Neil Young Never Hated the Man
Posted by M. C. on February 18, 2022
On the other side of the 1960s Leftist spectrum, Leftists hated the Man because they want to be the Man themselves. They never really hated the Man. They hated that Man: the Man that wasn’t them.
The Neil Youngs of the world won. And now they want their Man to stay on top, and they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure He does.
By Eric Scheske
“Their job is to push back against the Man and Neil Young should know the Man isn’t Joe Rogan . . . [Y]ou’re an old rocker, you’re supposed to push back against the Man – Joe Rogan is pushing back against the Man and you’re pushing back against Joe Rogan.” Adam Carolla, speaking on Hannity
A Tale of Two Lefties
The Neil Young-Joe Rogan kerfuffle brought an embarrassing truth about the Left to the surface of our culture’s consciousness: the Left has always been polarized within itself.
For too long, we’ve thought of the 1960s as a monolithic revolution against “the Man.” Hippies hated the Man; Timothy Leary and the acid movement hated the Man; revolutionary groups like Students for a Democratic Society hated the Man; rockers hated the Man; black militants hated the Man; feminists definitely hated the Man.
That’s all true.
But there’s a huge difference in their hate.
Some 1960s Leftists hated the Man because they wanted peace and love. They wanted to live unmolested by the Man: simply to be left alone in their pursuits. Those are the old hippies who now live hard but simple lives off the grid and populate northern California, some growing great weed. Think Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac.
On the other side of the 1960s Leftist spectrum, Leftists hated the Man because they want to be the Man themselves. They never really hated the Man. They hated that Man: the Man that wasn’t them. Those are the student revolutionaries who later moved into conventional politics and university positions where they influence public policy. Think Tom Hayden and Bernardine Dohrn.
The Leftists who hated the Man grow great weed for reasonable prices, but the Leftists who hated that Man control the culture.
Neil Young was a slash-against-the-Establishment rocker in the early 1970s, but he never hated the Man. He hated that Man, so when comedian Adam Carolla went on Hannity and inveighed against Neil Young, he got the noun correct but botched the adjective.
Proudhon
“Anarchy is Order.” “God is Evil.”
Those are Proudhonism. As in “Pierre-Joseph Proudhon” (1809-1865), the first self-styled anarchist. He was provocative and is considered one of the most contradictory thinkers in the history of political thought. He didn’t try to come up with a systematic theory and didn’t care much if he wasn’t always consistent. He was, in a sense, a metaphorical bomb-throwing anarchist: tossing bombs of passionate thoughts that were designed to obliterate targets, but due to their explosive quality, took out other things in the process.
Be seeing you
MCViewPoint 
Leave a Reply