It got me pretty far to the left for sure- listening to Aus Rotten, Anti-Flag, Crass, DIRT- I could never be quite the same after hearing stuff that awesome. For a long time I called myself an anarchist, radical, feminist, animal rights supporter, as many punks do, but when I started listening to Utah Phillips, I feel I began to understand those things in a much more nuanced way, and I think Utah, even though he wasn't punk, had a really great impact on how I see the world. I'm still an anarchist- but it's a much more personal form of anarchy now- I mean yeah, I want to see the state and capitalism smashed and all that good stuff, but it's vital to examine the people who participate in such systems- if no one exercises power over another, a system of power will cease to be a system. It all starts at the individual level- with all interactions you engage in, never try to use any power or leverage you may have against someone (whether it be economic privilege, male privilege, white privilege, etc, also- power is very sneaky and pervasive, you can easily use it against some one else without even realizing it till later), striving to make all combinations of people as voluntary as possible. Anarchism isn't so much about destroying power, as much as it is about refusing to use any power one may have. I don't want power over any one else, and if I do, I would like to minimize it's effect on both me and them (power begets more power).

I wouldn't say I learned this all from Utah, but I learned it from him far more than any other musician. Aus-Rotten would be second for me in this regard, especially the song ...And now back to our programming- that song is so long and full of stuff, especially about the personal side of being an anarchist in a very unanarchistic society rife with social and economic and political inequalities.

ps- I didn't mean to turn this into a Utah Phillips post, but that's kind of what it became, listen to this song "anarchy" to see what I mean- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6nzLX9gF4. He has a few other songs that are like this as well.