[pmyteh]

Won some, lost some. The 60s counterculture birthed the New Left, but the economic aspects of that (and its political power as a movement) were thoroughly crushed by the 70s/80s turn towards economic liberalism (Thatcher/Reagan in particular). They've won many of the personal morality battles in the long run, but even then I'm not sure it was in the way many of the counterculture actually wanted to win: the right to gay marriage is increasingly recognised, but many of the most radical gay liberationalists wanted to destroy the 'oppressive' traditional family structure entirely.

One of my favourite musicals (Falsettoland, set in the 80s) has the following lyric, which I think on a lot:

> In the 60s, we had a new world to start!

> Could this be (oh God, don't say it)

> Could this be the new world we started?

> Here I sit, broken-hearted...