Lefty despair

[Max B. Sawicky]

You're missing the dynamics here.  A small part of the "New Left"
progressively
withered into sects that didn't know what to make of culture of any sort.
They
weren't too good at politics either.  The unaffiliated, by contrast, were
perfectly comfortable with the 'counter-culture.'  Of course, most of them
eventually withered into political inactivity.  But people who avoided the
sects
often went into local or other projects, or into the labor movement.  They
didn't
fit your picture of the sectarians.

At its least sectarian and dogmatic (pre-1970), the idea of
the Left and of much of rock music and associated culture
was connected, typified by people like Lennon and Dylan.

mbs

New Left

I don't think the New Left and the counterculture merged all that much.
Yeah, Country Joe and the Dead played rallies, but wasn't it the Panther,
SDS (and later Weather) critique that the counterculture was decadent and
frivolous? By the late-60s and early 70s, much of the New Left had hardened
into a dogmatic and at times violent culture, while the counterculture began
receiving corporate bucks to entertain the new consumers advertisers
coveted.

Even in the 80s, when I attended cultural events tied to anti-nuke or
Central American issues, there was usually an earnestness that drowned out
the fun that we were supposed to have. I'd find more spontaneous human
expression and happiness at the block parties in Alphabet City and parts of
Brooklyn than I'd see at events organized by white lefties, where people
tried to give you leaflets while you danced.

DP