Jacob Walsh

Professor Harris

Essay Two

1 December 2020

Restructuring The Organized System

Jenny Odell does a good job utilizing the writings and other works from authors or artists to help extend a point she is talking about at the time. Odell uses these pieces to help the reader grasp a better understanding of what she is trying to explain and provide more detail and support to her point. One of the books Odell mentions in “How to Do Nothing” is by the name of a man named Paul Goodman. Goodman wrote many books through the 60’s and 70’s, but his book “Growing up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized System” published in 1960 is what catapulted Goodman to popularity for his opinions on the Organized System in America as social reform. After reading the book, I can tell exactly why Odell decided to sample Goodman’s writing in her book. In Odell’s chapter Impossibility of Retreat she mentions Goodmans book when talking about the Commune living arrangements during the 60’s. Odell’s idea of Impossibility of Retreat was definitely a part of the book that I did not understand or see her point of view on; which is exactly why I picked to read this book. Odell explains how (Goodman’s) book was an inspiration for people to start these small commune living arrangements with his idea of “decentralized network of individual communities making judicious use of new technology and supporting themselves with cottage industries” (Odell 40). Goodman’s book inspired the wave of commune living in America, as well as student rebellion in the 60’s seeking reform on the organized system set up for the youth. After reading Goodman’s book, I could tell Odell had only mentioned a portion of what Goodman addresses in this book as well as why so many people were inspired by his words that caused people to take action.

In his book “Growing up Absurd,” Paul Goodman really goes into detail about problems of youth in the organized system, and how poorly our future generations are being managed. Goodman blames the system for the increase in juvenile delinquency and poor use of individuals skills and abilities. Goodman uses each chapter to break down an aspect of the system, whether it be something that is missing, an issue existing in the organized system, or how the system typically affects someone depending on different variables, such as economic and social status. In chapter 1, JOBS, Goodman talks about the jobs being worked and available in the workforce. Jobs now are created and designed for one thing only, maximizing a profit and keeping the system afloat. The issue Goodman points out with this is that many jobs don’t have a real purpose, adding no improvement to our communities and providing the employee with no real sense of passion and pride for their work. Although Goodman’s book is very outdated, many of his points still stand true. Due to the system still in place, you cannot be picky with your work. A young adult coming out of college is going to take the first well paying occupation thrown his way to recover from debt and to start his/her life. Goodman’s point is the system is forcing us into jobs to keep the system afloat, and not to actually benefit the well being of the individuals. I will come back to the point later on when talking about Chapter 8, AN APPARENTLY CLOSED ROOM. Goodman includes a snippet from The Empire City which I thought explained the ideology behind it really well, stating,

“ No just useless (referring to his work). It takes the heart out of me to work at something useless and I begin to make mistakes. I don’t mind putting profits in somebody’s pocket — but the job also has to be useful for something.”

… “Why don’t you go to the woods and be a lumberjack?”

“No! They chop down the trees just to print off the New York Times!”

Goodman uses this text to show how even the simplest jobs and tasks that have been around for ages now all have some new underlying purpose for it to benefit the system and maximize profits, and slowly jobs with true purpose and meaning to them are fading away. In the third chapter, Goodman addresses Class Structure within the organized system and how they relate to each other. First thing he addresses in the chapter is the income pyramid, as it has changed in shape. It used to be that the most people were at the bottom, or a part of the “poor”, and evenly decreased in population going all the way up to the top 1%. Now, the majority of people make up the lower middle class taking up semi-professional and service jobs. The main issue Goodman feels with the class structure is the difference between each “class” is too obvious. The difference between a class and the one right above it is too drastic, and allows for almost no movement between social and economic classes. This is something brought up in one of Goodman’s later chapters.

The next chapter of “Growing up absurd” is titled Aptitude, which is pretty much someone’s natural ability to do something. The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the lackluster ability of the system to really capitalize on individuals abilities and natural skills. The system fails to bring out the best in people, really maximizing their full potential. Goodman describes it as a waste of human resources which really got me thinking about this. The youth are told to go to school, do their work, and follow a carved out path generalized for a community of people rather than an individual’s specifications. While I do feel improvements have been made to the system such as being able to take vocational classes in high school to create a different path for a student rather than college, the same problem is still prevalent in our system today. One issue that arises from this problem in the system is “boredom” within the youth. Goodman describes boredom as, “the pain a person feels when he is doing nothing or something irrelevant, instead of doing something he wants to do but won’t, can’t, or doesn’t dare.” (Goodman 70). Another issue brought up by the systems flaws is “ineptitude” stated as, “not knowing how; the situation in which, even if they know their aims, children don’t know the means or can’t manage the means.” (Goodman 71). The system provides low engagement and interest for most of the youth within its system, causing them to become bored and uninterested. For many, attendance of school is seen as an obligation, something they have to attend and being absent is not tolerated. This creates a sense of “being trapped” and instead of working towards something you are interested in at an early age, many are seen dropping out of school or skipping class, leading to a large portion of kids taking part in delinquent activities in their community. This segways into our next chapter where Goodman emphasizes the importance of PATRIOTISM, the name of this chapter and why something so small seems important. I wanted to emphasize this because Goodman felt it was important enough to give it it’s own section in the book. Yes, the book was written in a different era, but America was battling through issues such as the Cold War and Vietnam War in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s which brough moral down overall. Goodman emphasizes why one needs to have a sense of Patriotism as culture and passion are important. Having a sense of pride in something gives you direction as well as provides you with a sense of unity. I felt this was important to bring up as we have just gone through one of the most controversial elections ever, splitting our country into two. Having that sense of Patriotism brings people together and allows for people to be truly passionate about a common idea. Finally, in Goodman’s chapter titled SOCIAL ANIMAL he talks about how the system does not really take into affect the social aspect of the youth’s lives within it. Someone who comes from a privileged background will most likely have a very different experience with the organized system as a youth as someone who comes from an “unprivileged” background and social setting. This is not saying that both groups are unable to succeed and flourish in the system, but this factor usually plays a large role in how the youth utilize the education system (especially at the time of Goodman’s writing). Goodman explains how the education system may benefit a child who comes from a stable family, married parents with home responsibilities, and not be so advantageous to a youth with a rocky family foundation and lack of parental control.

