[madprof98]

The Beat Generation certainly were Whitmanesque in the onanistic sense: total self-absorption was their primary value, and that became the one and only value of the generation they spawned. Ever read Myron Magnet's The Dream and the Nightmare? It's supposedly one of George W. Bush's favorite books, and it really gets both the Fifties and the Sixties right.

[durasell]

Writers, musicians, artists, etc. are self-absorbed by both habit and natural inclination. Luckily, they are just a small segment of the general population.

[wildcatf4f3]

Theory on left vs. Right---Right --- individualism without the self-centeredness creating a strong community of commited moral people. Left-----groupism feeding on victimization and self-pity leading to social decay. Just a thought.