ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Daniel Bell’s book The Cultural Contradiction of Capitalism to showcase how one of the most influential cultural critics, one of the most important Dissent contributors, embeds the Sixties’ trope of “the masses” in his post-Sixties narratives. Bell’s post-Sixties narrative “The Adversary Culture of the 1960s” reveals his stance as a cultural conservative. This distinguishes him from many of the Dissenters who were predominantly political and cultural radicals. Bell’s point, that it was the rise of the cultural mass of the 1960s that engendered the cultural contradictions of capitalism, remains one of the most influential and powerful, yet also controversial post-Sixties narratives. His post-Sixties narrative calls upon Americans to reflect on their past and examine their present. Contradictions there may be, but as long as a strong faith in a better future remains present among its people, a new American culture will be born.
