts are owned and operated by definable agents who stand to benefit from the maintenance of the status quo. There are certain interests involved; in most cases they are moneyed interests who want us to keep thinking and buying along the same socially sanctioned lines. Above all, these interests hope we will keep thinking there is no Organized System: Yet this discomfort was part of what interested Goodman. As a social critic and lay psychologist, he saw an underlying symmetry between the ideological assumption that there was no Organized System and the evidence that many people were reacting against it.

It was obvious, for instance, that beatniks and juvenile delinquents were repelled by what the Organized System and its dominant values asked of them. But it was equally obvious that their alternative values represented little more than symbolic opposition, efforts to flee rather than adjust.

Beneath the appearance of disparate responses, Goodman saw a common cultural condition. It was on this basis that Goodman staked his main ethical claim: But embedded within this project is a potent set of political questions that remain urgent today. Who are the agents of dehumanization in our culture, and what real needs do they obscure? Do the social roles we play feel like eccentric substitutes? What are we substituting and why? The Contribution of Sociology to Social Work. Forgotten Heroes of American Education.

Crisis and Hope in American Education. From Humility to Hubris among Scholars and Politicians. The Pith of Life: Aphorisms in Honor of Liberty. Regarding the Pain of Others. The Dialectics of Liberation. The Lost Massey Lectures: Recovered Classics from Five Great Thinkers. Brilliant Thinkers Speak Their Minds. Drawing the Line Once Again. The Paul Goodman Reader.

How to write a great review. The review must be at least 50 characters long. The title should be at least 4 characters long. Your display name should be at least 2 characters long. At Kobo, we try to ensure that published reviews do not contain rude or profane language, spoilers, or any of our reviewer's personal information. You submitted the following rating and review.

We'll publish them on our site once we've reviewed them. Item s unavailable for purchase. Please review your cart. You can remove the unavailable item s now or we'll automatically remove it at Checkout. Continue shopping Checkout Continue shopping.

Growing Up Absurd by Paul Goodman

Chi ama i libri sceglie Kobo e inMondadori. In Malaysia, the Bumiputeras a rough equivalent of WASPs in America, but that's debatable, of course have been given ample political and economic opportunities as a result of government policies, especially after the riots. Some of them managed to study overseas under government sponsorship, come back to work in cushy jobs in the government or multinational Government-Linked Companies think Sime Darby , settled in a comfortably suburban life in Shah Alam, Ampang, Bangi and eventually producing offsprings that will continue this cycle of success thanks largely to ample social, cultural and economic capital attained by their parents.

With the rise of the Malay middle class, there are those who are left behind in the 'rat race'. Like s America, Malaysia's economic growth indeed increases the standard of living for many of its citizens, but at the cost of solidifying structural imbalances. Those who benefit, possibly a majority of the people, will defend this structure. While those who are marginalized loses more and more of their bargaining power. In the end, those who benefit sees no reason to change anything, while those are marginalized simply loses the power to imagine a better life.

Everyone belief that the current system is a divinely ordained, instead of an objective reality changeable through human agency. For Goodman, the losers here are not only those who live in the fringe of the society. Even those who 'make it' suffered in doing mundane, unimportant jobs for the sake of high salary. Those 'Organization Man' becomes cynical and resigned. He finds solace in consumption of material goods, not in enjoying his job or doing something worthwhile in his spare time.

Growing Up Absurd – Paul Goodman

Again, returning to the Malaysian example, these executives play golfs with their bosses not because they enjoy it, but to play the role sycophants for career advancement. Also, contracts are signed without proper tender, and everyone, from the department director to the lowly clerks, seem resigned and cynical about it all. In short, men are separated from their worthwhile vocation, and whose main purpose of life is to accumulate more wealth for the sake of consumption.

No longer we do a job and be proud of it. Goodman's America and my Malaysia might be separated in space and time, but I notice similarities in the direction both those countries are or were heading. We live in times of peace and prosperity, albeit with increasing subtle marginalization that solidifies the status quo.

