The Neatnik
Murray, Ed
Whatever its deficiencies, the younger generation has not suffered from a lack of labels. The era has been called shook-up and apathetic; white-collared and black-leather-jacketed;...
...It was not surprising that left-wing organizations all but disappeared from American colleges during the McCarthy era, but even such middle of the road groups as Students for Democratic Action have withered under an assault of nothing more hostile than apathy...
...Democratic neatniks are transforming the party of FDR into an engine of enlightened conservatism...
...At home he is more concerned with the disposal of his garbage than with the waste of his leisure...
...Neatnik's stolidity, his sheer massive endurance, is one of the secrets of his power...
...Meanwhile, back at the split level ranch house, she has made her own domicile more business-like...
...The young executive who sports a neatly trimmed beard is always dressed in white shirt, dark suit and tie and polished shoes...
...His creases are guaranteed to hold and in the uniformity of his vast numbers he has found strength...
...While journalists, educators, city planners and social workers may stir up a community from time to time, they seldom stay put long enough to see their vision of society through the tedions process of acceptance, enactment and continuance...
...Neatnik, son of Babbitt, bears only a faint resemblance to his father...
...Though even less publicized than her husband, she is the power that has made his power what it is...
...Dull and inconspicuous himself, the neatnik often displays a fascination for unusual behavior...
...Here the heroine of a recently published short story sums up her life: "I live, I suppose, in the world of the squares...
...This getter of the girl...
...Neatnik draws his name from his outstanding characteristic— his determination to keep all things tidy...
...Without the standards Greg [the 'hip cat' she 'dug' but didn't I48 marry] so blithely ignored there could be no family life, no industry, no community, no nation...
...Though more mobile than Babbitt, the neatnik does tend to settle down earlier and move less often than many of the more enlightened members of society...
...Things are quiet today...
...Con vinced by the intellectual that progress is a function of slum clearance, welfare services and improved education, the neatnik replaces two tenements with one parking lot, urges wider support of the United Fund and enlarges the school board...
...And the neatnik who affiliates with no political party displays not so much independence of mind as an unwillingness to commit himself...
...Unhappily, he manages to bring order out of chaos chiefly by ignoring the real problems of his age...
...This then is the typical neatnik...
...CONVINCED BY THE BEATNIK that salvation is merely a matter of Buddha, promiscuity and sloppy dress, the neatnik skims a magazine article on Zen, flirts with his neighbor's wife and -wears stylishly scuffed tennis shoes on Saturday afternoon...
...The neatnik may be of little interest because his own interests are so slight...
...Only anarchy...
...His dreams may be as narrow as his tightly knotted ties, but the well-pressed neatnik has great staying power...
...The world about him grows increasingly complex and messy, but neatnik bends his efforts to creating the appearance of a circumspect universe...
...He is more likely to be active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce than to be kicking up his heels with the Shriners...
...But this doesn't mean very much...
...The neatnik knows that when only a touch is used, taboo is a perfume...
...But where else can one live...
...This, coupled with their greater numbers, makes the neatniks the unsung molders of our age...
...Whatever its deficiencies, the younger generation has not suffered from a lack of labels...
...They are influenced by the transitory intellectuals and reformers, but their solid burgher instincts inevitably temper reform and cool progress...
...organized and uncommitted...
...white-collared and black-leather-jacketed...
...Yet the hophead, jeanage, hirsute few enjoy the fame, while the more numerous neatniks attract less attention, not only because they are commonplace, but because they are dull...
...The coffee houses of Manhattan and San Francisco may feature beat poets, but they are sustained by neat customers who come-a-slumming on weekends...
...He is better educated, more widely traveled, more sophisticated in the manners of sex and more involved with the accoutrements of culture...
...A creature who has sold his birthright for a mess of mortgage and traded in his masculinity for a tail fin...
...Though he interests himself superficially in many of the world's major messes, he withdraws his real concern to the microcosm of home and family...
...THE COLLEGE-AGE neatnik, whose lack of character is not yet fully formed, sometimes 'feels vague yearnings for a world where life isn't so neatly ordered...
...They tell him that all is well, and from this he draws his consolations...
...While Babbitt was bound to be a Republican, the neatnik career-chaser may style himself a political independent or even register as a Democrat...
...In business and civic affairs he is more involved with balance sheets than with balanced social benefits...
...The era has been called shook-up and apathetic...
...The beatniks, hip to Zen Buddha and hooked on exhibitionism, may achieve nirvana and notoriety, but the neat—the neat shall inherit the earth...
...The female of the neatnik species is a domestic animal...
...Miltown, which tranquilizes the neat, outsells mescaline, which sensitizes the beat...
...While the cut of her own clothes has been getting more masculine, she has persuaded her spouse to brighten the color of his haberdashery, cars and places of business...
...If Neatnik is more likely to be a regular church-goer than Babbitt was, he is also more likely to be skeptical or indifferent on questions of divinity and dogma...
...Dr...
...In school he pays more attention to his social "contacts" than to his studying...
...A freshman at New York's City College recently interviewed ar alumnus, circa 1940, for a student publication story on undergraduate life "then and now...
...After listening to stories of peace strikes and protest picketing, rallies and political feuds of two decades ago, the freshman wrote, "It must have been exciting...
...The neatnik may even adopt some of the external features of the beat —but only up to a point...
...His crisp clothes and trimmed lawns are false but valuable symbols...
...WHAT is the neatnik really like, this backbone of industry, community, Nation...
...But in all this generationlabeling perhaps the largest and most important segment of youth has gone untagged, almost unnoticed: the segment that might be described as the neat generation...
...But, unlike her mother, she has thoroughly domesticated her mate...
...most girls wear their hair decorously bobbed...
...yet his narrowness is the key to his importance...
...Edward D. Eddy, provost of the University of New Hampshire, has described today's student as "primarily interested in the maintenance of the status quo—a very comfortable status quo—which makes him the sought-after darling of business and industry...
...The neatnik is conspicuously tractable in his behavior...
...Crew cuts outnumber beards...
...Gray flannel and even old-fashioned blue serge are still more in evidence than faded blue jeans...
...It is the more patient neatniks who stick around and keep communities in business...
...And when he does join an organization like the Rotary, he often cares less about sociability than its value for career and suburban community...
...He won't go overboard...
...GOP neatniks are busily rescuing the "new" Dick Nixon from the short-sighted Old Guard...
...His co-worker, who affects open collars and suede shoes, will be sure to appear clean shaven...
...The pony tail is still an exception...
...He is no less a joiner than was Babbitt, but the motive for his joining is now less a desire to belong than a compulsion to get ahead...
...Hadley DePuy, assistant dean of men at Cornell, reporting on a six-year study of discipline problems, concludes that today's student is "extremely" well be haved, especially when discipline is administered by judiciary boards made up of fellow students...
...A creature whose intellect is as firmly buttoned down as the Ivy League collars he loves to wear...
...He regards religion more as a stepping stone to here-and-now security than as a ladder to pie in the sky...
...The women's magazines have been astute in recognizing his importance...
...Eddy attributed to the typical student an attitude he termed "privatism," and said, "His strong interests are centered on the material benefits he and his family may be able to enjoy...
Vol. 7 • April 1960 • No. 2
