Both Robeson and Ginsberg were iconoclasts, literally, “breakers of idols.” What sacred idols of American culture and politics did these two break?

Paul Robeson and Allen Ginsberg challenged the appeal for conformity that appeared often in advertising and political speech in the United States in the 1950s. In Cold War America, conformity meant buying mass-produced goods, demonstrating patriotism by repeating a political ideology that claimed to support “freedom” but in reality was an excuse for suppressing minorities, following traditional guidelines for speech and artistic expression in education and the arts, and supporting America’s new world-wide military presence, despite the fact that the United States came very close to leading the world into nuclear annihilation. Read Paul Robeson’s testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America,” both from 1956. Both Robeson and Ginsberg were iconoclasts, literally, “breakers of idols.” What sacred idols of American culture and politics did these two break? Write a short essay, minimum of 200 words, in which you explain the significance of their words you read in the House Committee transсrіpt and in Ginsberg′s ″America,″ both documents from a decade that is usually remembered for its prosperity and increasing material comforts.