Last night kicked off events for The New York Intellectuals Series at the packed Theresa Lang Student Center at the New School. Hosted by n+1 editors Keith Gessen and Mark Greif, the discussion featured Michael Walzer, the longtime editor of Dissent magazine and professor of political theory at Princeton. Walzer discussed Dissent’s beginnings at Brandeis, “where the ‘60s began in the ‘50s” with Irving Howe and a group of lefties that had left behind the “totalizing Marxist doctrine and sectarian style” of their forebears to form a new and powerful voice.

While Dissent made an effort to separate itself from the Trotskyite American tradition of the Daily Worker and other old-guard leftist publications (“Manhattan was a part of the Soviet Union for a long while,” Walzer quipped), they looked to the civil rights movement as a model for change in a new era.

Walking the audience through the history of the early days of Dissent, including disagreements he had with “New Left” groups like the Students for a Democratic Society that lionized Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao, Walzer wondered aloud why radical leftists so often support democracy for themselves but not others, tying in the left’s fascination with figures like Hugo Chavez and other authoritarian leaders. He simplified theories from his 1977 book Just and Unjust Wars and broke down his vision for an egalitarian society, giving us the digestible basics in a clear and compelling way.

Finally, Walzer discussed the state of grass-roots politics in the age of Obama, saying we need to continue knocking on doors if we want real and lasting change. “An email list is not a social movement,” he said. Well, maybe it’s just a small part.

For information about upcoming New York Intellectuals events, check  n+1.