The Sixties! An illusion of hope …

It is interesting that the ‘Sixties’, that word that is a shorthand for all the things that seemed good but were, it now turns out, associated with some very bad things too (not least the reinforcement of libertarianism). Yes, there was ‘free love’, great music, liberating dress codes, and rise in laisser-faire attitude, but…

So, typical of the ‘revision’ of the Sixties myth is this quote from Karl Schroeder’s essay “Nobody is More Woke thatn Trump”:

“If Trump is attacking the core institutions of the United States and the international order, it’s because he knows that institutions embody values. He is “woke” according to the definition that the term has had for the past century. I like Gordana Lazić’s definition of it, as referring to “a heightened awareness of social inequalities and injustices.” The thing is, both the American Left (if there is such a thing anymore) and MAGA share this exact kind of heightened awareness—they just differ on what the injustices are.”

See also Part 3 of: Adventure Capitalism: A History of Libertarian Exit, from the Era of Decolonization to the Digital Age. Raymond Craib