And sadly men become objects, not subjects, of history. Goodman's remedies are so simple that critics are shocked by his seeming naivety. He called for the return to old traditional values such as Honesty, Honor, Shame, Patriotism and the reinstatement of the communal spirit. Cities should be built in a way that is friendly for interaction between its citizens. Schools should be swarmed by earnest professionals who are not resigned in the face of it all. And education should be liberal, instead of streamlined to give importance to Science subjects. In the same way, Malaysia could do better with the return to the old 'kampung' village spirit that shaped the Malays way of life, instead of this half-baked urbanization that drives Malaysians to crazed consumerism.

And words like 'Sahsiah' personality , 'Jati Diri' integrity , 'Maruah' Honor should be given a deeper respect, instead of being meaningless slogans in government letters, typed down by cynical personnel. What is needed is a complete revolution in our way of life.

And please, as Goodman himself insists, no more half-baked revolutions as in the case of most revolutions in human history , for an unfinished revolution is more damaging than a failed one. Because, a failed revolution signals that something is not achieved and there are still more work to do. However, an unfinished revolution promotes the sense that everything that ought to be has been, and nothing more could be done. Mar 11, Nils rated it liked it. Arguably the pivotal text from "the s" to "the Sixties," Goodman's book is the ultimate reasoned rant against the painful consequences of the postwar repressive society of what he intentionally reifies as "the Organized System" of "the Man.

As Nelson's new introduction points out, it is of a piece with other radical critiques that remain rooted in hope Arguably the pivotal text from "the s" to "the Sixties," Goodman's book is the ultimate reasoned rant against the painful consequences of the postwar repressive society of what he intentionally reifies as "the Organized System" of "the Man. As Nelson's new introduction points out, it is of a piece with other radical critiques that remain rooted in hope for premodern virtues one thinks of Kit Lasch: First, in certain respects it remains shockingly timely, in its explanation of the way that society's strictures produce the alienation that leads to juvenile delinquencies.

He realizes that it is the foreclosure of the American small town virtues of "manly" labor that leads those who do not have access to the top of the income scale to engage in antisocial behavior. He detects, very rightly, that the anomie of the delinquent and the cynicism of the salaryman are in fact not all that dissimilar and in fact spring out of the same social dynamics created by mindless consumerism and jobs that do not involve the production of anything tangibly useful.

One sees easily why this became a bible of the New Left's critique of the repressively desublimating society. Second, in other respects, it is shockingly dated, above all in its treatment of women, who he breezily suggests should be totally satisfied with just making babies. He writes, for example, of how women may themselves become Beats: They might then choose a life among those more tolerant and find meaning in it by posing for them or typing their manuscripts. Third, in its treatment of sexual repression it is both shockingly frank and weirdly of its Neo-Freudian moment.

He speaks directly to the sexual desires and activities of the young, both homosexual and heterosexual, in a very matter of a fact way. He takes sexual desire to be a basic part of the human experience, not something to be apologized for. And he says with absolute clarity that sexual repression does far more aggregate psychological damage than any untoward sexual misadventures will do. In this sense, his sensibility is already post-sexual revolution. Finally, there are moments when it all three at once.

For example, consider his "precise, if annoying, illustration" of how young men the world over need to establish their manliness by earning a decent living: This sum is not the wages of prostitution; such a thought wuold outrage them, for if they did not enjoy what they are doing they would not do it. It is, rather, a way of making the act legitimate, justified, not merely pleasure. The money serves exactly the same symbolic function as the wedding ring for a young woman.

Earning some money affirms the young man is a man. Dec 06, Dan Gorman rated it liked it. This was a weird one. Goodman was an anarchist, a Ph. In this book, published in , Goodman argues that juvenile delinquents deserve sympathy and support, but not pity. The urban kids who join gangs in a desperate attempt to survive; the sad young office drones trapped in the corporate "rat race"; the Angry Young Men of Great Britain; the Beat artists who are alienated from mass cu This was a weird one.

It grinds people down. The schools don't foster creativity or independence, only the rat race, and those kids who don't conform are shunned or labeled delinquent. Meanwhile, the promises of political liberalism go unfulfilled, income inequality swells, and the big TV networks remember, this is churn out monotonous programming instead of real art.

