Pop Culture
Arthur Herman's post arguing that John Dollard is the real man behind the riots, reminds me that roughly the same idea was set to music a few years ago:
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks! . . .Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (better translated as the dis-ease [Unbehagen) in Civilization) is behind Dollard. I was just thinking about the Rita Moreno character's song, this praise of America--Moynihan's critique of Great Society programs is well anticipated in West Side Story.