Postwar libertarian sentiment turned the sixties generation against older movement hierarchies

Evidence

This ideological approach dovetailed with—or helped catalyze—a libertarian trend that was in the air in the North Atlantic in the 1960s. Many in the generation born after World War II did not want to be told what to do. As the decade wore on, new sets of practices made the structures developed by Black civil rights groups appear relatively authoritarian. It was not just within SDS that some of the original architects of contemporary contention found themselves attacked from below. Even Bertrand Russell, the founder of the Committee of 100, found himself besieged by a group of three young Londoners who baffled him by refusing to leave his flat, forcing the mathematician to call the police to remove them. In his autobiography, he notes that this earned the kids quite a bit of media attention, which may have been all they wanted. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 85

Categorization

• CANDY: Bertrand Russell calling the police on teenage squatters who refused to leave his flat is a wonderfully absurd historical image, told in one line.
• XREF: connects to: The 1960s liberation movements planted the roots of later right-wing libertarianism — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 57; Neoliberalism succeeded by capturing sixties anti-authoritarian energies the left failed to harness — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2101; Neoliberalism won by absorbing sixties desires the left failed to address — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1716 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The 1960s liberation movements planted the roots of later right-wing libertarianism #complicates (0.78) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 57
• Neoliberalism succeeded by capturing sixties anti-authoritarian energies the left failed to harness #expands (0.76) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2101
• Neoliberalism won by absorbing sixties desires the left failed to address #expands (0.74) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1716
• Elite avant-garde rejection of liberal hypocrisy enabled attraction to totalitarian movements #qualifies (0.72)
• The mid-1990s postpolitical mood discredited struggle and collectivist rights talk #qualifies (0.71) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 62