...having grown up in an environment where baby boomers were stampeding toward irrational world views (or bouncing between them) ranging from flower child to evangelical. There was little room for transmitting decent political and economic values to the next generation.
For a time, liberals prided themselves on their "subversive" messages in the media. Looking back it seems like the cowardly use of ambiguity to me; That late-20th century effect--where people saw completely different messages in the same movies depending on the viewers' disposition--is a well established example.
They copped-out of their social responsibility while telling themselves that inculcating the consumerist values based on gratification would bring happiness to society. A particular spin of postmodern thought came into vogue in service to that Left slide toward consumer nihilism: One could always stop an argument in its tracks by turning it around and throwing the opposite back in their face claiming they are really just self-interested and imposing their personal desires on everyone else (probably the largest and most effective use of projection in history, IMHO).
For gen-Xers and millenials both, the result was an intellectual and moral desert, especially for those of us who grew up in conservative families: The rare encounter with Progressive 'egghead' views which almost never seemed to make sense because they represented advanced collegiate-level works that --- quite frankly--- did not seem for an instant to give a damn whether the value and experience embodied therein could be made accessible to successive generations. There was no bridge whatsoever.
I got off the wheel sooner than most, starting in the late 90s. When I joined DU I realized the Democratic base was already very far gone, and a founder of the DLC -- Al Gore -- was its hero.
So Here We Are.
The criticisms from 1960s radicals against the "Liberal establishment" which seemed opaque and incomprehensible to someone coming of age in the 1980s now seem crystal clear, almost prescient and even when not right still understandable in its context. It has taken an extra generation for people like myself to come to such understanding because that Liberal establishment aided and abetted the coverup of our economic history.
Whenever I hear that Liberal refrain The Truth Will Always Win, I think of someone who is preparing their conscience to sweep something nasty under the rug. That something nasty will indeed find a way... of creeping back up from behind and attacking those who are least able to fight back (which incidentally sounds like a description of our current criminal justice system).
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