How is that different form, say, the sixties? Was not dope smoking, hideously ugly clothing, and the concerts on a mass scale a distraction and diversion from mass organizing? If the 1960s "hippie" movement transformed itself into a political movement instead goofing down into over-the-counter culture and identity politics, the x-tian right marching in goose step would not be such a threat today.
I take a Marxian-Weberian take and think that what really matters is the class that controls material resources, and that power is translated, inter alia, into promoting cultural ideas that show elective affinity to the interests of that class.
>
> As Justin said, what is most disgusting is the conservatives have very
> effectively lowered the bar as to what's acceptable.
> The claim that it's the fault of the PC left because their extremes
caused
> a backlash is a load of donkey dung. No, the conservatives charged the
lane
> and drew the fouls. They latched on to whatever excess they could find
and
> made up or misrepresented the rest.
True, but that has little to do with culture of this sort or another. It has something to do with the structural changes that made the capital more globally mobile, which in turn made the bosses stronger and the labor weaker. The bosses like it that way, hence their promotion of the conservative brand of culture to keep the left organizers out.
As to the light at the end of the tunnel that looks more and more like that of an oncoming locomotive - my gut reaction is to concur, but then again, I keep in mind the story of a certain Jew hiding somewhere in Poland during the WWII, and committed suicide when he learned that the Nazis took Paris. Paris was the center of the civilized world to him, and its fall was the fall of that world as well. Little did he know, however, that two years after Paris came Stalingrad.
But if anything else fails, I will have my EU passport.
Wojtek