A Lament for a Lost Movement

I was born and raised in a “blue” state, and I live there still.  However, I also spent my childhood in a small rural town.  Coming of age during the Reagan era, I absorbed a lot of the conventional wisdom of the time.

Given my upbringing, it’s no surprise I developed progressive views relatively late.  But having lived through the past decade, I’m amazed that more people haven’t turned leftward.  In fact, I’ve been hard pressed to find a place where my neighbors share my ideas. 

For the last few years I’ve lived in a mountain resort community where I teach at the local college.  When I first arrived in Treetop (not its real name), it seemed like just the nice, free-thinking sort of place I’d been searching for.  I hoped to find friends who thought and felt as I do.  I thought it might be the where I’d realize a long-nurtured ambition to start a free alternative school.  I yearned to breathe free in the clean alpine air.

Treetop does have a reputation for having a free-spirited, youthful, alt vibe.  What I discovered underneath, however, was a pretty typical small town, right down to the weekly Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions Club breakfast meetings.  The conversation at the wine and cheese parties differs little from what you’d hear in the suburbs.  Town ordinances ensure that one downtown building looks much like all the others.  

I shared my misgivings with an acquaintance, telling her I wished Treetop was more socially progressive.  She was taken aback.  “But Treetop is very progressive,” she protested.  “We have snowboarders, artists, and yoga studios.  I listen to NPR and read The Huffington Post every morning!”

I didn’t bother to argue.  While Treetop isn’t exactly the kind of place Sinclair Lewis would have satirized, neither is it a refuge for aspiring bohemians or dissidents.  My exchange with the neighbor underlines an important fact of American political life.  Progressivism is a fringe movement, probably more so than at any other time in our history.  Oh, we have a loose cultural tolerance we call liberalism.  But being a liberal is largely a matter of style over substance, just another meaningless fashion statement.  I blame this on the legacy of the 1960s.  More precisely, I blame it on people taking away the wrong lessons from that era.  The individualistic, do-your-own-thing, let-it-all-hang-out countercultural ethos seeped into the mainstream without transforming the soul of “square” society.  This is why you have kids today with long hair, tattoos, and body piercings who vote Republican and unabashedly seek business careers.   

The biggest roadblock to reviving progressivism is our essential, small “c,” conservatism.  We don’t like change.  We stubbornly believe individual initiative and hard work conquer all.  Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, we think the system is basically fair and should stay the way it is.  Most importantly, we don’t want to lose whatever social and economic privileges we’ve managed to hold on to.   In short, our national narrative and decades of propaganda have convinced us progressivism just isn’t a good idea.  It helps explain why the Occupy movement has failed to take off.  It hasn’t been police repression or official harassment.  It's been public skepticism and apathy.

So, what’s the solution?  In my humble opinion:

What we need is a compelling counter-narrative.  We need to take back the symbolism and heroes of our past.  We need to remind ourselves of the taken for granted gains made by our forebears.  We must let go of our preconceived notions.  This is easier said than done, but I believe it has to happen.  It may be a bridge too far to win over older generations whose members feel they have too much to lose.  Perhaps we can count on the open mindedness of youth to rebuild the movement.

To build a future movement, we have to look to the past.  We must revisit the experience of the 1960s New Left, the political movement that faded into historical oblivion even as the decade’s music and fashion became cultural icons.  Our goal should be nothing short of a revival of the New Left.   This next New Left must not simply engage in activism.  It must win the cultural war against reaction and corporate hegemony.  It will have to rely on moral suasion to remake our basic cultural values.              

This last charge – to fundamentally remake our collective beliefs – is the most critical and the most difficult.  I’ll mull the possibilities in a future post.

© 2012 The Unassuming Scholar