I want to touch on chapter 9, THE EARLY RESIGNED, briefly as the chapter goes into further depth about the class structures mentioned earlier in Goodman’s reading. This chapter specifically looks further into what Goodman calls the “Beat Generation” or “Beat Culture”. This is the generation that has opted out of the organized system of production, sales and it’s culture but are too good or “too hip” to be attracted to independent work. While Goodman supports the opposition against the system, you can’t sit on the side and do nothing for yourself. Goodman explains how there are two positives to the Beat Culture, they act out against the organized system and bring awareness to those issues, they can be used for studying the use of leisure in an economy full of abundance. Going against the system has Goodman’s support, but sitting on the side watching it all happen is not the way to go about it.

Goodman’s next chapter, THE EARLY FATALISTIC, focuses on the delinquent subculture in the youth. Much of the youth included in this subculture come from broken homes, often little to no supervision or structure. Here, he talks about how much of the youth decides to play hooky more and more often as they become less engaged with the system until they drop out of school. Kids in this cultural mindset and environment often are never thinking about their grades or homework they have to do. Students do not feel like a college is something that may ever be attainable for them for whatever reason, giving them less of a reason and drive, and with nobody at home making sure they do their work, students slowly become more and more disengaged. As time progresses, a student misses more and more classes and eventually drops out. On page 190 Goodman states, “The delinquent fatalism is the feeling of no chance in the past, no prospect for the future, no recourse in the present.” This is a dangerous feeling, as the youth abandons the system, they have nowhere else to turn to. Due to a lack of structure at home, and a feeling of uselessness and being lost, kids turn to gang-activity or petty crimes for cash. Doing this gives them something to belong too and a sense and feeling of purpose; something the education system was never able to give them due to the fact it is not tailored to the youth with unstable backgrounds.

In Goodman’s final chapter, THE MISSING COMMUNITY, all his thoughts and ideals throughout the book are brought together. This chapter is broken down into different social changes made in the system, and what is missing. The large categories mentioned in this chapter include physical environment, economic and social change, political and constitutional reforms, general moral premises of modern time as well as reforms connected with children and adolescents. As society progresses, there calls for rapid change and growth, advancements in these categories causing for society to keep up. The rapid growth as Goodman states, “have shattered tradition but often have not succeeded in creating a whole new community.” (Goodman 207). Due to the rapid growth, imagine our society as a horizontal line that is very jagged and uneven, for example a heartbeat, displaying the growth of these categories over time. Goodman believes to keep tradition, as well as a more organized system, that the horizontal line needs to be flattened, evening the growth across the board in all aspects within the organized system to truly get the full use and benefit out of it. This will allow more people to easily move between social status as well as make achievement of wealth more attainable.

Now I want to bring up Chapter 8 of Goodman’s book title AN APPARENTLY CLOSED ROOM. The reason I decided to skip over this chapter in my piece is because I wanted to save it for the end of my piece since I found this chapter not only the most relatable part of Goodman’s book for me but I thought it related a lot to Odell’s work in “How to do Nothing”. To me this chapter really showed why Odell chose to talk about Goodman’s work, specifically her chapter The Impossibility of Retreat. To expand on Goodman’s writing in this chapter, he focuses in on the “middle class” or “middle-status” of society. Goodman describes the middle class as a closed room, and the effects it has on those within the closed room. Goodman supports his theory by explaining that the closed room is the cause for the rat-race the middle class is in for jobs and status in the economy and society. The rat race, to Goodman, is just this cycle of human resources competing to benefit the economy and those above them. Why does society partake in this if this is clear to them? That is because of the “closed room” they are in, they think there is nowhere to go, in Goodman’s words, “And in the room if they jump off (try and leave the rate race), they fear they may be among the disqualified, they will be bums.” People are too scared of what will happen if they take that risk, or try to go against the system. This keeps those in the middle class to follow what they are taught to do and conform to the system set in place for them. This shows the Impossibility of Retreat, title of Odell’s chapter where she mentions Goodman’s book. After reading “Growing up Absurd,” I understand Odell’s thought process in including the book in her piece. Goodman’s book is a great way to support a claim or a point you may be trying to make in your book, especially when his work parallels the morals and objective of yours. Goodman does a good job in explaining every asset of the system, every flaw and why it is there. His writing is hard to dispute which is why “Growing up Absurd” was used as a guide to student reform in the 60’s as well as commune living as shown in Odell’s book. While Goodman’s book was a large reason for the design of the commune living, and is why it is mentioned in Odell’s book, there is a lot more to the book, essentially Goodman’s ideal social reform plan. What made Goodman’s book so interesting is despite it being written all the way back in the 60’s, a lot of what he has to stay still applies or is outdated but parallels things going on right now. Goodman seemed ahead of his time, and certainly allowed me to gain perspective on the Organized System in America today, something I will definitely observe with a closer eye after reading this book.