The Beat Generation was the first generation in American history to be subjected to peacetime military conscription. It was ... the first generation of young adults who had to confront the stark reality that two powerful nation-states, which might wind up fighting each other, possessed nuclear weapons in sufficient quantity to possibly destroy the world. The Beat fringe expressed their displeasure and alienation from mainstream, statist society by seeking enlightenment, and escape, through sex, drugs, modern jazz, and forays into Eastern mysticism.