Kerouac was more disappointed than happy to be famous. Even though he liked some of what he inspired, he felt that the public largely got the wrong message from his books. He saw many people take what the Beats wrote as a kind of permission to get into trouble, or abandon (give up) people and things they cared about. He felt for the , but disagreed with them on the Vietnam War, the role of government, and . He also lost some of his old friends, when their views differed.