The Greatest Conservative Song

I see that John Miller has posted some additional 'conservative' songs to supplement his National Review piece on the 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs. He does acknowledge one omission I thought rather glaring - not just one that should be on the list, but should be number one on the list - Dylan's My Back Pages. In this taught, spare number, later covered by the Byrds, Dylan sends up the dominant leftist culture in academia. The clever refrain suggests he hewed to the mainstream, conformist ideology but he's now more open to other viewpoints - I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. At least that's my interpretation (always a bit dicey with Dylan lyrics). What's amazing is that the song dates from 1964 - the complete liberal brainwashing of society was only just beginning and Dylan is already fed up with it. Here's a run-thru of the song's targets:

First, he mocks activism itself:

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath heated brow

Next he seems to doubt the sincerity of equal-rights radicals:

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow

In the next verse I'm really not sure what he's getting at. He seems to be almost belittling the feminine presence in universities. At any rate, he sure doesn't seem to think they contribute much:

Girls' faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow

Egalitarianism then takes a hit:

A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
"Equality," I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow

He then takes on Maoism as he skewers the anti-professional ethos that questioned the legitimacy of authority, particularly in education:

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow

And, finally, he ridicules idealism itself - or at least the dogmatic variety prevailing in universities and activist circles:

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I defined these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow

Ah but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now.