Little Boxes On the Hillside And They're All Made Out Of Ticky Tacky...

Surfing through the internet today, I came across Instapundit who had an interesting little title up: Little Boxes. Said title noted a follow up to his Tech Central Station column on urban sprawl.

But I digress, what caught my eye, and engaged my memory was the title "Little Boxes" and my mind instantly (perhaps the intent of the Instapundit?) was taken back to Pete Seeger circa 1963 when he sang:

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

Maybe you don't remember this song, maybe you do. I remember it because I was then in my senior year in high school living with my parent's a stone's throw from the Potomac River and just down river from Washington D.C. The neighborhood was staunchly middle class, with carports not garages, postage size back yards, and every 10^th house of roughly the same design. Little boxes indeed. Not much of a hillside though. The years were of protest songs, Hootnanny was a popular TV show, folk singers all the rage and the Beatles had not been totally crowned as the kings of pop music then. In fact, there were still a lot of Buddy Holly fans around. But the protest songs... ahhhh, the protest songs.. "If I Had A Hammer;" "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" and so many others. The Halcyon days of conformity, of Bass Weejun shoes, wool socks with matching colored shirts. Madras Plaids, narrow ties. '61, '62, and '63.

Then, Kennedy was assassinated and the upheaval began for many of us. Vietnam, drugs, sex and rock and roll. Nehru Jackets, Bell Bottoms, and Beads, oh yes, the Beads.

Again, I digress and as I write this, the tinkle of "Little Boxes" continues to run through my head. I followed Glenn Reynolds link to "Albion's Seedlings" and this article by James C. BennettTicky-Tacky

It seems as though Pete Seeger didn't write that song, though I can't remember why I thought he did, it was written by Malvina Reynolds who was at the time a member of the Communist Party, USA. Bennett states:

The political context of the song was interesting. Right after World War Two, the Communist Party USA, seeking to capitalize on its wartime link to "our ally, Uncle Joe Stalin", launched a big organizing drive around one of the major general complaints of the time, which was the lack of available housing. The CPUSA's drive was centered on demands for a gigantic government housing program to build government-owned "worker's apartments". This drive quickly petered out as the veteran's housing loan program and rapid suburban development rapidly produced millions of single-family houses, to the delight of returning veterans and wartime workers who had been renting chicken coops and trailers.

Bennett follows with this:

It also marks the Left's shift from critiquing the market economy for producing too little, to critiquing it for producing too much -- substituting an aesthetic critique for an economic one. This in turn was a symptom of the collapse of any trace of a working-class base for the hard Left, and its replacement by a bohemian-intellectual base.

"Collapse of any trace of a working-class base for the hard Left, and its replacement by a bohemian-intellectual base." Well, one would think then, that the left and Liberal would be (and indeed are) two different things. Reading Daily Kos, Democratic Underground and many other leftist sites, it is hard to imagine a bigger divide between those folk and the Liberals of the 40's and early 50's and mid 60’s. In fact, the left today (not necessarily liberals) are all but indistinguishable from the tyrannies of the Soviets. They are ardently anti-capitalist, vociferously anti-American, and seemingly bereft of common sense. I remember when solid Liberalism (with a capital L) was anti-fascist, now the left (little l) decry our war against the islamo-fascists. The seeds of the movement were sown in the minds of pseudo intellectuals who have continued to expand their thoughtless tirades against everything that smacks of free choice. I remember when Liberals stood against discrimination, against the bashing of gays, and sometimes even in favor of equal rights for women (although, truth be told, my mother was a feminist long before Bella Abzug discovered hats) and insisted she get (and she always got) equal treatment and respect from even the most chauvinistic pig (though there were a few that tried to out think her - trust me, it couldn't be done cause I tried so many times… and mom was a card carrying Republican.)

Now, the left supports the pali's and the "insurgents" and states that the only reason terrorists are in Iraq are because the US invaded and booted Saddam Hussein. What sophomoric nonsense.

I mourn the real Liberals in this country, the ones that stood for human dignity and responsibility and freedom and understanding and free markets and lower taxes and international relations based on what was right, not what was easy or had the greatest support. Oh, wait, I don't need to do that, to mourn that is, their title has changed. Now, they are called Neo-Cons and Conservatives. Cool.

And so, my little thought experiment/reminiscing has run it's course. From Little Boxes to Pete Seeger, to the CPUSA, to bohemians, to classical Liberalism to leftists to the War on Terror and the destruction of common sense in the hard left. Isn't it interesting what seeing an entry on a blog in the internet can do?

Posted by GM Roper at December 8, 2005 07:20 PM | TrackBack