“In 1971–72, my mind was in a fruitful turmoil regarding my left-wing tendencies. I had begun to notice the appearance of two lefts—one that included my whole family and what it represented, and the other a “new” left, based on a suddenly emerging “constituency of conscience,” no longer rooted among people who worked with their hands and backs. Instead, secure in its own affluence (and in its own suburbs), this new left was now expressing a more refined “morality.” It was a rather more utopian morality: More interested in “peace.” More interested in “sensitivity.” More interested in its own “moral purity,” which marked it as superior to past political classes. The New Left was no longer of the old left—which was patently more vulgar, unsophisticated, and unrefined. “Left” now meant “morally superior.”

Excerpt From: Novak, Michael. “Writing from Left to Right.” Image, 2013-09-03. iBooks.

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