"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:"
Wow, you're absolutely right. It's honestly pretty hard to be "down with the masses" when it seems like what most of the masses believe is just so insufferable you'd rather slit your own wrists -- and to slit them vertically, not horizontally, to make sure it really works, that is -- than ape their lowest common denominator attitudes or cultural preferences to cynically simulate "being with them."
So, while we're at it, song-wise, how about DK's "Chickenshit Conformist Like Your Parents" or the Descendents' old anti-suburban mantra "Suburban Home"?
-B.