Navigation menu

Goodman expresses his desire for politicians who fulfill liberalism and redirect resources to help the needy, but he does not spell out how such programs would work. He is not a big-state Marxist. If anything, Goodman, like James Agee, is an individual-minded Marxist.

Goodman's ideal state would give money to teachers but reduce guidelines, so that teachers can get on with teaching, instead of dealing with bureaucracy. He does not spell out what should happen in such classrooms to foster independence. Similarly, Goodman wants the networks to stop producing TV and only distribute independent artists' work, but he does not explain how this revamped market would operate. In my reading, Goodman prefers highlighting moral problems and needs to spelling out policy.

This lack of concrete solutions, along with Goodman's surprisingly overt sexism, is disappointing. I do think Goodman is onto something when he challenges parents to attack corporate and political b. Goodman makes an incisive claim that urban gangs don't want to be outcasts, but rather they want to belong and survive at all cost. The passages on income inequality, particularly how inequality affects minority populations in cities, and what would be called white flight in later years are spot-on.

The critique of the networks is timely, given the FCC's looming attack on net neutrality. Like any iconic primary document from a past decade, "Growing Up Absurd" is partly stuck in its own time, and partly relevant to the present day for me, December Goodman was sui generis. Jan 03, Petter Nordal rated it really liked it. Goodman was writing about juvenile delinquency in His argument boils down to the idea that American society has become so weird and organized, that stupid and futile rejection of the ready-made options that young people have is only a reasonable reaction.

All this was written when the Beats were delinquents, yeah, the Beat Generation. This makes for fun reading. First of all, it is a time capsule, where you have to try to remember what was going on in America in , an interesting exercis Goodman was writing about juvenile delinquency in First of all, it is a time capsule, where you have to try to remember what was going on in America in , an interesting exercise in itself. Secondly, it is bizarre by today's standards, to imagine a book that sees Allen Ginsburg as a ridiculous example of the rejection of American culture and an example of how boys do not have the opportunity to grow into men anymore, not to mention, the idea of writing a book about education which concerns itself about white boys and not really anyone else as the inheritors of American society.

Thirdly, this book serves as an awesome antidote to all those people who say that everything worked well in the olden days; because Goodman argues that things worked better when schools had a limited impact on society and society was less organized and less classed; and because this was more than half a century ago. Finally, it is awesome to see how many of his arguments were prescient and can be applied to those who reject schools today. A lot of fun. He has some interesting and possibly good ideas on many things; how to approach the problem of juvenile delinquency, how to keep kids from growing up afraid of their own sexuality, how to keep workers feeling fulfilled in their jobs, how to attack poverty without attacking the poor.

The writing is sometimes beautiful, there are several quotes that stuck out to me.

• Cat Training Techniques Training Your Cat;
• Reward Yourself;
• What is Kobo Super Points?.
• Growing Up Absurd – Paul Goodman | Full Stop?
• See a Problem?.
• Economics and National Security: Issues and Implications for U.S. Policy.

Other times the wording comes out pompous, and Goodman makes a point to apologize for coming off as angry or aggressive in the writin He has some interesting and possibly good ideas on many things; how to approach the problem of juvenile delinquency, how to keep kids from growing up afraid of their own sexuality, how to keep workers feeling fulfilled in their jobs, how to attack poverty without attacking the poor.

Other times the wording comes out pompous, and Goodman makes a point to apologize for coming off as angry or aggressive in the writing.

• Growing Up Absurd?
• Begegnungen - Wie der Jazz unsere Herzen gewann (German Edition);
• Join Kobo & start eReading today.
• ?
• Growing Up Absurd - Wikipedia?
• .

Oct 03, Andrew Dolbeare rated it really liked it. Goodman was a brilliant thinker and this is a very insightful book. It great on several levels, to the in depth analysis of The Beat Generation to the social criticism about the career culture that still persists today. If you can look beyond the sexism, which is a problem, you'll absolutely take something from this book.