Reply #2: Hedges is good on many grounds -- but he undervalues the 60's

[starroute]

In this article, he blames the 60's for hedonism, identity politics, and a lack of interest in economic justice. And all of that is true to a degree -- but only if you cherry-pick and ignore both the context and the most serious expressions of the period.

In terms of context, the late 60's were the very peak of the post-World War II economic boom in the US. There seemed to be no way to argue with the dominant economic system on pragmatic grounds -- so its only points of weakness were its inauthenticity, its materialism, and its emotional hollowness. This was primarily what the 60's counterculture was about, and though Hedges is right that it didn't have much of an alternative to offer except self-indulgent bohemianism, he doesn't realize that it was also the essential first step on the road to OWS.

In fact, all the dissident subcultures of the decades since -- from punks to radical environmentalists to Goths to Grateful Dead fans -- have in common a rejection of materialism and an emphasis on cultural autonomy, and do-it-yourself creativity. And the identity politics that Hedges decries may have been self-centered but were also the seedbed for many of the tools and attitudes that we now see on display in OWS, from collective decision-making to an awareness of oppression as a cultural mechanism.

Everybody does what they can in the context of their moment and with the resources available to them, and I wish Hedges would show a bit more humility and awareness of his own intellectual roots.