[lbo-talk] Dispiriting Suburbs?

[Carl Remick]

>From: "Jesse Lemisch" <utopia1 at attglobal.net>
>
>I always disliked Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes.... all made out of
>ticky-tacky," etc., as contemptuous of people, including suburbanites, who
>live in those little boxes. I was therefore quite surprised in reading
>Bettina Aptheker's excellent new memoir, Intimate Politics, to hear that
>Reynolds was a Communist. It had been my experience that Communists,
>regardless of their other problems, did not insult potential 
>constituencies.
>But there's no doubt that contempt for suburbia was very much a part of the
>New Left.

Yes, "Little Boxes" radiates contempt -- for the houses, the people who live 
in them, and the pointless conformist lives they lead.  What, may I ask, is 
*your* idea of a worthwhile leftist anthem -- a hymn to the American Dream?  
Seems to me that if one seeks a social transformation, the focus has to be 
on what's misguided and demeaning about people's aspirations.  The revo 
won't come simply from sucking up to the citizenry and telling them to stay 
the course, so to speak.  So once more, with feeling:

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes>

Carl

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