CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The New Counterculture

Photograph Source: SVG by Notwist. Symbol first illustrated by Thomas W. Benton on a 1970 poster – Public Domain

America’s counterculture has been flipped by the Trump Administration’s Gonzo Governance. In 1970, Charles Reich argued —first in a New Yorker article and then a book—that The Greening of America was taking place: The New Yorker article began

There is a revolution underway. It is not like revolutions of the past. It has originated with the individual and with culture, and if it succeeds it will change the political structure only as its final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and it cannot be successfully resisted by violence. It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions, and social structures are changing in consequence. Its ultimate creation could be a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. This is the revolution of the new generation.

There is a revolution underway. It is not like revolutions of the past. It has originated with the individual and with culture, and if it succeeds it will change the political structure only as its final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and it cannot be successfully resisted by violence. It is now spreading with amazing rapidity, and already our laws, institutions, and social structures are changing in consequence. Its ultimate creation could be a higher reason, a more human community, and a new and liberated individual. This is the revolution of the new generation.

Writing in a transitional time of anti-war protests, ‘hippies,’ and the student revolt, Reich argued that young people were guided by Consciousness 3—“seeking restoration of the non-material elements of man’s existence, the elements like the natural environment and the spiritual that were passed by in the rush of material development.” This orientation supplanted the individualism and dominance of the consumerism, corporatism, and government control of Consciousness 1 and 2. The future, he argued, would stress more freedom, fewer economic restraints, and forbearance of a personal rather than a corporate-directed American Dream. For Wright and his readers this implied support for progressive ideas and policies supported by social science thinking regarding racial, ethnic, and gender inclusion, concern with government intrusion (e.g., the military draft and Vietnam War), environmental degradation (e.g., “earth day, ” global warming ) many of these preferences were already being realized, and were, to varying degrees, adopted over the next 50 years: The counterculture agenda had become the prevailing culture as institutional changes in religion, media, education, business, sports, and government........

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