Is there such a thing as a Beatnik in Sydney Keith Smith struggled valiantly to find one in his "Inquiry on the Beats" from E ABN Channel 2 on 8 Wednesday night. But not one person could he find to admit straight out that he or she was a beatnik. Unwittingly, however, I think he found the Beatniks the "weirdies" who don't know what they are, have no direction, no ambition, no talent. These are the self-described "non-conformists" who adopt an almost uniform dress, a monotonously Similar jargon with a monotonously limited vocabulary exhibitionists, poseurs, people who "are looking for something" and who will probably find it in suburban mediocrity. March 25, 1954.