The Beat Generation of American poets arose in the late 1940s as a rebellion against materialistic mainstream culture and academic poetry. It embraced sexual liberation, Eastern spirituality, ecological awareness, political activism, and psychedelic drugs. One of its members, Jack Kerouac, tweaked and ennobled the word "beat" to serve as the code name for their movement. In its old colloquial usage, "beat" meant tired or exhausted. But Kerouac re-consecrated it to mean "upbeat" and "beatific," borrowing from the Italian word beato, translated as "beatific." I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because you're on the verge of a similar transition: from the old meaning of "beat" to the new.

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