The New Left’s communal we was an aggregate of consenting individuals

Evidence

Note here, as well, the consistent emphasis on the response of the individual, the call to personal commitment: ”we as individuals” must ”take the responsibility for encounter and resolution.” The communal ”we” of the New Left and the counterculture was always an aggregate of consenting, actively participating individuals. Only in the Marxist-Leninist or Maoist groups such as Progressive Labor, and in the communal religious cults, was this individualism suppressed or dissolved in a group identity, either a rigid ”correct line” or a total submission to the will and teachings of a charismatic guru. — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 451

Categorization

• CANDY: The observation that the same individualism dissolved into guru-worship in both Maoist sects and religious cults is a compact, quotable comparison.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Effective revolutionary parties unite force with consent dialectically — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 595; The New Left predated and anticipated the era of new social movements. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 789; New York street parties model communal equality spontaneously formed — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 994 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The New Left predated and anticipated the era of new social movements. #qualifies (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 789
• Effective revolutionary parties unite force with consent dialectically #corroborates (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 595
• New York street parties model communal equality spontaneously formed #exemplifies (0.72) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 994
• Sixties egalitarian communes seeded postmodern authoritarian fundamentalisms #complicates (0.70) — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 543